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 develop a positive mindset…

Students continue to reinforce and build on previous knowledge through new thematic vocabulary and more challenging phrases and brief sentences. Students learn to respond to language commands, use words in context and begin basic writing of words and learned phrases at this stage. Highlights include creating digital thematic books, discussing various Latin American customs and…

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…

Students begin to explore more complex movement patterns and concepts while learning to develop and apply basic game strategies. They expand upon sport skills learned previously to create a broader skill base. Students enhance social skills and fitness concepts while participating in a wide variety of group games. Football, lacrosse and kickball units are introduced…

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 features a read-aloud story and…

From coding with Scratch Jr., to participating in engineering and building challenges, students continue to apply order, shapes and sequential instructions to activities and objects that are personally relevant. Through discovering, engineering, tinkering and sharing, students engage in the self-directed learning process that is crucial to innovation. These creative opportunities are integrated throughout the day…

Building on skills learned previously, students explore more involved projects in drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and design. Observational drawing skills are reinforced with still-life assignments, and students paint both from life and imagination. Students review basic color theory, including how to mix colors and create a range of values. Proportion, compositional design, negative/positive…

Science in the Lower School 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. The goals for the program are to provide students with engaging hands-on opportunities and experiences to guide them…

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 our…

Students work with contexts and models that represent the place value structure of the base-10 number system to build and visualize how two-digit numbers are composed. Students’ work with place value becomes the basis for developing strategies for adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. The relationship between addition and subtraction is used to solve subtraction problems…