ELEMENTARY SCHOOL the college school
Academic Disciplines Math
Science
Math is everywhere. Our students engage with math during project-based experiences and during daily Illustrative Mathematics (IM) lessons. IM is a research-driven, problem-based approach that asks students to explain their ideas and reasoning and learn to communicate mathematical ideas. The goal is to give students just enough background and tools to solve initial problems successfully, and then set them to increasingly sophisticated problems as their expertise increases.
Our faculty find themselves asking more questions than giving answers. At all levels, our science curriculum promotes understanding of the natural world and governing principles. The program builds on children’s natural curiosity through hands-on experiments, reflection, and discussion. Supported by our greenhouse and gardens, and our LaBarque Campus, students become botanists, chemists, biologists, and physicists—they are scientists.
Language Arts
Social Studies
The 6+1 Traits of Writing guide student mastery of the essential elements of writing. Whether in poetic expressions, analytic essays, or ten-page research papers, grammatically correct and powerfully chosen words are of the utmost importance to us. Reading is cultivated through small and large group book discussions, explicitly teaching strategies of good readers, and one-on-one coaching.
In First-Fifth Grade, students build upon concepts of social groups and study the components of a culture and the systems that make up those cultures. For example, third graders research, design, and build a model community based on primary investigations of local neighborhoods; and Fourth Grade students study the history, geography, and stories of the United States.
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