Curriculum
Nido's Elementary School serves students from 5-11 years old and continues to build on the foundations laid down in the early childhood years. Through an inquiry-based approach, our students learn to experience the world with curiosity, become independent thinkers, and develop problem-solving skills that build character and help them thrive in an ever-changing world. Our teachers deliver an integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum that connects the various subjects of study, providing students with a seamless learning experience and encouraging them to discover connections between school work and the other parts of their lives. Each grade level also offers age-appropriate service learning opportunities for students to grow as individuals and serve local, national, and global communities.
Physical education, music, art, computer instruction, and Spanish classes complete the core curriculum in literacy, math, social studies, and science. Though our standards are high, each child is encouraged to progress at his or her level of readiness, with a gradual increase of responsibility as the child goes through the different stages of development. Our students learn to embrace change and diversity by actively managing transitions and sharing each other’s cultural identity, beliefs, and customs.
Elementary classes have no more than 22 students per class, allowing for both rich interactive engagement and individual attention. Kinder 2, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classes have both a lead teacher and an assistant teacher. Each grade has a Team Lead to ensure coherent and coordinated curriculum planning across the grade, but our teachers and assistant teachers enrich their individual classes with their own unique teaching styles, backgrounds, and interests. Nido's Elementary School uses a standards-based teaching and learning model to emphasize that learning is a process in which the goal is for each child to grow steadily in knowledge, ability, and confidence.
Our curriculum is delivered through the following teaching and learning beliefs:
- Classroom culture sets the tone for learning and shapes what is learned.
- Choice is essential for engagement.
- Learning is a collaborative and social process.
- Learners need descriptive, timely feedback.
- Goal setting, reflection, and revision are essential to learning.
- Risk-taking, mistakes, and productive struggle are necessary and valuable to the learning process.
- Learners construct knowledge, skills, and understanding based on previous knowledge and experiences.
- Learners construct knowledge through authentic exploration and creation.
- Learners benefit from making connections across and within disciplines.
- Learning occurs at different rates and in different ways.