Our learning community enrolls approximately forty students at any given time. We have three full-time teachers and a part-time aide. During reading/writing and mathematical reasoning, our students are usually divided into groups according to their age and ability. We often have mixed groups for other subjects. We remain aware of and draw from the California State Standards for development of our curriculum. Although we meet or exceed these standards, we do not teach standardized text, and, as a multi-grade classroom, we do not teach each grade standard to each grade every year. (California State Standards can be viewed at the California Department of Education’s website at:http://www.cde.ca.gov/standards/.)

Our Language Arts program includes a variety of teaching methods: phonic skills practice for use in the context of reading and writing, to whole language prewriting activities; shared jokes to literary analysis; spelling practice to creative and didactic writing. Our mathematical reasoning instruction includes work with geometry, algebra, standard algorithms, manipulatives, measuring, diagrams, and estimation—all with the intention of creating overall comfort with numbers and mathematical concepts.

We support and encourage a love, enthusiasm, and exploration of the arts and sciences with crafts, music, ‘hands on’ history and science, and many ongoing projects and themes.

In the kindergarten-first grade classroom, children are allowed to blossom in their own time. We nurture head, heart and hands. Our days are filled with singing, movement, painting, planting, cooking, and listening to the glorious language of stories. Each day is woven with a comforting rhythm. This natural flow allows a “breathing in” and a “breathing out,” expanding through outdoor play and large motor activities, and coming together quietly through morning circle or story time. An important part of our curriculum is the time we spend learning to get along and be a community of caring, supportive friends. A reverence for the earth is cultivated. Our classroom is one of simplicity, and we care for it well.

It is through listening to stories, playing with language, memorizing verses, deciphering patterns, copying forms, learning songs, internalizing dances, measuring ingredients, observing plants & animals, and learning how to get along with others that the real “academic” work occurs.

First graders will be excited to read, write, and uncover the world of mathematics in a deeper way. They will continue exploring their surroundings, all the time learning about the world around them.

In the K-1 classroom our goal is for each child to find a deep sense of belonging and to grow in an unhurried, organic way.