Curriculum & Community

Differentiation is the practice of meeting students' individual needs through ongoing assessment and flexible groupings. In the Lower School, differentiation is used carefully with the understanding that each student's quantitative, reading, and writing abilities are constantly evolving. Throughout the course of the year, homeroom teachers and specialist teachers make continual adjustments to individual and group instruction based on what they observe in each child.

The multiage model at the Lower Schools consists of mixed grade cohorts at the first and second grade as well as the third and fourth grade levels. Students spend two years with the same teachers, allowing for ample leadership opportunities, deeper peer-to-peer learning, and strong connections between both teachers and classmates. Students spend portions of their day with their entire class, splitting up into smaller, single grade-level configurations for some academic work.

We utilize the Toolbox Social Emotional Learning Curriculum to help children regulate themselves, build resilience, and restore relationships within the context of our learning community. Every Lower School faculty and staff member is trained in the Toolbox curriculum, which offers a common language to maximize understanding between adults and children and is based on the principle that each person has an innate capacity to seek and find solutions to regulate their own behavior, to practice empathy, kindness, and compassion and to become more and more resourceful, resilient, and confident in so doing. The toolbox is based on these 12 tools:

• Breathing Tool: I calm myself and check-in.

• Quiet/Safe Place Tool: I remember my quiet/safe place.

• Listening Tool: I listen with my ears, eyes, and heart.

• Empathy Tool: I care for others. I care for myself.

• Personal Space Tool: I have a right to my space and so do you.

• Using Our Words Tool: I use the “right” words in the “right” way.

• Garbage Can Tool: I let the little things go.

• Taking Time Tool: I take time-in and time-away.

• Please & Thank You Tool: I treat others with kindness and appreciation.

• Apology & Forgiveness Tool: I admit my mistakes and work to forgive yours.

• Patience Tool: I am strong enough to wait.

• Courage Tool: I have the courage to do the “right” thing.

Students in Grades 3-5 take part in a series of brief electives known as “Minis,” taught by Lower School teachers and specialists. Minis offer students an opportunity to learn new skills outside the classroom and collaborate with different students and adults in the community. Minis offered in recent years include “Mindfulness for Kids,” origami, flag football, drums around the world, stop-motion animation, scrapbooking, video production, broomball, geocaching, cribbage, bridge building, and bird watching.

Technology as a learning tool: Technology is integrated into academic subject areas and includes an emphasis on creativity and innovation. All students in grades K-5 are assigned individual iPads for school use. There are also mobile labs of laptops which students may use as needed to achieve particular learning objectives or enhance specific projects. Students use technology to collaborate with peers, learn digital citizenship, and create subject-related content.

Computer Science, Engineering, and Maker Education: Students in every grade have at least one unit each year in their science classes in which they explore computer science, robotics and/or engineering at a developmentally-appropriate level.