Grades 1-3

From first through third grades, students progress through challenging and engaging courses that offer avenues for growth and discovery. Our hands-on, integrated program ensures that students make connections among the disciplines to acquire a multidimensional understanding of the world.

Language arts, mathematics, science and social studies are built into the daily schedule, alongside classes in Motor and Fitness (in first and second grades), Fitness and Health (in third) Spanish, Music, Art, Coding, Research Lab, and Book Buddies. Each day, students learn through hands-on experiences combined with a framework in research-based programs.

List of 7 items.

Language Arts

By first grade, students begin using the Jolly Grammar program to develop their skills in spelling and give a basic understanding of the rules of grammar.

Writing goes hand in hand with these language skills, as students gain both an interest and passion for writing through the Lucy Calkins writing workshop program. Through the framework provided by this program and the individualized instruction provided within each classroom, students learn to create pieces based in the genres of opinion, information, and narrative text. Each piece develops through a process and students recognize the need to continually review and edit their work to make each piece their best. Within this process, students progress at their own pace and also acquire skills in peer editing, along with the pride of sharing their published writing with peers.
Math

Stemming from the foundation provided in our Early Childhood program, students continue building their math skills through the use of the Primary Mathematics, a Singapore Math program. Through this program, students develop their number sense, fact fluency, and problem solving skills through the Singapore Math Framework.
STEM Lab

Our math program blends with our science program in the STEM Lab, where students can further explore the connections between science, technology, engineering, and math.
Social Studies and Science

Science and social studies units are based on the Core Knowledge curriculum developed by E.D. Hirsch. This curriculum is rich in social studies units spanning the globe and science units beginning at the microscopic level and branching into the study of the universe.
Technology

As the world of STEAM expands, so has the importance of incorporating coding experiences into the curriculum so that students become fluent in coding from a young age.
Arts

In addition to regularly scheduled fine arts and music classes each week, students may begin taking instrumental music as an option in third grade. Also, each grade undertakes a signature drama performance as a regular part of their class schedule. These increased opportunities for students to engage in performance and public speaking create confident, well-rounded learners. String concerts, band concerts, and vocal concerts round out the yearly music performances.
Conscious Discipline

First through third grade students continue to build their skills in self-regulation, conflict resolution, and the development of a school community through the Conscious Discipline program. Our school family continues to flourish as our students work with peers in other grade levels through both our Clubs and Book Buddy programs, in which our youngest students pair with older peers as reading buddies.

Sample Project

The coral reef came to life for Ms. Allen’s first grade class recently, as they completed an interdisciplinary unit that included reading informational text, writing informative text, and studying coral reefs. Students used online resources to research an animal that lives in the coral reef. They used text, drawings, and audio to create online Padlets displaying what they learned. Finally, they used materials from the Innovation Lab to create life-size 3-D representations of the coral reef with all their animals. The results were a sight to behold!