Program Overview

The goal of Language Arts is to develop students’ ability to use language for information and understanding, for literary response and expression, for critical analysis and evaluation, and for social interaction. 

We use guided reading lessons to model and focus comprehension, fluency, and strategies for decoding. Depending on readiness, reading books are selected and read independently, leading to shared joy over favorite books. We also construct Literature Circles, where children choose their books and meet with other students to discuss new words, good questions and make predictions based on events in the reading.

In Writer’s Workshop, students discover the pleasures of writing and sharing a story, along with the necessary skills of editing, and the spelling of high frequency words. We write to real life authors and illustrators, make class books, share work from the author’s chair, and write to pen pals. For the older students, we balance skills practice with supporting the joy of writing. Students learn more about self, peer and teacher editing, to build their writing pieces.  In 4th grade, many students choose pieces to submit to our Lower School literary journal, Sticks and Stones.

As the children progress through the Lower School, the work builds on students’ ability to use language for information and understanding, for literary response and expression, for critical analysis and evaluation, and for social interaction. 

In math, teachers primarily use either the scope and sequence from the series that they are using, or they follow the New York State guidelines as a foundation.

Major topics in research-based Math for 2nd Grade include multi-digit subtraction and addition, metric and U.S. customary measurement systems, and whole number place value.

We use math games, mental math exercises, and journal writing to enhance our daily lessons, practice and review skills, develop problem-solving skills, and reinforce concepts.

Our emphasis is on learning to use a variety of problem-solving strategies, so that students have multiple means of attacking mathematics problems.

In 3rd Grade, we focus on expanding the children’s knowledge of basic facts, and applying them in problem-solving situations to create more fluent mathematical thinkers. We move into learning the concepts of multiplication and division, measurement, money, graphing, fractions, time, and geometry. Students practice their skills as applied mathematicians by working with real-world problems, and develop their fluency and conceptual understanding by maintaining a math journal, and working to develop multiple strategies for problem-solving.  

For our 4th grade students, math includes multiplication and division extensions, finding common denominators for fractions work, and geometry concepts such as symmetry, angles and parallel lines. We use math journals, math games, and group discussions to enhance our learning. Student discussion helps build their awareness that there are many ways to solve a problem.

In Social Studies, some teachers employ “backwards design;” using three or four big ideas that they want the students to understand, and then planning backwards from there to determine what skills and knowledge are necessary to understand the big ideas.

Our Social Studies curriculum takes us back in time for studies of Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt. Using the six lenses of culture, students come to understand that all cultures share the same basic characteristics. Culminating projects include creating a living museum open to the entire campus and parent community, and epic feast days (in costume).

Using primary and secondary source readings, a variety of projects and discussion, we develop map skills, learn how to differentiate fact from opinion, discover multiple ways to record history, and compare and contrast cultures and cultural traditions.

One highlight of our school year is the creation of a time capsule, to be opened when the 3rd Graders are graduating from our Upper School. Field trips include the Albany Institute of History and Art to visit the mummies, and the SUNY New Paltz Planetarium for star shows.

For our older students, Social Studies is a time of building perspectives. This includes their own growing awareness of their role in the school community and world, as well as understanding that written and recorded history is a compilation of perspectives throughout time. We focus on Indigenous Cultures of the Americas to rethink “discovery,” study different accounts of “Who was here first,” and explore different perspectives through primary documents and a variety of literature. Learning builds on mapping skills, reading and interpreting information and analyzing this information.

We recently renovated our two science buildings to offer new science labs. Half of the Science and Nature Building is for young children’s science.  

The focus of study for 2nd Grade is on the life sciences. Through a hands-on study of plants — their parts, their needs, and their life cycles — students learn about the importance of plants to life on Earth. Putting their studies into action, 2nd Graders take primary responsibility for the plants in the greenhouse. They also identify and classify plants and trees in the forest on campus. To give them a more global perspective, we investigate tropical rainforests and all their inhabitants. The year concludes with studies of the human body and its systems.

3rd Graders refine their understanding of the human body and its systems, and explore the needs of individual species and their roles in the ecosystem.

For their Earth Science unit, students explore the properties of matter, with particular emphasis on the water cycle, watersheds, and erosion.

We study the changes in our planet, and the beginnings of life on Earth. We learn about plate tectonics and other planet-shaping processes, such as volcanism. Once we reach the era of the dinosaurs, students conduct individual research on specific dinosaurs and the characteristics of the eras in which they lived.

The focus for 4th Grade is problem-solving and applying data to real life situations. We start the year with a unit on the Relationships of Living Things; a study of the local ecosystems we encounter every day. Our unit on Simple Machines introduces the concepts of work, energy, and how we have developed methods to help us accomplish tasks. The class learns about the lever, the inclined plane, the wedge and simple pulleys, through hands-on exploration.

Our younger students learn language through songs, games, and children’s literature.

They learn typical greetings and introductions. They acquire knowledge of topics like colors, body parts, shapes, seasons, weather, clothing, animals, numbers, telling time, and feelings.

In 4th Grade, students continue to enrich their communication skills as well as develop the ability to create simple sentences. Students build their knowledge of familiar topics such as greetings, likes and dislikes, seasons, months, days of the week, and food. They apply their knowledge of basic vocabulary like colors, numbers, body parts, and adjectives to describe their environment.

We employ a wide variety of assessments throughout the school, both formal and informal. Our lower school uses programs that include formal assessment procedures such as research-based Math reviews and tests, Reading A-Z samples and comprehension questions, and Words Their Way spelling inventories.

Teachers of all grades use assessments to plan, reteach, confer with students and to create appropriate student groups and purposeful tasks.

Informally, there is a wide variety of tools used among our faculty to assess student learning and progress. Teachers use informal assessments such as checklists, conferences, anecdotal observations, running records, and work samples. In language arts, writing samples and spelling assessments are used.

Learning Lab, a fee-based support service, was developed to address the individual learning needs of students who come from diverse academic backgrounds and ability levels.

This important service is tailored to meet the needs of each of its students (K-12), and can range from individualized, one-on-one sessions with a certified special education teacher, to a modified, remedial curriculum taught in a small group, or push-in services that take place in the student’s general education classroom. 

Learning Lab also provides an added layer of communication with parents in the form of weekly or monthly academic and behavioral updates.