Primary

The Primary classrooms provide an emotionally supportive environment for each child. Our top priority is to earn the students trust and improve their self-confidence and interactions with teachers and peers. Once we make progress in these areas, we find students are much more willing to take on difficult tasks without hesitation. The low student-teacher ratio facilitates the relationship and instructional process as well as accommodating individual modifications necessary to extend personal, social, and academic learning to “full capacity”.

MORNING HOMEROOM:

The purpose of the morning homeroom is to give the students the opportunity to transition to school in a relaxed yet productive manner. It presents a unique opportunity for students to develop social skills through play and daily kinesthetic activities. We strive to get each child’s “engine” ready for learning. The following activities are utilized during our morning homeroom session:

  • OT activities like play dough, coloring, cutting, putty, for small motor exercises
  • Yoga
  • Trampoline, Deep Pressure, and other apparatus to encourage physical outlet for energy
  • Calendar to reinforce concepts of time, place value, skip counting, days and months, etc.
  • Alert Program which helps the child identify how they are feeling in regard to the learning environment and what adjustments they need to make.

READING & LANGUAGE ARTS:

We use a variety of methods and curriculum to ensure we are meeting the needs of each child’s individual learning style and level. The primary curriculum develops perceptual, cognitive and organizational skills in our students to minimize their sense of failure. Some of the strategies and materials we utilize include:

  • A-Z Reading
  • Open Court
  • Edmark
  • Primary Phonics
  • Get Ready for the Code
  • Starting Comprehension
  • Dolch Sight Words
  • Environmental Word Reading
  • Hands on manipulation of letters to make words
  • Tactile writing surfaces
  • Multi-sensory lessons for reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary to ensure auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic learning styles

MATH:

Our primary math curriculum is based on hands on, experiential learning. New concepts are taught and reinforced using math manipulatives and games. Once concepts are understood they are reinforced with paper and pencil activities. Some of the strategies and curriculum resources we use include:

SOCIAL STUDIES & SCIENCE:


Social Studies and Science are taught in larger groups in order to give the children experience with this learning environment. We use resources that are developmentally and age appropriate to create materials and curriculum for each classroom. The curriculum is reinforced with reading and experiential learning activities. Some of the curriculum and topics include:

  • Family & Community
  • Holidays
  • Important People in History
  • Earth Science
  • Physical Science
  • Life Science

SOCIAL SKILLS & REWARDS:

Social Skills are a vital part of our formal and informal curriculum. While we take time to teach and reinforce topics such as manners, friendship, sportsmanship, altruism, and helping others, we take time throughout the day to respond to “teachable moments”. Given the low student teacher ratio, there is always one staff member available to discuss difficulties and role play appropriate responses as they arise. We find this balance gives our students the lessons and opportunities to learn and internalize the skills necessary to be a positive and productive member of society.

While we teach and discuss how to be a positive member of our school, we also reinforce as we see students “walk the talk”. Students are awarded stickers or pennies when they are being helpful or to a staff member or other student. These are then traded for treasure box items or spent at the school store on regular basis which reinforces the positive behaviors that will help them further in life.

By building a strong foundation of trust and increasing student self esteem in an environment that is secure and positive, the students are able to take academic and social chances they may not take in other environments. Students have strong bonds with their teachers and peers.