Elementary

Elementary class time is from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Children in the Lower Elementary Program (ages 6-9), continue to work with manipulative materials that enhance all areas of learning. The phonics, whole language, and sight word lessons used in the Primary program are more complex at the Elementary level.

In the Upper Elementary program students progress rapidly from concrete learning experiences to abstractions. As they complete the cycle of work in the Upper Elementary class (ages 9-12), they have experienced many approaches to learning and are able to make the transition to other educational methods with confidence.

Lower Elementary offers the following:

• Integration of art, music, sciences, geography, history, and language to evoke the natural imagination of the elementary child’s mind.
• The Great Lessons narrative reveals the origins of the earth, of life, of human communities, of empires, and of modern history.
• Presentation of the formal scientific languages of zoology, botany, anthropology, geography, and geology.
• A mathematics curriculum uses concrete materials to simultaneously reveal arithmetic, geometric, and algebraic correlations.

Upper Elementary offers the following:

• Students study mathematics and geometry as an approach to problem solving. Manipulative materials enable them to discover mathematical relationships.
• Science studies expand within the various scientific disciplines.
• Research is a major component in integrating learning in all areas of work.
• Music extends from recorder lessons to music theory and appreciation integrated into cultural studies.