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WE HAVE A long standing tradition of enriching our programs with instruction by teachers with special talents and knowledge in specific areas of the curriculum. Art, music, library, world language, physical education, music, and science teachers fall into this category.
Visual Art
The most important objective of the Lower School Visual Art Program is to create an atmosphere of encouragement, enthusiasm, and acceptance for the creative efforts of the children.
Classes take place in the Lower School Art Studio where age appropriate projects are designed to introduce them to the skills and tools of creative expression. Through a variety of media and processes such as drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, wood, fiber and found objects students begin to understand, develop and appreciate their own artistic voice as well as that of others.
Music
Beginning with our youngest students in the music program, we work to stimulate children’s imaginations to nurture emotional development, teach musical skills and encourage improvisation to develop creative thinking. Music and classroom teachers collaborate on interdisciplinary projects, exposing students to different cultures around our world. In fourth grade, students select an instrument and begin small group lessons and ensemble work. All students sing and perform in the annual Christmas/Holiday concert.
Theater & Dance
Young children naturally involve themselves in creative movement and dramatic experiences as a means of understanding their physical relationship to the world, trying out possible behavioral choices, as well as exploring the realms of imagination. Theater and Dance Education provide a structure that grows with the child, giving them an opportunity to develop both their critical and creative thinking skills. A student's experiences in Theater and Dance Education help them develop the means to explore and respond to their ever changing world.
Physical Education
The Physical Education curriculum includes body management skills, locomotor skills, health-fitness concepts and object movement utilizing activities such as throw/catch, hoops, kicking skills, racquet skills, games/parachute, football, floor hockey, basketball, tumbling team, dodge/throw, handball, baseball/striking, frisbee, soccer, scoopball, dance, jump rope for heart and field day.
Science
The Lower School Science program strives to make students better observers. By investigating connections that bind together nature and studying the ways science affects the everyday, students will explore the world they live in and make discoveries about its design. Reverence for the earth and its smallest creatures is emphasized in all grades.
Library
The Lower School Library is a vital, spacious area centrally located in the Lower School. Its program is an integral part of the school curriculum, and at all grade levels, the librarian works closely with the classroom teachers to provide materials needed for planned units of study. All of the children in the Lower School from Play Group through Fourth Grade have scheduled library classes. Not only do the students learn age-appropriate library skills, but also at each grade level, there are read-aloud sessions. Reading aloud is as enjoyable as it is important, benefiting the listener by encouraging reading, vocabulary development, and listening skills, all while titillating the imagination.
Italian
The Italian Language Program focuses on the aural-oral approach to language learning. The classroom experience integrates rhymes, music, songs, games, storybooks, finger plays and movement. The instructional goal is to develop listening, auditory discrimination, auditory processing, speaking skills and linguistic awareness in the Italian language in an age appropriate manner. Presently instruction takes place in Play Group through Grade 3.
French/Spanish
The French/Spanish Program is for students in Grades 4 and 5. The Exploratory Language curriculum emphasizes acquisition of a native accent and ease of communication. Students will learn to use colors, numbers, vocabulary for clothing, and vocabulary for classroom objects and commands, among others. Students will also have exposure to the cultures speak the languages studied, in the form of videos, readings, and music. To create as real an experience with language as possible, the Exploratory Language curriculum will be integrated as often as possible with the concepts studied in the grade level curriculum.
Technology
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