Primary

First and Second Grades

 

The Primary student is entering a significant new stage of development, signaled by the change of teeth, lengthening of the body and limbs, and the emergence of new faculties of memory and the imagination. Where the majority of a child’s energy has been employed in physical development over the first seven years, this energy now becomes available in the form of newfound cognitive abilities and an emerging sense of the self as an individual in the world.

 

School Day: 8:20 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. with the option of Extended Day through 5:10 p.m.

 

Language Arts

A balanced approach is most effective in children’s reading and writing development.

For reading, writing, and phonics, teachers use Reader's and Writer's Workshop curricula, developed at Columbia University’s Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

Below are key elements of our rich and balanced language arts program:

Show More

Mathematics

At Nantucket Lighthouse School, we use Bridges in Mathematics developed by The Math Learning Center. Math in the Primary grades focuses on forging meaningful connections between what children understand conceptually and the conventional symbols and procedures used to represent mathematical concepts.

Show More

Social Studies

Diverse projects that incorporate writing, reading, math, and science, and field trips provide children with both imaginative and hands-on personal experience.

Show More

Science

Investigating animals and plants and the concept of a habitat; recording observation of Nature through writing and drawing; growing vegetables and herbs; composting and recycling
Show More

Physical Education

Weekly Physical Education classes include exercising gross motor skills through running, jumping, hopping, climbing, balancing. There is an emphasis on collaborative games and good sportspersonship.

Music

In First Grade, students learn longer songs with multiple verses and sections, as well as shorter rhymes and repetitive songs.  Musical selections include songs from the American folk canon, popular music, and songs from around the world. Students usinstruments more specifically than they did last year, playing the western musical scale up and down on a xylophone and learning the names of the tones (e.g. do, re, mi, fa, sol). They also play games to reinforce feeling and creating a steady beat, both independently and in a group. Students also start to become familiar with musical notation, learning to identify high and low, as well as rhythmic notation. 

 

In Second Grade students learn songs that have multiple verses and sections. Musical selections include songs from the American folk canon, popular music, and songs from around the world. Students use instruments, playing short melodies and fragments of songs on boom-whackers and xylophones, as well as percussion instruments such as drums and rhythm sticks. Students play musical games to reinforce feeling and creating a steady beat, both independently and in a group. Students also review and expand their knowledge of musical notation.