ABOUT

Welcome to EXPO Elementary!

EXPO offers a friendly, happy environment filled with student artwork that welcomes one and all. EXPO is a lively school with an extraordinary range of resources.

Our teachers use the Science of Reading approach to help students build a strong literacy foundation through explicit phonics instruction, word recognition and language comprehension.

At EXPO, students learn not just academics but also social and emotional skills. We have a strong social-emotional program where our counselors create and teach lessons in classrooms that focus on healthy mindset and behaviors that support student mental, social/emotional and physical well-being.

School-wide, we offer specialist teachers for accelerated math, physical education, art, music and science. We also emphasize projects in arts, science, and technology/engineering.

Your child's experience at Expo will include:

A leadership year in grade 5, in which our oldest students take on greater responsibility.
Specialist classes: physical education, art, music, and science
Music programs: music residencies, a partnership with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and after-school music classes and lessons.
Treasure Island: The “best playground in the city," built and maintained by parents for the school and neighborhood.
Discovery Club: Onsite afterschool program that offers flexibility in scheduling for families, and enhances students' social, academic, and play opportunities.

Mission and Vision

EXPO PHILOSOPHY

Our Mission:

EXPO for Excellence Elementary School engages students in an active, rigorous curriculum to prepare them for a diverse 21st century.

Our Core Values:

Diversity - We honor individual identities to create a safe, welcoming community where belonging is fostered, and we learn from and affirm one another.

Differentiated Instruction: We recognize that each child is an individual and will learn in different ways. Our community collaborates to provide structures that allow all children to flourish.

Whole-Child Development: We partner with families to offer developmentally-appropriate academic, social, and emotional instruction.

Relationships: We create strong relationships with staff, students, families and the community to ensure that our children feel safe and supported.

We do this through:

Accelerated math in grades 3-5
AMAZE Works curriculum
Coding in 5th grade
Boundary Waters trip in 5th Grade

Features of Our School

Mutliple Intelligences - How are you smart?

Logical/Mathematical
Verbal/Linguistic
Visual/Spatial
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Musical/Rhythm
Intrapersonal/Interpersponal
Naturalistic

Responsive Classroom - 6 Key Components

Morning meeting
Guided discovery
Academic choice
Assessment and reporting
Classroom organization
Rules and logical consequences

Theme Based Learning

Themes are selected by educators based upon current state standards.
Supports learning through multiple intelligences.

Resource Specialists

Art/Humanities
Science
After school music
Physical education
Outdoor Education/Science

Core Components

Multi Intelligence Theory

What Gardner's research says for schools is that we must go beyond the traditional educational approach and address all of our intelligences. Children learn in different ways and our teaching methods and curriculum content must reflect these ways. The question to be asked is not, "Are you smart?" but "How are you smart?"

LINGUISTIC/VERBAL
Related to written and spoken language. These learners typically learn their best by seeing, hearing, and saying language. They often think in words and enjoy reading, writing or storytelling.

LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL
Deals with deductive thinking and reasoning with numbers and abstract thought. These learners form concepts by looking for patterns, relationships, and categories. They need to actively manipulate objects and experiment in an orderly way to constantly question and wonder about natural events.

VISUAL/SPATIAL
Relies on the sense of sight and the ability to visualize an object to create mental images and pictures. These learners need to be taught through pictures, images, and color. They are motivated through audio/visual materials and have a highly developed spatial awareness.

BODILY/KINESTHETIC
Relates to the physical movement and the wisdom of the body. These learners process knowledge through whole-body sensations, often making decisions based on "gut-feelings". They have excellent large and fine motor skills, communicate very effectively through gestures and other forms body language, and internalize information by touching, manipulating, moving, and acting things out.

MUSICAL/RHYTHMICAL
Recognizes tonal patterns, including environmental sounds, with sensitivity to rhythm and beats. These learners form concepts by putting information to music. They sing, hum, whistle, and move along with rhythm; are sensitive to nonverbal sounds in the environment. They readily respond to the musicality of language and music.

INTERPERSONAL
Operates primarily through groups, person to person relationships and communications while relying on all the intelligences. These learners are often classroom leaders, group organizers and communicators. They enjoy problem-solving activities. They learn best by relating, cooperating and dynamically interacting with others.

INTRAPERSONAL
Relates to inner states of being, self-reflection, awareness of spiritual realities. They are self-motivating, have a deep sense of their inner feelings, dreams and ideas.

NATURALIST
Relates to distinctions in natural world through observation, identification and classification of plants and animals. They enjoy finding ways in which to study things which weave human, animals, and environmental concerns together.

Responsive Classroom

"The Responsive Classroom" our social curriculum.

The following is a description of "The Responsive Classroom" from their guideline book published by the Northeast Foundation for Children, the creators of this curriculum.

"A clear social curriculum can help build a classroom or school into a learning community where high social and academic goals are both attained. Our approach, known as "The Responsive Classroom", is built around six central components that integrate teaching, learning, and caring in the daily program. These components are set in the context of commonly shared values, such as honesty, fairness, and respect, and are implemented through the development and strengthening of social skills, such as cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control."

The Six Key Components are:

classroom organization
morning meeting
rules and logical consequences
academic choice
guided discovery
assessment and reporting

Any of these six components can be implemented independently and enhance any classroom or school.

Meet Our Staff

EXPO's staff are professionals who take education seriously, but with a sense of play and the joy of discovery.

70% of the teachers have Master's Degrees
100% of teachers meet the "Federal Highly Qualified" requirements
75% of EXPO's teachers have been teaching for at least 10 years.

Our staff features dedicated, highly trained specialists:

Social Worker
Counselor
Full-Time Nurse (R.N. Certified)
Occupational Therapist
Physical Therapist
Speech Therapists

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

MInnesota Department of Education: SPPS School Report Cards

SPPS Data Center

MDE Statewide Testing

Contact Us

EXPO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
540 Warwick Street South
Saint Paul, MN 55116

Phone: 651.290.8384
Fax: 651.293.8639

Directions to EXPO

Directions to EXPO

From 35E
Exit on Randolph Ave.
Proceed West on Randolph Ave. for 1 mile
Turn left (South) onto Warwick St.
EXPO is one block down on the left hand side

From I-94
Exit on Snelling Ave.
Proceed South on Snelling Ave. for 1.7 miles
Turn Left (East) onto Randolph Ave.
Proceed on Randolph Ave. for 3 blocks
Turn Right (South) onto Warwick St.
EXPO is one block down on the left hand side