Kindergarten
Our primary focus is learning how to go to school: how to work together as well as individually, how to listen well and be respectful of others, how to work and play creatively within the safe boundaries of a group, and how to be ready to take in the gems of knowledge that will be presented during the next many years of school. In this foundation year, imagination and the natural seasons inspire and guide the work and play of the Kindergarten. Our program is nontraditionally academic. Rather than teach formal skills of reading, literacy work aims at developing listening and comprehension skills through story telling.
First Grade
Achieve mastery of main lesson work pertaining to fairy tales, folk tales and nature stories; introduction to literacy, letter formation, phonics, the writing process, story writing, poetry writing, letter writing, punctuation and capitalization; qualities of the numbers, introduction to the four processes in arithmetic, fact families, place value, charts/graphs, problem solving, skip counting and pattern recognition, simple plane geometric figures. Foundations of science education begin with exploration of nature in the immediate environment and may include observation of life cycles and gardening.
Second Grade
Legends and myths of helpers of humanity, animal fables, folk tales from North America and other continents, some North American native legends, literacy blocks which build on the work completed in grade 1: story, poetry, journal and letter writing, drafts and the process of writing, continued work with the four processes in mathematics and word problems, place value, number patterns and relationships, introduction to plane and solid geometric figures. Science topics include the study of local animals and continued exploration of the immediate environment.
Third Grade
Creation stories from around the world are first introduced; agriculture study; human habitats and house building; clothing and culture. Literacy lessons incorporate grammar mechanics, parts of speech, and paragraph structure. Mathematics includes multiplication tables, measurement, common fractions, time and money, redistributing (carrying and borrowing) geometry, and problem solving. In science our major focus is on earth sciences with an emphasis on agriculture, climate, and weather.
Fourth Grade
North American history as seen through the viewpoint of Oregon and its development from the time of its indigenous people, local geography and map making (starting from the intermediate surroundings and working up to neighborhoods, city, county, state and region), Norse mythology, and age appropriate literacy work that includes letter writing, verb tenses, abbreviations, personal pronouns, poetry, and alliteration. Math work will focus on reviewing arithmetic operations, times tables, story problems, long division, averages, fractions, decimals, simple factoring, perimeter, area, and volume. Science topics include the study of the animal kingdom, simple electrical circuits, energy transformation and use, water cycle, salmon life cycle, local habitats and ecology.
Fifth Grade
Ancient history and myths from ancient India to ancient Persia, China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and ancient Greece, including participation in the Greek Games; the lives and legends of Rama and Sita, Buddha, Zarathustra, Gilgamesh, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Khufu, Plato, Aristotle, Achilles, Odysseus, and Alexander the Great. Continued development of writing skills with attention to focus, voice, organization, mechanics and the modes; geography of North America with reference to vegetation, topography, agriculture, and economics; math blocks include decimals, fractions, mixed numerals, ratios and proportion, the metric system, geometry, estimation, data collection and analysis using number lines bars and line graphs; science topics may include botany and plant studies, simple machines, and dissolving rates.
Sixth Grade
Roman and medieval history, including the founding of Rome, the Republic, the Empire, the advent of Christianity, the Crusades, and the rise of Islam, and participation in the Medieval Games; pre-algebra, geometry, business math (percentages, interest, discount, etc.), ratio and proportion, and geometric drawing; astronomy, geology and mineralogy; European and Middle Eastern geography; physics (sound, light, heat, magnetism and electricity); age-appropriate language arts including writing for various purposes and debates.
Upper Grades: Seventh & Eighth Grade
In the 7th and 8th grades students spend equal class time with Math/Science/Art and Humanities/Language Arts/Drama teachers specializing in their content area. Each class has a homeroom teacher with whom they start each day and maintain in a two year loop.
Seventh Grade
Age of exploration, discovery, and invasion; the Renaissance and Reformation; modern topics and current events; Language Arts, including creative writing and other forms and modes of writing, novel study, free and structured sustained, silent reading, reading buddies with lower grade students, poetry, response and analysis of literature, more complex class plays involving critical analysis of thematic content with opportunity for original writing and production; Science includes chemistry and astronomy, physics (mechanics, magnetism, and electricity), human physiology and nutrition.. Math work includes pre-algebra, geometry (Pythagorean Theorem, simple Euclidean proofs, laws of perspective drawing), powers, roots, integers, and formulae.
Eighth Grade
Health and the human body, introduction to organic chemistry, physics (acoustics, optics, hydraulics, aerodynamics, meteorology); math includes algebra and geometry (platonic solids, proofs, volumes of solids, laws of loci), binary opposition math, and the origins and development of the computer; art curriculum; language arts includes response and analysis of literature, novel studies, an introduction to the short story, letters, personal essays, modes of writing, free and structured sustained, silent reading; more complex class plays involving critical analysis of thematic content with opportunity for original writing and production, learning to discern and interpret various modes of media; social studies include Colonial America, the age of revolution (American, French, Industrial), United States Government, the American Civil War, contemporary history topics, and current events.