Upper Elementary Program

(Ages 9 to 12 years)

“Adolescent Empowerment” is cultivated in this program, encouraging and nurturing the concept of individual personal responsibility on the part of each student and at the same time, aggressively fostering group cooperative skills. Involvement in community service activities and cross-age teaching further advances the cooperative skills at this level. Marked by tumultuous growth and change, students in our Upper Elementary program expand their hands-on curriculum with abstract concepts and problem solving. Significant study time is spent on field trips where students visit historic sites, ecology camps and museums. These field studies develop reasoning abilities as they study ancient lifestyles and relate them to contemporary responsibilities and events.

Learning takes on an even greater importance in upper elementary, as students at this level are tested in math homework and are advanced only upon demonstrating mastery of at least 90 percent of the subject material.

Throughout the day, students in our Lower and Upper Elementary Programs may be seen building time lines, recording science experiments, writing book reports and compositions, as well as solving complex mathematical problems. At other times, they may be modeling clay in the art studio, performing in a dramatic presentation or expressing themselves musically. Another group may be gathered in quiet concentration with their teacher, discussing the wonders of Ancient Egypt or perhaps resolving a situation within their classroom community.