Academic Disciplines

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL the college school

Academic Disciplines Math Science

Numbers, relationships, and patterns can help students understand the world. Our students engage math during project-based experiences and during daily Singapore Math in Focus lessons. Concepts progress from concrete models to pictorial representations and finally to abstract expressions, as students master myriad math skills. Math in Focus trains students to relate new ideas to existing knowledge, as they develop strong critical-thinking and problemsolving skills. Language Arts 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 readeres, and one-on-one coaching. 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, physicists—they are scientists. Social Studies 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.