Together We All Succeed
It is crucial in a child’s early elementary education that they receive a solid foundation, especially in literacy and math. When they don’t receive it, they tend to struggle in later years. Most of what they will learn later builds on what they learn in kindergarten, first, and second grade. The K-2 years are part of the formative years which lay the foundation for future success. We ensure that our students receive a good, solid foundation that helps them reach their full potential.
Who We Are
Gift of Knowledge Academy is an independent, nonprofit, K-2 school. At Gift of Knowledge Academy, we believe that every child should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential. This can be achieved by starting early, in grades K-2, and providing students with a firm foundation in literacy and math equipping them with the skills necessary to succeed in school and later in life.
Since we began in the fall of 2016, over 90% of our kindergarten students have been reading in 5 months. Most didn’t even know all of the alphabet when they started. All of our 2nd grade graduates have been at or above grade level in reading and math. Half of them were actually reading on a 4th grade level as measured by mClass/Dibels assessments.
In spite of the challenge of going to online classroom instruction as a result of the restrictions placed on schools due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, with our parents’ support, we were able to complete 10 weeks of online classroom instruction to finish out the 2019-2020 school year and complete the full 2020-2021 school year virtually on Zoom with no negative impact to our ability to provide quality education to our students.
Take a look at our Alphabetical Order Lesson on Zoom
What We Teach
Literacy & Writing
Gift of Knowledge Academy's literacy curriculum is based on the Science of Reading. According to decades of extensive research conducted by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), all reading instruction should include 5 components – phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and reading comprehension. Gift of Knowledge Academy incorporates these 5 components as well as writing, spelling, sight words, while also implementing a multisensory approach to learning.
We teach our second grade students how to write in cursive. This is a very important skill for them to have in later years, especially as an adult. During the second semester, all writing is done in cursive.
Math
For math, we teach number sense, which is key to understanding and excelling in math. Students gain a sense of what numbers mean, understand their relationship to one another, are able to perform mental math, understand symbolic representations, and are able to use those numbers in real world situations.
We prepare our second grade students for third grade by introducing arrays which helps them to understand the connection between addition and multiplication and the connection between subtraction and division.
Science
Our science curriculum comes mainly from Core Knowledge Science (CKsci) which covers the main areas of science content - life, physical, and earth and space science.
Social studies
Our social studies curriculum comes mainly from Core Knowledge History and Geography (CKHG). We integrate it with our reading and language arts lessons to enhance our students’ skills in these areas.
Life-long lessons
We help our students develop good character, values, and ethical decision-making skills. We want them to become responsible citizens. Some of the character traits we discuss are honesty, responsibility, kindness, self-control, perseverance, respect, gratitude, obedience, and confidence.
Specials
Our specials include art, music, and computer technology.
Although our main focus is ensuring our students are at or above grade level in reading and math by the end of second grade, we also teach science, social studies, art, music, computer technology, and character education. All of our instruction meets and/or exceeds North Carolina Common Core State Standards.
More Information
Four retired, female, NCCU alumni started the Gift of Knowledge Academy. We started the school because 60-80% of students are below grade level in literacy and math by the third grade. The numbers are worse for African Americans and Hispanics. We believe that all children, regardless of their socioeconomic conditions, deserve the opportunity to receive a quality education. We want to be proactive and provide students with a firm foundation in literary and math in the first three years of school, so that they don’t fall behind in the first place. We believe in the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
We offer small class sizes – a 10-to-1 student/teacher ratio or less. Small classes minimize distractions as well as allow us to give our students more individualized attention.
We provide all of the school supplies for our students to use in class (paper, pencils, crayons, glue sticks, markers, etc.), and we send supplies and manipulatives home for them to use when doing homework or working virtually. The students are given a Bookworm Notebook with materials we are covering in class for them to review and study at home.
We provide breakfast in the morning when our students first arrive at school. They get a mid-morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack prior to leaving school.
We have a Board and staff who are committed to our mission and vision and personally hold themselves accountable for the success of our students; our school motto is – Together We All Succeed! We believe that our success is dependent on our students’ success; we are not successful unless all of our students are successful. It is not good enough for one or two of our students to succeed, all of our students must succeed!
We accept 4 year olds in kindergarten, as long as their 5th birthday comes on or before 12/31.
We do administer a kindergarten readiness assessment to ensure they are ready to learn.
