Our Elementary School curriculum provides the content, skills, and activities -- in each area of study and at each grade level -- necessary to build fundamental skills without sacrificing creativity or fun. With an eye to constant improvement, we regularly study the curriculum, both in design and execution, to ensure our students' needs are being met. We feel, along with leading educators around the world, that asking questions about what, how, and why we teach keeps our curriculum fresh, relevant, challengning, and developmentally appropriate. A robust and relevant curriculum equips students with a strong foundation in traditional areas of study such as science, math, and language arts; it also develops important 21st century skills like critical thinking, media fluency, creativity, communication, problem solving, and collaboration.
Following is an overall introduction to the subjects taught in our Elementary School homerooms. For more detailed information about each grade level, please visit the individual Homeroom pages.
For additional information about specialized areas of study such as Spanish, dance, art, drama, music, and physical education, please visit our
Specialist pages.
Language Arts
The Elementary School language arts program offers students daily opportunities to master the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. We develop learners who not only use language as an essential tool, but who also find joy in the English language. Our students learn to read, write, and speak thoughtfully, and also to think critically and imaginatively. Teachers' strive to immerse students in language learning, and class activities are designed to review, reinforce, and solidify learned concepts. Our reading program accomodates a range of ability levels, needs, and interests and develops students who read independently for pleasure and information.
Teachers use a variety of techniques to teach reading, including phonics, word patterns, structural analysis, decoding skills, and vocabulary. In the early grades, the
Making Meaning program helps develop comprehension by using great children’s literature as a basis for skill development. In the upper grades, novel studies in literature groups and independent reading help solidify comprehension, and the program Wordly Wise supplements vocabulary development.
Our writing program produces writers who communicate clearly in a number of different formats. Students write to express ideas and feelings, to convey information, and to describe experiences. Teachers focus both on the skills and processes of writing and teach students to draft, revise, edit, proofread, and publish. Teachers judiciously use a variety of techniques and programs to help students develop their writing and spelling skills, such as Strategies for Writers, Words Their Way, Sitton Spelling and Explode the Code. In most classes, the majority of the language arts program is integrated with project work or literature in social studies.
Mathematics
The Elementary School math curriculum builds a strong foundation in mathematical thinking and number fluency and promotes a positive attitude towards math among students.
Teachers use the
National Council of Teachers of Math Curriculum Focal Points as their guide to instruction at each grade level. Curriculum focal points are important mathematical topics for each grade level. Central to mathematics, these topics convey the knowledge and skills essential to educated citizens, and they provide the foundations for further mathematical learning. They are indispensable elements in developing problem solving, reasoning, and critical thinking skills -- all important aspects of mathematics learning. Along with the focal points, teachers in the early grades use an excellent math program called
Growing with Mathematics to deliver instruction. Teachers in grades two and up use the highly regarded
enVision Math program, which uses daily problem-based interactive math, followed by visual learning strategies. This progression helps to deepen conceptual understanding by making meaningful connections for students. Teachers supplement both programs with games, projects, focused skill work, and repetition, or online practice such as
First in Math.
Social Studies
The social studies curriculum helps students explore, investigate, and understand the world around them. Social studies involve the broad themes of civics, economics, geography, US history, world history and culture. Students begin with self, family, and community in kindergarten and move beyond their own experiences to explore other times, places, and cultures in the older grades. Students are encouraged to share their ideas, listen to others, and develop a spirit of inquiry as they broaden their perspective.
Teachers use hands-on multi-media projects, class discussions, current events, investigations, field trips, and carefully chosen literature to develop units of study. Through the social studies curriculum, students become researchers and critical thinkers. We also encourage students to develop a global perspective by investigating the similarities and differences between people and places, looking at human needs and interdependence and examining environmental issues in our local area and around the globe.