Learning
This page is dedicated to give you an inside look at what our bright students are learning on a daily basis.
Our preschool aged children will learn many things while mixing our learning experience with a lot of fun! They learn all 26 letters along with their sounds. To make learning more hands-on, throughout the year, the class is visited by multiple animals to match the letter they are learning. They learn about vowels, consonants, and uppercase and lowercase letters. Each morning they recite the pledges to the Bible, Christian flag, and American flag. During calendar time, they go over the days of the week, months of the year, and the seasons. They will often take nature walks to enjoy and learn about the changes in seasons. Students will learn about their 5 senses and they will be able to distinguish between their left and right hand. They learn to write and recognize their names, rhyming words, colors, shapes, and the four cardinal directions. Our hope is to count to 100 by the end of the school year! Our Junior Kindergarten students will also study the American flag; and while learning about the flag, they will learn the state we live in, what country, and about the planet Earth. On top of all this, they will have 12 different poems memorized by the end of the school year!
Junior Kindergarten
In Kindergarten, students will learn the phonetic sounds of the alphabet, the difference between vowels and consonants, upper and lower case letters. They will also learn how to read! As far as math skills, they will learn to count to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's and some basic addition and subtraction. They will also be able to count money and learn some details about currency. Scripture memorization is important at all of our grade levels, including Kindergarten! We feel that public speaking and presentations are an important skill to possess, and we start with this grade level. For History, they will learn how to read maps, learn about different countries and cultures, and learn about the original 13 Colonies. Their science covers different animals, weather, constellations, planets, basic human anatomy, and healthy eating. On top of all this, we feel it is vital for our Kindergarteners to learn respectable manners.
Kindergarten
1st Grade continues to build on the foundations laid in Kindergarten. However, 1st Grade will add Spelling, Literature, and Cursive to the base curriculum of Arithmetic, Copybook, Reading, and Phonics. Spelling begins to teach phonetic rules and builds on the concepts of vowel teams, consonant blends/teams, short and long vowels, and symbols. Students learn the strategy of breaking down words through phonetic awareness to be able to spell and to read. Literature is an exciting introduction as the children begin to explore independent reading while learning new vocabulary and breaking those words down into syllables, learning more about comprehension and the meaning of the story, as well as becoming stronger readers - learning to read both silently and out loud with expression. Cursive writing is introduced in this grade level. 1st Grade is a time for growth, maturity, and taking responsibility for the outcome of their work. 2nd Grade continues to build on many of the skills developed in 1st Grade. Spelling takes on a bigger role as word lists are increased, new phonetic rules are taught, and students are reading and writing their words in cursive. Arithmetic moves into new concepts such as reading problems, column addition, subtraction, fractions, counting money, math terminology, and more. Literature expands with students gaining more experience with vocabulary and comprehension and spending time in class working through discussion questions that take children beyond the storyline and into an understanding of the meaning within the story. Finally, their penmanship expectation is increased to a greater skill and precision.
1st/2nd Grade
In our 3rd/4th grade class, we begin with an introduction to Latin, which consists of building vocabulary and memorizing Latin phrases. In Mathematics, we build on addition, subtraction, counting money, and will eventually learn multiplication and division. We have a weekly spelling list, which is accompanied by a test every Friday. We are ecstatic for Literature this year as we are reading Florence and Richard Atwater’s Mr. Popper's Penguins, Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Michael Bond’s A Bear Called Paddington, and Eleanor Estes’ The Moffats. We have cursive exercises every other day. In Christian Studies, we are focusing on the Old Testament. In Geography, we are learning the states, capitals, abbreviations, and their location on the map. In Science, we are studying mammals. Finally, as a classical school, we are studying Greek mythology.
3rd/4th Grade
The 5th and 6th graders start every morning with recitations to help them remember important facts about the Bible, the histories of different ancient civilizations, geography, math, and much more. In Christian Studies, the students are learning the main stories throughout the New Testament along with memorizing important Scripture verses. These students are starting First Form Latin this year, which means they will gain a better understanding of how to conjugate verbs, decline nouns and adjectives, and ultimately, translate Latin sentences to English and vice versa. This year in Literature, they are reading and discussing Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Eric Knight’s Lassie Come Home. We are very excited to begin a new Grammar curriculum this year called, Fix It! Grammar. Students learn rules about capitalization, punctuation, clauses, parts of sentences, parts of speech, and much more as they fix mistakes in popular children’s stories. Along with this, they have a Spelling test every Friday. In Geography, students are learning how and where to locate different places all over the world as well as our own country. Their Science class consists of learning about birds this year! The students learn about the anatomy and genetic makeup of birds. They also learn how to identify different species and will even be able to distinguish between species by just listening to their sounds. The 5th and 6th grade math students are at different levels, but what they learn is similar. This year they will learn complex multiplication, long division, how to work with fractions and decimals, the metric system, and graphing. Finally, they are learning about the famous men of Rome from Romulus, the founder of Rome, to Constantine the Great, the last strong Roman emperor before the fall.
5th/6th Grade
This year, in Christian Studies, the 7th and 8th graders are starting out by studying the Gospel according to John and then the Psalms with Mrs. Lee. They are taking 2nd and 3rd Form Latin with Mr. Allen. In Literature, they are reading some incredible books: Elizabeth George Spear's The Bronze Bow, L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Olivia Coolidge's The Trojan War, and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Their Mathematics class this year is Pre-Algebra. These students will be expanding their writing skills this year, using curriculum from the Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW). For History, they are studying the Ancient World, which focuses on ancient civilizations such as the Israelites and Egyptians, and then they will focus on the Ancient Greeks.
7th/8th Grade
We're very excited to have Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert back teaching our high schoolers Physical Science. We're also thrilled to welcome Pastor Snyder to our staff this year to teach Christian Studies, in which they are studying the wars of the Jews. Our 9th-12th graders have finished their Latin classes, so they are taking their first year of Greek this year. In their Literature class, they will be reading and discussing Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. In Mathematics, they are diving into Geometry with Mr. Lee. After learning about the Renaissance and Reformation last year, they are going a little further back in time to study the era right before: Medieval Europe. They are building on their writing skills using materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), which is effective in preparing students for college. Finally, the high school students are starting Traditional Logic I, an introduction to formal logic. In this course, students learn how to adjust their thought process in order to formulate sound arguments.
9th-12th Grade