St. Andrew's Epsicopal Academy

It is with a giant step that children in kindergarten advance into the Lower School. Their development as lifelong learners begins with a solid foundation in reading, writing, math, science and social studies, presented within a stimulating and enriching classroom environment. Small classes enable teachers to reach out and get to know their young students, developing the vital personal relationships that support their academic and social development.

The St. Andrew's Episcopal Academy Lower School curriculum has been carefully designed to offer a progression of skill development, incorporating a range of teaching strategies and methods. Each quarter, students are assessed on a variety of skills that reflect the student's progress, noting areas of strength and weakness. In addition to parent-teacher conferences, teachers are readily available to meet with parents and students to provide updates on a student's progress.

The Lower School years set a child's foundation for a life of learning by celebrating accomplishments, developing confidence and self-esteem, testing new skills, taking risks and learning to deal with setbacks as well as success.

Curriculum

First Grade: The reading and writing curriculum builds upon the concepts introduced in kindergarten, using differentiated reading groups, literacy stations and teacher read-aloud activities. Students review previously taught sounds and learn how to decode, blend, identify and spell new words. They also develop their comprehension skills through content area concepts, fluency, expression, and higher-level thinking. First-graders also make the transition from writing words to writing complete sentences with correct punctuation.

Lessons on social studies focus on local community, map and globe skills, symbols of America, rights, responsibilities, and roles of citizenship, and various other concepts designed to expand students’ awareness of the world around them. The science curriculum spans across the earth, physical and life sciences, encouraging mastery through literature, online resources, interactive games and experiments. Students learn a variety of topics using Singapore Math, including whole numbers, money and measures, statistics, and geometry.

Second Grade: In reading, students review previously taught skills and begin to learn how to analyze words. Second-graders further develop their comprehension skills through the identification of story elements, and continue to work on fluency, expression and higher-level thinking skills. They transition from print to cursive handwriting, and begin to learn about the writing process.

The social studies curriculum also expands the concepts mastered in first grade. Among the topics covered are local community, goods and services, citizenship, natural resources, and people, schools, communities and transportation from the past. In science, students study on a deeper level all of the material presented the previous year, with the additional life science topic of environments. The Singapore Math curriculum reviews previous conceptual areas and progresses to fractions.

Third Grade: Through the language arts curriculum, third-graders learn to develop appropriate listening and speaking skills and use progressively complex verbal and written language with increasing accuracy, detail and range of vocabulary. Writing skills are further developed through daily activities designed to foster understanding of the writing process, composition structure, correct and varied syntax, grammar, spelling and handwriting.

The Singapore Math curriculum provides the basis for mathematics instruction. In science, students learn to organize, predict and communicate the concepts of various earth, physical and life science topics through literature, online resources, interactive games, and hands-on experiences.

Fourth Grade: During this year, students gain better command of the use of speech to inform, entertain and influence an audience. There is an emphasis on learning to read through literature-based instruction and to analyze content, plot and characterization. Fourth-graders learn more independence in their writing, and begin to proofread their own work. They also build upon existing skills in grammar, spelling and handwriting.

Mathematics instruction is based upon the Singapore Math model. Science lessons incorporate a range of topics from the earth, physical and life science disciplines using literature, online resources, interactive games, and hands-on experiences.