Welcome to Elementary 2022-23

The elementary team is excited to welcome this year's class to school for the 2022-23 academic year. During the plane of development that lasts from age 6-12, children want to know how the world works and where we are in space and time. For this reason, the entire cosmos is our curriculum. As is tradition, for the first 8 weeks of school our cultural lessons will focus on taking a big view of history. We will start with the creation of the universe by studying the big bang, the life cycle of stars, and the creation of elements. We will learn how Earth changed from a series of volcanoes, to the supercontinent Pangea, to the world we know today. Next, we will study the coming of life, from the earliest unicellular organisms, to a world underwater, to dinosaurs, to the plants and animals that we know today, including modern humans. Finally, we will study the advances human society has made over time, especially as we developed language and mathematics. Each of these topics will be studied on field trips as well as within the classroom.

As we engage in this study, we will work to cultivate our students' natural curiosity, teaching them how to explore and research areas of personal interest to them. Children will have the opportunity to visit our new research center, where Ms. Sam will give children lessons on the research process and teach them many creative ways that they can show what they have learned. Whether they want to write a comic, create a timeline, embroider a diagram, perform a skit, share their findings with the local senior center, or something else entirely, children will be guided to use their own learning styles to engage with big ideas in ways that are meaningful to them.

We are looking forward to a great year!