Learning at Lincoln
Nursery – Grade 5 volume 1
WELCOME
Where We
Begin In appreciating each child’s unique gifts, the Lower School at Lincoln fosters a natural sense of curiosity and wonder. We believe that education at the elementary level should not only instill knowledge and develop skills, but also cultivate a love of learning and a positive sense of identity as a learner.
The Quaker Spirit gives Lincoln unique educational strengths. We affirm young childrens’ sense of respect for themselves and others. We provide a comfortable learning environment where peace and justice are valued. We also offer exemplary role models in the form of Middle & Upper School mentors.
When children are ready to start the educational journey that will shape their lives, Lincoln’s Lower School is the place to begin.
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INTRODUCTION
A Warm
Welcome Welcome to the Lower School at Lincoln School. In their time here, our students develop the ability to listen and to reflect, to flourish as individual people and as members of a community. Each of our students participates in the tradition of the Quaker silent meeting, in a form that is meaningful and developmentally appropriate for every age. Our youngest students gather to celebrate one another as well as themselves. Our older members, led by girls in our Grade 5, convene to reflect on service-centered topics. Weekly meeting is an integral part of our community.
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One of our great assets is that we share resources with the Middle & Upper Schools. Fifth graders travel to Middle School for their study of foreign language and science. All of our students benefit from interacting with Middle and Upper School students in collaborative learning projects, at school-wide concerts and other gatherings, and in the pursuit of community service activities.
Seeking a safe, positive, academically challenging, and developmentally enriching educational environment for your child? You’ll find it in Lincoln’s Lower School.
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NURSERY AND PRE - K
Early Childhood
Learning Children are natural learners, and Lincoln’s distinctive program for preschool students emphasizes respect for the child and his or her competencies, interests, and learning processes. Our approach is rooted in Quaker values and influenced by the internationally renowned Reggio Emilia concept of early childhood teaching and learning. Teachers trained in Reggio methods are expert facilitators in what is largely a child-initiated curriculum. Children follow their curiosity, develop their ideas, and learn about themselves and their world in a way that is both active and reflective.
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Education for Children Ages 3–5 Lincoln has two co-ed preschool classrooms: the Oak nursery class for three-year-olds, and the Gingko pre-kindergarten class for fouryear-olds. The average class size is 16 with two teachers in each room. With an evolving and emergent curriculum, children come to view school as a place of exploration and discovery.
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An Engaging Environment At the heart of the program is the Studio. An actual physical space, the Studio also represents an innovative approach to teaching and learning. The Studio offers a feast of eye-pleasing textures, colors, and imagination-provoking juxtapositions. One area features a dozen jars of colorful beads and an array of glass bottles grouped by their various shapes and colors. Another nook is devoted to items from the natural world: several types of pinecones grouped in large bowls, containers with scores of shells, various kinds of seeds in jars, neat bunches of sticks and branches. The Studio is well organized and accessible, full of unique and provocative materials. It is an ideal setting for stimulating young minds.
In the Studio, small groups of children work with teachers a few times a week on projects that are typically ongoing, giving children the time to reflect and reconsider. Children often begin the week with a “Monday Meander” around the Lincoln campus that prompts them to observe the natural world and to find objects that interest them. Over the course of several weeks, one group of children may create a dollhouse with furniture they fashioned out of found materials. Another project might involve learning about wool fibers and the process of making natural dyes. Whatever the topic, projects engage, inform, and delight.
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Special Opportunities Our cheerful, busy students learn the value of quiet reflection in a variety of ways. In addition to a weekly meeting, children further learn about the importance of community and the uniqueness of individuals through our simple, yet meaningful, celebrations of birthdays. When it is a child’s birthday, his or her classmates will make simple gifts, such as portraits they’ve drawn of the birthday child, or a book documenting what classmates know and appreciate about the child.
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Foreign Language Learning Young children’s minds are highly receptive to learning new languages in the same way they learn their native tongue: through simple communication and contextual clues. This principle is at the heart of Lincoln’s Emergent Language Program for children from three to five years old. Regularly scheduled visits by the French and Spanish teachers engage the children in songs, art projects, books, and games. Teachers speak only in the target language and the children quickly follow. As they participate in activities they enjoy, the children mimic sounds and language patterns, while learning words and phrases related to common objects, simple requests, and basic interactions. At Lincoln School, we believe that language acquisition and cultural awareness are important from the earliest ages in order to help students grow into knowledgeable and ethical global citizens.
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K – 5 PROGRAMS
Exploring our
World The medieval Ponte Vecchio... a segmental arch bridge... the 24-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. In the Grade 3 Bridges Project, students research famous bridges around the world, as well as the construction materials and methods used to build them. Students might use computer graphic software to make their own images of these architectural wonders, or design and test the limits of their own bridges made with paper arches and beams. On field trips, students visit Providence’s own Point Street and Division Street bridges. The Bridges Project is characterized by active, interdisciplinary learning that connects students to their immediate culture and community, as well as the far reaches of the world. The project is representative of the way Lincoln students joyfully explore their world through simulation.
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Our Place in the World Featuring literature, history, culture, geography, social studies, and languages, the humanities curriculum enables students to gain perspective about their own lives and place in the world. For example, on Cultural Heritage Day, Grade 4 students research immigration and the first ancestors from their own families to arrive in America. Our Quaker values of justice and equity are often reflected in the way we explore various historical and cultural topics. When researching the history of Providence, students study the lives of such people as Roger Williams and John Brown, as well as the society and culture of the Native Americans who first lived here. Fifth graders gain insight into politics and the Constitution in an examination of civil rights and also the suffragist movement. 12
Love of Learning Elementary school sets the tone for a student’s future learning experiences. At Lincoln, children discover that learning—especially challenging learning— is fun. Starting with our younger students, our teachers facilitate student-directed learning through simulation. Students act out scenes from books, write poems and develop compositions based on research, make visual displays that demonstrate their knowledge, and take field trips to museums and historical sites. With small class size and an environment that is safe and intimate, Lincoln’s Lower School students develop a sense of self and begin to understand the relationship between themselves and the world.
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Appreciating Words Spelling, reading, writing, and speaking are skills students develop daily in their classroom experiences. The Lower School at Lincoln celebrates special events that nurture our students’ appreciation for words. On Book Character Day, students dress up as a character from a favorite book. During the Month of the Spoken Word, the whole school celebrates by singing songs, reading aloud, writing and reciting poetry, and finding other ways to have fun with language and be creative.
World Cultures and Languages Learning about the peoples and cultures of the world is integrated into many parts of the Lower School curriculum. In addition, language learning is a fundamental part of each Lincoln School student’s educational experience. Meeting two to four times a week, grade depending, both French and Spanish teachers speak predominantly in the target language as they conduct classroom activities that enhance children’s oral and aural communication skills while also instilling knowledge of world cultures.
A typical language class might involve playing a game, cooking a traditional dish, making a movie, singing a song, or discussing the day’s topic. Instilling a respect for cultures other than our own is at the forefront of our Lower School Language program.
Some of the Books we Read and Study Book! Book! Book! Bruss The Library Dragon Deedy Olivia Falconer Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse Henkes Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Lin Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella Lowell Gooney Bird Greene Lowry The Doll People Martin Judy Moody McDonald Tikki Tikki Tembo Mosel Heart and Soul Nelson The Lion and the Mouse Pinkney Officer Buckle and Gloria Rathmann Epossumondas Salley Caps for Sale Slobodkina Dragon's Child Yep
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K – 5 PROGRAMS
Turning on
The Light Bulb Pairs of girls bend intently over the lab tables in the science classroom. Behind them is a wall of shelves loaded with beakers and bunsen burners, jugs and jars. A group of third graders is creating circuits as part of a unit on electricity. Each pair has been given a battery, a flashlight bulb, and a bit of wire. Within several minutes of experimentation, they’ll figure out how to complete the circuit. Eureka! The bulb will light up on the table—and in their minds. Even at the elementary level, Lincoln School girls participate in lab-oriented science, learning by doing, seeing connections with the real world.
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Real Science Lincoln’s vast science curriculum incorporates aspects of biology, chemistry, earth science, ecology and conservation, geology, and the human body. Some activities focus on fundamentals, such as older girls’ experiments with acids and bases. Other students’ science activities are interdisciplinary, combining science and music to make flutes, xylophones, and other instruments from recyclable materials. Third graders might study how natural materials can lead to an exploration of the food grown and eaten by early Native Americans, which in turn leads to a Thanksgiving-time examination of nutrition and the food pyramid.
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No matter what lesson I present to our students, they always surprise me with their creative ideas. Children’s thinking is always out of the box. Sandra Reinbold, Lower School Art Teacher
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Can a kindergartner or first grader be considered a scientist? Absolutely! One excellent example of how Lincoln prompts students of all ages to engage in hypothesis generation through experimentation is the recent Wave Connections project. Funded by a major Toyota Tapestry grant (the result of a partnership between Toyota and the National Science Teachers Association), the project involves wave physics, wave interactions, and the connection between waves, sound, and color. For the sound portion of the project, Middle and Lower School students formed research groups to create simple songs to play back for analysis. They noted and made predictions about changed wave characteristics with changed instrument types.
Our Girls Love Math Even very young children have mathematical intuition and knowledge gained from their experiences in the world. Lincoln’s programs in math are built upon this foundation. Kindergartners engage in Big Math for Little Kids, a research-based, field-tested, comprehensive curriculum that develops their understanding of numbers, shapes, patterns and logic, measurement, operations, and space. Math at the kindergarten level is active. Chanting, clapping, and stamping are incorporated into learning to count by fives. When students use bar graphs to chart the weather, they see how math is connected to daily life. Our girls know math is fun! Just ask the kindergartners as they celebrate the 100th day of school.
For the color portion, eighth graders worked with kindergartners to create a “rainbow” of natural dyes, correlating color and wavelength via spectrophotometric analysis. Student teams produced intermediary colors and predicted wavelengths.
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Math Every Day Students in Grades 1 through 5 use Everyday Mathematics, a nationally proven curriculum developed with funding from the National Science Foundation. Students build skills in operations and computation, data analysis, geometry and measurement, and algebra. Our students are encouraged to verbalize their understanding of mathematics and also to demonstrate it in creative ways—for example, by making arrays of beads, bottle tops, or acorn caps to show multiplication facts.
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K – 5 PROGRAMS
Putting it all
Together Lincoln’s faculty is collaborative, creative, and adept at bringing about coherent and meaningful experiences. When a group of students is reading The Kipling’s Just So Stories, teachers will create thematic connections in art and music. In art class, students will study and do projects relating to animal patterns and African art. In music class, they’ll learn traditional music and rhythms using djembe drums. Creating opportunities for the students to recognize how all subjects can be interwoven is paramount to our curriculum.
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Visual Art and Music Colorful mobiles, fantastic sculptures, imaginative ceramic pieces, delicate watercolor paintings… Lincoln students have art classes each week, and their work—displayed throughout the common spaces of the school—reveals the variety of media and types of projects students create. Besides developing their own individual works of art, students enjoy collaborative activities, such as painting a life-size killer whale mural and drawing a 20-foot-tall rendering of an Ancient Egyptian stature.
Music classes are also part of each week. Kindergarteners and first graders explore music literacy and games. Throughout the Lower School, students build a solid knowledge of musical foundations. A highlight of the year is the annual Valentine’s Sing, at which first and second graders perform such fitting songs as “Catch a Falling Star” and “I’m Gonna Mail Myself to You.” (In a connection with the World Languages Program, they also demonstrate how they can say “I love you” in multiple languages.) The Lower School Chorus, for Grades 3 to 5, sings at various assemblies during the year.
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You never know what you’re going to do in art. You could make a 3-D bug, paint on silk, draw a portrait, make sculptures... I love art. Katie, Class of 2016
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ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Extended Day and Enrichment
Activities At Lincoln, we know that the school day is part of the greater context of the family and its needs. Family-friendly options that also promote positive experiences beyond the school day include vacation camps, summer camps, and the extended day and enrichment programs. The Extended Day Program, available for nursery through grade 5, runs from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Lincoln School also offers a wide variety of after-school enrichment programs for students including ceramics, dance, cooking, chess, soccer, and instrumental instruction. Specialty and general summer camp programs are available to Lower and Middle School students for most of the summer. 28
Respect
Lincoln School 301 Butler Avenue, Providence, RI 02906 (401) 331 9696 www.lincolnschool.org