The Wellness and Life Skills program contains three core areas of focus. The first is teaching students to identify emotions, perceive and recognize others’ perspectives, solve problems and manage emotions. The second focuses on mindfulness. Using a research-based curriculum, students are taught skills which build resilience to stress and anxiety, and they develop a positive…

Students use vocabulary in the context of a variety of basic themes that include greetings, colors, numbers, weather, members of the family, parts of the body, farm animals and shapes. A strong cultural focus provides information on important holidays and traditions in the Spanish-speaking world. Students also engage with the language through many interactive activities…

Students practice a variety of gross motor movements and manipulative and coordination skills. Scooters, tumbling and dance units help students learn how their bodies move through space. Our lessons focus on skill development, teamwork, cooperation and fair play. Students learn the proper techniques for kicking, dribbling and striking skills and can progress at their own…

Music classes are taught using the Orff approach, involving listening, movement, singing and other creative activities. Students develop skills in music theory and instrumental music, playing instruments such as the xylophone and other percussion instruments. Students perform at weekly Inspirations and at holiday and spring concerts, showcasing the curriculum. Students also are introduced to movement…

We have two main goals in Library: to help students become successful seekers, users and integrators of information from many sources, and to promote reading as a lifelong skill and pleasure. Skills to seek, evaluate and synthesize information are implemented across the grades at developmentally appropriate levels. Each class also includes a read-aloud story and…

Students begin to understand order, shapes and sequential instructions in the real world through exposure to essential computational thinking skills, including pattern recognition, algorithms, decomposition and abstraction. Through discovering, engineering, tinkering and sharing, students engage in the self-directed learning process that is crucial to innovation. These opportunities are integrated throughout the day and enhanced by…

We expose students to a variety of media and enable them to explore different art disciplines including drawing, painting, collage, print-making, ceramics and sculpture. They learn fundamental color theory and how to properly care for paint and brushes while they experiment with watercolor and tempera paint. Students learn to cut, glue and balance shapes to…

Science in the Lower School program is designed to tap into young students’ natural curiosity about their environment and how the world works. We help students, through inquiry, to continually build on their abilities and revise their knowledge. Our goals for the program are to provide students with engaging hands-on opportunities and experiences to guide…

Social Studies incorporates the study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence. Within the Lower School program, Social Studies provides a coordinated, systematic study drawing upon geography, history, economics and political science and relevant content from language arts, mathematics and the sciences. The primary purpose of social studies is to help young…

Counting is a main area of focus for math at this level, as it is the basis for understanding the number system. Many of the counting activities in kindergarten build a bridge to the operations of addition and subtraction. Students are provided with repeated experiences of counting sets of objects and matching and making sets…