LOWER SCHOOL

The centers-based approach continues to be the model for learning in Kindergarten, allowing students to learn using all of their senses. This model gives the opportunity to learn in different settings either through group work, one-on-one teacher-guided or independent work. Students are continuing to secure skills with consonant-vowel-consonant words, growing their lists of sight words, and developing new skills to form words using the phonics and rules-based, Orton-Gillingham approach to decoding words and reading. The writing process begins in kindergarten with pre-writing, editing, and publishing. In math, students are writing numbers, practicing their computations, sequencing, telling time, and measuring. Through the global studies curriculum, kindergarteners learn about community helpers, studying and understanding the roles that people play in our community. Farmers, medical field workers, teachers, police, and first responders are just a few examples of the many visitors who come to the kindergarten classroom and present to the children their roles in the community. The students, in turn, go to visit these community helpers and find ways to give back to them. As a culminating activity to the year, our students will research their favorite community helper and present to peers and parents their understanding of that person’s role in the community.

First graders build upon their sense of community through cultivated experiences and intentional exploration. With a greater focus on empathy and the connections we can make through geography, the students are given a full grasp on our home and the vast world around us. Through our year-long Community Service Project with Bishop Gadsden Retirement Home, the students have an opportunity to get hands-on experience in their local community and to build meaningful relationships outside of Charleston Collegiate School.

Students further explore and enhance their understanding of our local geography by participating in many project- and research-based learning activities. They fully embrace their learning as they work towards the selection and completion of their own Country Research Project. In First Grade, the reading and writing curriculum exposes the students to various types of genres and literature. Students analyze these types of literature for structure and meaning. The students begin to strengthen and secure their reading skills by becoming independent readers. We continue to build on our literacy through the Delta Science program. This is an innovative, researched-based science program that teaches science and literacy simultaneously. The program combines first hand (hands-on) and second hand (reading/research) investigations to teach students valuable strategies, including observing and recording, searching for evidence, making explanations from evidence, and recording and interpreting data on their own and with peers.

The Charleston Soil and Water Conservation District has served as a wonderful partnership for our First Grade scientists to collaborate and spread their learning Charleston-wide. In math, the Bridges program is designed to offer the students multiple opportunities to make connections between mathematics and the real world. Students analyze and interpret mathematical concepts through exploration and cooperative work. This curriculum further enhances their abilities as they apply their knowledge and strengthen their basic skills.

Project-based learning is at the center of the second-grade learning experience, and students culminate every project with a demonstration of skill mastery through writing, art, and presentation. With a focus on economics and service, second graders expand and deepen their connections to a greater understanding of community. Each year, students focus on a service project by identifying a way they can make a difference in the community.

The students build an understanding of the scientific method through a study of the senses, matter, food chains and webs. In addition to learning science concepts, the Second-Grade science curriculum helps students develop responsibility and group work skills. Second graders culminate their food chains and webs study with an overnight field trip to the Riverbanks Zoo or another similar experience.

The second-grade literacy curriculum builds upon the spiral curriculum of kindergarten and first grade, continuing the work of increasing text complexity through independent and guided practice. They also become secure in skills they need to understand their own reading habits, strengths, and interests so they can, for example, go to the library and choose their own books. Students participate in shared reading and novel studies and respond to literature through reading response journals. Students write for a variety of purposes and continue to develop an understanding of the writing process. Rubrics and peer feedback groups are introduced to guide students through the process of revising their written work.

In math, second graders are exposed to a variety of strategies to solve problems. Learning that there are multiple ways to problem-solve allows them to choose their best path. The Bridges math program helps students to secure and expand upon basic math skills by applying their knowledge to explorations and games. 

Our community grows and expands for third graders as they explore and study the entire state of South Carolina. Students study factors that help shape a community, region, or state. Science is integrated into the study of our region when students learn how natural resources encourage growth and movement of communities. Students strengthen their science skills during Third Grade by developing a hypothesis, conducting research, and forming conclusions. Guest speakers and field trips around the Lowcountry give students a real-world connection to these topics.

In reading, students spend the year exploring different types of literature such as poetry, letters, non-fiction, realistic fiction, and historical fiction texts.  In writing, students use the literature being studied as texts to model their own writing. Students write their own poetry, letters, non-fiction, fiction, and historical fiction. Students use writing to strengthen their penmanship and the mechanics of grammar while supporting their growing vocabulary and writing skills. As students continue to compose their own pieces of writing, their revision skills grow as well.

In math, the emphasis is on applying previously mastered skills such as fluently adding and subtracting with 20 and expanding students’ math literacy to include fluent multiplication fact recovery. Students practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills through a wide variety of mathematical content such as geometry, measurement, and algebra. Math tools and manipulatives are central to the Third-Grade math experience, utilizing the Bridges math program.

Mastery of key concepts in all subjects is shared with members of our CCS community throughout the year using visual and verbal formats of communication. Students write persuasive papers, display research results using charts and graphs, create informational posters, and speak to groups in order to share their mastery of learned concepts.

CAPSTONE is a unique and innovative program developed for our 4th and 5th grade students as they slowly transition from elementary to middle school.  Students are given ample time, encouragement and support to grow both academically and socially into caring, thoughtful and confident scholars. 

Fourth graders work to build academic perseverance. Students expand their community knowledge to the national level by exploring the United States of America through five themes of geography, leading to an understanding of what unites us as Americans and what makes us unique. In reading, 4th graders share and respond to a variety of literature including biographies, historical fiction, mysteries, adventure, short stories, and non-fiction. In Word Study the focus is on Greek and Latin roots.

Fifth grade is a time for children to hone their intellectual independence. Students draw on a repertoire of ways for reading closely, noticing how story elements interact, understanding how different authors develop the same theme, and comparing and contrasting texts that develop a similar theme. Students focus on three critical areas of mathematics: fractions, decimals and volume.  The entire year of global studies leads up to an amazing, fully-immersive experience in Washington, DC.