From fourth through sixth grade
The final building block in creating serious thinkers who are agile, responsible and inquisitive.
In seniors, our upper elementary program, the next stage of study flows naturally from everything established in juniors – the lower elementary curriculum that has fully prepared our students with the basic skills of reading, writing and math.
The three-year senior class cycle further develops these skills and integrates them into daily work. While the senior environment is rich with manipulative materials and hands-on activities, it is during these final three years that students transition from learning with physical materials to learning abstractly. They extend their boundaries of understanding once again – able now to admire the wonders of the world from a different point of view.
Senior objectives
Accountability
Independence and personal responsibility are high on the list of goals for seniors. Students learn how to evaluate themselves in academic, social and emotional areas, preparing them for presenting their own self-evaluations to both parents and teachers during a twice-yearly conference session.
Positive habits
Good work habits are continually reinforced. Students learn time management strategies as they organize and prioritize their assignments in order to complete them by their due dates. Music, art, drama, physical education, health and kitchen science are also integrated into the curriculum.
Accelerated studies
Seniors focus intently on academics. Reading comprehension, grammar and writing are expanded and refined. Daily math incorporates basic operations with whole numbers, fractions and decimals along with concepts of measurement, geometry and beginning algebra. Cultural and science subjects in particular are emphasized.
Where independence happens, naturally.
Continuing the cycle
CMH’s Loveland campus is packed with diverse and natural outdoor opportunities, allowing seniors to use our eco-learning lab for extended studies in the biological sciences. Children work in groups and gain extensive experience with research projects and class presentations.
Social skills are also highly emphasized. Students develop the vital skills needed to make and maintain friendships, practice resolving conflicts, understand the value of community service, and learn how to be active and contributing members of a community.
The third level (sixth grade) in seniors is considered a transition year – students are introduced to the experience of grading and are prepared for the more traditional approaches to learning likely to be encountered after leaving CMH. They learn to work from textbooks in both history and math, and practice strategies for taking tests.
At CMH, each classroom is structured to be a microcosm of the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in seniors, who at this final level have become a true community that successfully works together to assign roles, solve problems and learn from mistakes.