Each day begins with an uninterrupted two-hour main lesson that focuses on one primary subject for three to five weeks. As a vital part of their learning, each child creates an ongoing record of the main lesson subjects in special books filled with compositions, poems, observations, diagrams and illustrations. Students engage in language arts, math, history, and the natural sciences in these integrated main lesson blocks covering the subject from each academic perspective. The teacher’s mission is to balance intellectual and emotional growth by engaging the student’s head and hands, as well as the heart. Please request an extended curriculum outline.

Typical Grade 5/6 Curriculum:

English  Reviewing sentence parts including verb, noun, adjective, preposition, conjunction, pronoun, adverb; recognizing tenses, voices; and correct punctuation.

Creative Writing  Narrative recounting of childrens’ experiences. Creating our own books, poems, daily journaling, friendly and business letters emphasizing composition and grammar.  

Active Arithmetic  Learning and practicing fractions, decimals, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division; business math (interest, profit and loss), ratios, proportion, estimation; introduction to algebra and geometry. Word problems, mental math, using humor and everyday applications from the childrens lives (food, money, travel time, distance, etc.).

Music  Daily singing and recorder playing, percussion instruments, sight reading and basic music theory, composition - all integrated with Orff-Schulwerk.

Science/Geography  In science and geography the achievements of all the other lessons meet and flow together. The sciences are integrated in our afternoon adventures and classroom work in the main lesson books. Children learn respect for the earth through understanding and experiencing its natural phenomenon.

• Physics: sound, light, heat, magnetism, static electricity
• Geology: minerals and crystals of the earth and their individual qualities
• Botany: native plants and their uses, concept of the archetypal plant
• Zoology: local native animals, especially marine mammals
• Geography: Map drawing, learning physical features and the work of inhabitants shaped by geography.

History  Biographies and characteristic events, map drawing, museum and field trips. Norse Mythology, legends from India, Persia, Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, Greece and Rome; local, state, and United States history.