Primary Program
Developing foundational skills in the Primary Program.
The primary years are filled with questions, discoveries, and exciting moments when the spark of exploration ignites and learning clicks. Our Primary Program (grades 1–4) nurtures that natural curiosity so that learning becomes a source of pleasure and pride for students, while also helping them build the skills and habits they’ll need for success. Our advanced interdisciplinary curriculum, two-teacher model, and focus on solid study skills gives students the support to take on new challenges with confidence and excitement.
“We want to challenge students so we create an exploratory learning environment that allows them to arrive at natural conclusions on their own.”
Learning with Two Expert Teachers
Students thrive with amplified personal support and subject expertise: Our co-teaching partnership combines the best of all worlds: A Learning Expert Teacher (LET) guides students all day and a Subject Expert Teacher (SET) brings each course subject to life.
Learning that Connects Ideas
Through our supportive co-teacher model, students feel safe and ready to take on an advanced liberal-arts-and-science curriculum that highlights absorbing essential content knowledge, making connections between disciplines, and honing the skills needed to learn effectively
Growing Together and Building Community
A robust offering of clubs, sports, and group activities promotes the social growth that’s as important for students as classroom learning: building community, sharing cultures, and developing strong personal bonds through friendships.
In the Primary Program, students will...
Learn by Asking
Students learn to be comfortable asking questions, utilizing creativity, engaging with others, sharing opinions, and expanding their problem-solving skills.
Explore Connections
Students uncover connections between different subjects, forge an understanding that concepts outside the classroom link together, and bridge content-rich coursework with critical inquiry and curiosity.
Solve Problems
Students build important social and communication skills, as well as develop the ability to approach problems or challenges from multiple angles.
Deepen Knowledge
Students retain and deepen their knowledge as major topics are spiraled across all grade levels to ensure mastery.
Year by Year
Grade 1
Grade 1 facilitates vital connections in and out of class. Students benefit from our co-teaching model, with a Learning Expert Teacher (LET) guiding them all day, and a Subject Expert Teacher (SET) bringing expertise to each course. Our Connections class integrates disciplines—a marketplace unit might link math and art—while Mandarin engages students through topics connected to their personal lives and surroundings.
Grade 2
Grade 2 is designed to pique curiosity. Students explore the life, physical, and earth sciences through hands-on experiments and practice the scientific method by comparing, contrasting, and classifying. Science and math are complemented by Engineering, in which students collaborate on real-world challenges—identifying problems, creating detailed plans, measuring materials, testing solutions, and analyzing data in civil, computer, and aerospace engineering units.
Grade 3
Grade 3’s spiraled curriculum builds on earlier learning while encouraging students to apply knowledge in new ways. With math concepts scaffolded to their age level and revisited all year, students learn number sense, operational thinking, measurement, spatial thinking, and problem solving. Through performing arts, students build confidence and explore creative processes as writers, performers, and supportive audience members.
Grade 4
Grade 4 students take greater ownership of their learning, exploring their thinking processes and increasing self-reliance. To visualize ideas and clarify thinking, they practice using guided notes and graphic organizers. They study how literary and rhetorical devices work before applying them in their own writing. PE frames movement as essential to well-being, moving from game play to a focus on teamwork and perseverance.
Grade 5
Grade 5 highlights interdisciplinary connections through a unique array of courses. Physical geography incorporates science and history content through research projects and class presentations. Classics focuses on ancient civilizations, dovetailing with students’ first year of studying Latin. As students transition to middle school, they develop scholarship skills and fundamental habits of thinking, working, research, evaluation, discussion, and presentation.
Curriculum
Teaching that Emphasizes How to Learn
Made accessible by the synergy of our two-teacher model, our advanced liberal-arts-and-sciences curriculum emphasizes content knowledge, interdisciplinary connections, and key critical thinking skills. Together, co-teachers determine the best ways to deliver material and optimize student learning and engagement, including one-on-one and small group work.
A primary program cornerstone, our Connections course urges students to apply knowledge across disciplines–through scenarios that prompt mental agility, creativity, and problem solving. Grades 1–3 offer integrated courses in the humanities; math and science; engineering—to cultivate design process skills; Mandarin—to activate learning in different parts of the brain; the arts, and physical education. Grade 4’s shift in curriculum and skills development fosters greater independence, readying students for middle-school success. A scheduled daily recess balances academics with play.
World Language
Through continued study of Mandarin, students develop greater linguistic proficiency, deepen their cultural understanding, and strengthen their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
History
Students build geography and map skills and begin to study the development and key ideas of seminal cultures, different types of government, and cause-and-effect relationships.
Math
Through tailored, hands-on instruction in number sense, operational thinking, measurement, and more, students develop problem-solving skills, including understanding, planning, solving, and checking.
English
Language arts strengthens student strategies for increasingly independent reading and beginning writing, reinforcing phonics and comprehension skills, using vocabulary in context, and creating personal narratives.
Science
Students begin to apply scientific concepts, making connections, evaluating data, and explaining the world through observation, experimentation, and analysis.
Fine Arts
Courses in visual art, performing arts, and music enable students to explore and develop their individual voices, learn about diverse perspectives, take risks, and build confidence.
Engineering and Computer Science
Students learn and apply the engineering design process and sharpen problem-solving skills through creative building projects and hands-on investigation and design activities.
Physical Education & Health
Through sports, games, and physical activities, students develop gross and fine motor skills, build tenacity, and learn about sportsmanship, collaboration, integrity, and commitment.