Lower School Academic Highlights

The pre-kindergarten program instills a love of learning by nurturing and encouraging the development of the whole child. The program supports the development of the child spiritually through daily devotions, prayer, and Chapel. It promotes personal intellectual growth by exposing students to a language rich environment, problem solving opportunities, and hands-on activities. Social and emotional growth is encouraged with opportunities to learn intentionally through role-playing and classroom interaction. Physical growth is strengthened as students experience fine and gross motor activities in the classroom, on the playground, and through direct instruction during physical education enrichment.

Pre-kindergarten students are excited to learn foundational language arts skills as they are introduced weekly to the Letterland characters. Letterland offers a comprehensive curriculum that integrates knowledge across various subject areas focusing on oral language, phonological/phonemic awareness, print awareness and alphabetic knowledge. The Pre-K program content and themes incorporate math, science, social studies, health and safety, art, music and movement activities that are interactive and age appropriate for our youngest Warriors.

Highlights in pre-kindergarten include Apple Day, Teddy Bear Picnic and the Letterland Parade. The International Day continent studied through the year is Australia.

St. David’s kindergarten provides children with a strong foundation for future success while creating a secure, nurturing environment. Kindergarten students experience a developmentally appropriate curriculum, integrating different learning styles through academic and hands-on activities as well as utilizing various technology resources. 

The kindergarten Language Arts program is phonics based, integrated with reading, writing, and literature. Students enjoy meeting letter characters as they learn phonics skills presented though the Letterland program. Kindergarteners develop math skills using manipulative materials, games, and hands-on activities. 

Science and Social Studies concepts are taught through thematic units that are relevant, engaging, and fun. Students engage in weekly science experiments joining friends and teachers from other classes, building community and friendships through exploration. St. David's kindergarten students can be found singing, dancing, creating, building, and learning together.

Highlights of kindergarten include Wonka Day, Super Science Fridays and Buddy activities with our fourth-grade students. The International Day continent studied through the year is Asia.

In first grade at St. David’s School, we encourage continued curiosity and wonder about God’s world by providing an environment that fosters a love of learning. Hands-on learning combined with more formal instruction taps into the increased focus and attention span of this age group and enhances their collaboration and engagement.

Letterland continues through first-grade with activities that engage students to extend their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and strategies they need to be successful readers. This combined with our writing curriculum helps students form effective reading habits, and further understanding of the connection between reading and written expression. The first-grade mathematics curriculum focuses on problem-solving skills using a continuum of concrete, pictorial and abstract allowing students to better understand how numbers relate and to articulate answers. Students learn number sense, problem solving, and math fact fluency through individual, center-based and differentiated small group instruction.

In science, first graders learn to observe, compare, classify, gather data, measure, make predictions, hypothesize, and infer outcomes using a hands-on approach with various resources to enhance knowledge in the areas of plants, animals, weather, force and motion. The social studies curriculum helps students become more responsible by learning to be good global citizens. The curriculum also gives students an opportunity to explore their community, town, state, and country. They learn about local, state, and national government and geography through map and globe skills. 

Highlights of first grade include the Thanksgiving presentation and the Mother’s Day Tea. The International Day continent studied through the year is Europe.

Second grade at St. David’s is characterized by providing opportunities that encourage increased student independence and the continued development of communication skills. Students are guided to increasingly connect learning from curriculum disciplines and thoughtfully navigate interpersonal relationships during collaborative experiences.

Second grade students learn to decode multi-syllable words of increasing complexity accurately and efficiently. They continue to refine the accuracy and fluency of their oral reading with appropriate intonation and expression. Reading comprehension strategy instruction accelerates in second grade as students learn to take greater responsibility for monitoring their understanding of texts. Students actively engage with different texts by making predictions and connections through participation in small group discussions. With a strong phonics foundation from Pre-kindergarten culminating this year, students can read closely, connect what they are reading and articulate their comprehension through writing. Writing instruction is focused on organization of thoughts, planning, drafting, and editing to produce a written product that clearly communicates a main idea. Various writing genres, such as informational, opinion, narrative and creative writing are explored. Second grade continues the hands-on and interactive approach to mathematics instruction found in the earlier grades. Second grade builds upon fundamental concepts learned in first grade and continues to use the concrete, pictorial, and abstract continuum to introduce and practice concepts. Through a spiraling approach, students develop a deeper understanding of numbers and operations with language that helps them articulate understanding of connections. Second grade students build number sense and learn relationships among numbers. The use of manipulatives continues to be an integral part of the second-grade curriculum, as students connect abstract concepts of place value, regrouping in both addition and subtraction, and comparative values of fractions to concrete understanding. 

Through individual and cooperative learning assignments students develop essential skills in life science, earth science, and physical science. Students develop a broader sense of citizenship within a community and examine basic economic principles. In addition to exploring the basic principles of government, second grade students extend their understanding of historical references, and learn to differentiate between events that took place long ago and more recently.

Highlights of second grade include the Winter Tea, the culminating activity of a manners unit, the Charlotte’s Web County Fair and field trips to Blue Jay Point and the Planetarium. The International Day continent studied through the year is South America.

Third grade at St. David’s inspires learners to reach their full potential by facilitating independence and building a solid foundation of academic skills, strategies and behaviors. Students gain confidence in their academic abilities while building interpersonal skills through cooperative tasks.

Throughout this transition year, reading skills shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Using a variety of genres, students master strategies to enhance fluency, comprehension and analysis. The fundamentals of grammar, mechanics, and sentence structure are further honed and applied through reading responses and writing products with vocabulary acquisition increased using the Wordly Wise curriculum and vocabulary learned through novel studies. Mathematics instruction emphasizes the concrete, pictorial and abstract continuum leading to the clear understanding of concepts in the areas of numeration, operation and computations, data, probability, geometry, measurement, decimals, fractions, and spatial sense. Multiplication and division are concepts that greatly benefit from our emphasis on math-fact memorization through active engagement. Our program is rich in problem solving and students are encouraged to use prior knowledge to find multiple solutions to everyday problems.

Third grade scientists develop a love of science by exploring topics in earth and life science through hands-on experiences. Students work cooperatively using the scientific method to investigate the natural world. A central focus of the social studies curriculum is citizenship and government, with an emphasis on colonial America and their quest for independence. Students learn the states and capitals, major landmarks, and the branches of national government. Students showcase their learning on Presidents’ Night as they research a president, draft a speech, and present to parents in the Performing Arts Center.

Highlights of third grade include Presidents’ Night and field trips to Old Salem and the North Carolina Zoo. The International Day continent studied through the year is North America.

Fourth grade is the capstone of the Lower School experience at St. David’s School. The curriculum reflects the changing nature of the students’ learning styles with faith, virtue and knowledge are further developed through leadership roles and relationships.

The language arts curriculum emphasizes the continued development and proficiency in decoding, comprehension, literacy genres, analysis, listening skills, and critical thinking. These skills are taught using novel studies, oral reading tasks, and current non-fiction resources. Through the study of grammar and writing, students produce various types of products, such as essay, poetry, response to literature, and narrative composition. Students are presented with new vocabulary through the Wordly Wise program and in the context of literature. Fourth grade mathematics challenges students to problem solve and critically think through innovative and collaborative grouping. Through the continued progression of concrete, pictorial and abstract representations of a math problem, students discern, analyze and articulate understanding of mathematical processes. Students develop number sense and fluency with algebraic expressions, fractions, decimals, and geometry. Math fact fluency is learned through active engagement and healthy competition.

Our social studies program focuses on North Carolina’s past, present, and future. Emphasis is placed on geography, economics, and cultural events, which have shaped the state’s history. The use of primary sources, map skills, technology and integration with the literacy and science curriculum appeal to the students’ understanding of current events and past events. Field trips within the state deliver a hands-on approach to learning North Carolina history. Fourth grade science focuses on world-wide ecosystems, forces and motion, and adaptations of living things. Students investigate energy, vibrations, sound, and circuits through hands-on lab opportunities. Using the scientific method, students learn to record their observations, summarize their discoveries in a culminating science research project.

Highlights of fourth grade include participation in the weekly Chapel services, Buddy activities with kindergarteners, and exploring North Carolina with two signature field trips, one by train to the Science Museum in Charlotte and one to the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and surrounding islands. The International Day continent studied through the year is Africa.