Lower School

Pre-Kindergarten uses a multi-sensory approach to learning. Our program balances socialization with academic readiness, and offers a full-day program in a safe, encouraging, and exciting environment. Classroom learning includes language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Children additionally work with specialists in Spanish, physical education, art, music, computers, and library.

A multi-sensory approach to learning creates lessons that are appealing to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. Students learn through hands-on experiences that integrate various subjects. For example, children learn about koalas and kangaroos (science) during the letter "K" unit. Sample lessons may include basic facts about Australia (social studies), graphing favorite foods beginning with the letter "K," and measuring ingredients to make a fruit salad with kiwi (math). Literature about Australia and books emphasizing "K" (ex: Katy-No-Pockets) may be read (language arts) throughout the unit.

Each day in Pre-Kindergarten includes outdoor play, paper and pencil experiences, snacks, quiet times, and lots of fun! Parents have the opportunity to pick children up at noon, but most parents choose to have their child remain at school for the entire day.

Kindergarten offers an enriching and nurturing environment in which children can meet their academic, social, and emotional potential. Academic opportunities in Kindergarten include extensive readiness experiences in language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Students spend time developing their "thinking skills," such as those involved in comprehension, drawing conclusions, distinguishing between reality and fantasy, predicting outcomes, and making an educated guess.

In language arts, students practice recognizing and naming letters, printing capital and small letters, distinguishing letter sounds (phonemic awareness), and blending these sounds orally to create a word. Teachers introduce rhyming words, syllabication, and high frequency sight words as part of reading readiness. Students also learn to convey concepts on paper through words and pictures. Students use phonetic or "invented" spelling to represent words through journal writing and other writing activities.

The Kindergarten mathematics program introduces students to numbers, place value, geometry, graphing, sorting, patterns, measurement, time, and money. We also lay the groundwork for understanding word problems and solving addition and subtraction problems. Students use manipulatives and other hands-on activities to enhance their understanding and develop their number sense.

In social studies and science, students learn about topics such as weather, plants, animals, the Chesapeake Bay, Native Americans, Pilgrims, and world holidays. Students learn about these units through books, field trips, and conducting their own research on certain topics throughout the year.

Kindergarten students have computers, art, science lab, music, library, physical education, and Spanish each week. These subjects often complement social studies and science units. Field trips, cultural arts programs, hands-on activities, and play are part of the full and exciting life of a Kindergarten student.

Pre-First is a time for students who would benefit from an additional year before starting First Grade. Pre-First students use a First Grade curriculum, but have a smaller class that typically consists of one teacher and ten students. We consider this year a "gift of time" allowing students the opportunity to enhance their development prior to First Grade. These students are usually a mixture of ICS students who have completed Kindergarten and new ICS students from other schools.

Daily Pre-First subjects include reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. Students also participate in computers, art, science lab, music, library, physical education, Spanish, and clubs each week.

We offer all Lower School students a learning environment that accommodates developmental and individual differences. We seek to enhance students' self-confidence through the use of a spiral curriculum which offers opportunities for exposure, application, and mastery of concepts at developmentally appropriate times. Students engage in reading, writing, math, social studies, and science on a daily basis. Students also participate in computers, art, science lab, music, library, physical education, Spanish, and clubs each week.

Our approach to teaching reading provides systematic, explicit phonics within a multi-sensory framework. Children move rapidly from learning to read to reading to learn. Our reading materials provide students with a variety of literature, including multicultural literature and stories that educate students about various social classes and some political issues.

Writing is a critical part of the literacy process at Indian Creek. Students begin writing in Pre-Kindergarten and continue to write across all content areas throughout the Lower School. Sample writing activities include fictional stories, reports, skits, and poetry.

Our mathematics program reflects current National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Focal Points. Our program emphasizes fact knowledge, problem-solving, and conceptual development at appropriate developmental stages with accommodations for the different paces at which students develop. We group Third through Fifth Grade students based on learning styles and achievement. Having an additional math teacher allows us to divide these students into three smaller interchangeable classes. Strengths of the program include an emphasis on fact knowledge and conceptual understanding, flexibility of grouping, and the availability of supplies and materials needed for successful teaching and learning.

Both our science and social studies programs are based on the Core Knowledge curriculum, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (http://www.coreknowledge.org/CK/index.htm). Our science program enables students to gain knowledge of the scientific process by asking questions, forming hypotheses, following procedures, gathering data, conducting appropriate tests, and forming conclusions. We encourage natural curiosity to help students become scientifically literate as they develop critical thinking skills and a sense of methodology in their thinking. This sensory approach includes hands-on inquiry based activities that appeal to students' wonder of the world around them. Our social studies program is comprised of three strands extended from Kindergarten throughout Fifth grade. These strands include Geography, World History and Civilizations, and United States History. The curriculum provides our students with a broad understanding of the world beyond their immediate community. Kindergarten through Second Grade students learn social studies within their classroom, whereas Third through Fifth Grade students alternate between the two grade-level teachers for social studies and science. Students are involved with the social studies curriculum through direct instruction, class discussion, cooperative learning, and independent research.