Core Curriculum
Our developmentally driven program of instruction is the product of collaboration between teachers and content specialist. Teachers rely heavily on resource-based materials (Saxon math, Orton-Gillingham Phonograms, National Geographic Language Arts, Waldorf folklore, fairy tales, and fables, literature selections, periodicals, teacher-created lessons, field trips/field study, resident artists/professionals, community resources,) to deliver holistic Head, Heart, & Hands main lessons.
The focus is on developmentally appropriate, full sensory academic rigor using brain-based, arts integrated delivery.
Skills & Attributes
Treeside students develop meaningful skills in social and academic realms, with the opportunity to develop an awareness of their innate artistic and creative abilities through our arts focus. Students become creative problem solvers, sophisticated in interacting cooperatively, resolving conflicts peacefully, researching/analyzing data, and engaging in a school environment society while being challenged to achieve in the core basics of reading, writing, speaking, listening, critical thinking, computing, reasoning, and solving mathematical problems.
Learning Environment:
supports questioning, experimentation, self-expression, creativity and appropriate risk-taking
encourages multi-disciplinary and cross-curricular study
models and requires high-level thinking skills and communication skills, including synthesis and analysis
models continued learning, interest and enthusiasm
models reflection and self-assessment
is meaningful and memorable, and promotes depth of learning (as opposed to memorization only)
creates opportunities for knowledge to be applied to real-world contexts
provides a variety of ways for students to engage in coursework and in the school community
Curriculum Highlights:
Standards based instruction presented through "I Can" statements : "I can use reasoning to decide when to multiply or divide to solve word problems."
Project-Based Learning
Nature-Based Learning
Integration of the Arts to deliver core concepts
Multiple Assessment Methods
Specialists in music, visual art, science, movement, technology, and dance that teach from state standards in collaboration with teachers to compliment units of study and further integrate the arts cross the curriculum
How We Teach
Art, Music, Movement
AN ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO LEARNING
Fundamental to our approach is the insight that children learn differently at different stages of development. This means that how we present content is carefully chosen to work in harmony with the phases of the child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development thus giving children meaningful experiences at every age.
MAIN LESSON
The cornerstone of the day is the Main Lesson, an active and kinesthetic two-hour instructional period focusing on the core curriculum: math, language arts, science and humanities. Lessons are theme based and always include multiple objectives. Main lessons are cross-curricular: math is taught during a language arts lesson or science is integrated into history. This integration decreases the compartmentalization of information and increases understanding of how concepts connect.
WE USE THE ARTS TO DELIVER CORE CONCEPTS
The arts, including storytelling, movement, music, poetry, drama, drawing, painting, modeling, reading, and writing are incorporated in every Main Lesson.
Students record and illustrate what they have learned in Main Lesson books. What begins as a blank journal becomes an individual record of experiences, observations and gained knowledge, along with hand-drawn illustrations, and written reflection of learned content. As a portfolio of work, a student’s Main Lesson books reflect key objectives and skills a student has learned, while also displaying the student’s inspiration.
