Grades 1-4

Four elementary school students work on an assignment at their table

Our lower school academic program is characterized by deep and complex thinking, differentiation, small group instruction, and a focus on metacognition and perspective taking.

Students are loved and deeply known, and our expert faculty and small class sizes mean that we can provide each student with the support, challenge, and learning experiences that will support their growth and development.

Our excellent academic program is matched by a holistic focus on raising good humans. We partner closely with families to help children develop strong and healthy friendships, a positive sense of self, confidence in self-expression, and deep empathy and kindness. Lower school students learn to respect and appreciate the individual differences that make our community strong, while developing their own sense of identity and self-awareness.

Lower School Admissions Calendar

KATIE MCDOUGALL
Lower School Director

School Day Schedule

	Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri:		Wed (late start):
Grades 1-2	Arrival	8:05 a.m.	8:50 a.m.
Grades 1-2	Dismissal	3:00 p.m.	3:00 p.m.
Grades 3-4	Arrival	8:05 a.m.	8:50 a.m.
Grades 3-4	Dismissal	3:10 p.m.	3:10 p.m.

Mustang Afterschool Program (MAP)

We provide after-school activities Monday through Friday.

Core Curriculum
Specialty Curriculum

Core Curriculum

Reading and Language Arts

Episcopal Day's Language Arts Program is a rigorous, engaging program built on the science of reading and deeply integrated into our multidisciplinary program.

In lower school, students learn strong foundational reading skills via a systematic approach to phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition of words. Simultaneously, they develop the foundation of strong language comprehension that is required to go beyond decoding to truly make meaning of the words on the page. These skills include vocabulary, verbal reasoning, language structures, and building a fund of rich background knowledge.

Reading and writing instruction are deeply connected at Episcopal Day. Students in lower school build their spelling, grammar, and morphology skills through both decoding (reading) and encoding (writing), while also building skills in written expression through informational, opinion, and narrative writing pieces.

As a part of our broader lower school curriculum, our multidisciplinary knowledge units provide students opportunities to develop and employ core language arts skills, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the context of engaging literature, science, and social studies content.

Science

Science is integrated into our literacy and social studies curriculum. This integration comes in the form of hands-on activities emphasizes the scientific method, giving students the skills that are essential in investigating the natural world. Students complete units of study in the areas of life, earth, and physical science.

Math

Our mathematics program was designed by researchers at the University of Chicago. The program focuses on students developing foundational mathematical skills through inquiry and problem based approaches. Math is multimodal, engaging students visually, kinesthetically, and verbally.

Social Studies

Our social studies program allows students to learn about their school, community, and world. Like science, social studies is integrated into our core literacy and mathematics program giving students the opportunity to build both content knowledge and skills.

Specialty Curriculum

Elementary students playing outside during P.E.

Physical Education

Everyone plays at Episcopal Day! Children need an opportunity to succeed in PE without emphasis placed on competition. A healthy, active child is more likely to be academically motivated, alert, and successful. Our PE program provides instruction and reinforces positive student social interactions, general gross motor skill development, and sport-specific skill building. Games and lessons are adjusted to the appropriate developmental level of the children at each grade.

Library

The library is an exciting space, inviting students to develop an appreciation for literature and stretch their imaginations. As students grow as readers, they are introduced to a variety of topics, including story creation, dictionaries and thesauruses, poetry and creating fables. Our librarian collaborates with classroom teachers and works to build a high-interest collection that will develop life-long readers and users of the library.

Two students and their experienced teacher work together during world languages class

SPANISH

Students develop a foundational Spanish skills through stories, songs, games, role-play, repetition, and art projects. As a result, students acquire the vocabulary and context for real language use well beyond the memorization of vocabulary.

Religion

Our rich, wonder-based curriculum invites students to learn foundational religious concepts, archetypal stories, and spiritual language to grow in self-awareness, inclusiveness, life purpose and meaning. Above all, religion class is a way to explore and develop our core values of compassion and service. Bible stories and spiritual narratives from popular culture are taught in ways that foster personal reflection and respect for religious diversity.

Visual Arts

Teachers present opportunities for students in first to fourth grade to express themselves with a wide variety of art materials. We explore painting, drawing, sculpture and clay, printmaking and fiber arts, and a variety of diverse artists who work with these mediums. In first and second grade there is more of an emphasis on learning about different cultures and artists and creating art inspired by them, while in third and fourth grade we branch into more techniques of drawing and painting and focus on their own self expression with the tools at their disposal.

Music

As a vibrant component of our educational program, we inspire a love of music in daily life. Students are exposed to music from different geographic and ethnic regions, thus gaining a better understanding of various musical styles, languages, and cultures. Music theory is introduced in an age-appropriate manner, and students learn and create rhythmic patterns by playing a variety of instruments, such as rhythm sticks, maracas, shakers, bells, triangles, tonal bells, and keyboards.

In addition to music classes, students have the opportunity to participate in school choirs. Junior Choir is a chorus of third and fourth grade students who rehearse once per week before school and lead weekly lower school chapel services.

Drama

An exciting outcome of students participating in drama class is amazingly confident young people who are willing to take risks in class and in front of an audience. Drama class provides a creative outlet for self-expression and role playing. Beginning in third and fourth grades, the students become comfortable onstage experimenting through improvisation, performing scenes, and learning how to be a team through dramatic and silly games and exercises.

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