Elementary Overview

Overview

Our pillars and goals are met through the entire Elementary School in the following ways:

There are no bells or buzzers to start or end the school day; teachers cue the students’ transitions using music, movement, verses, and hand-clapping patterns. Teachers recognize that transitions are challenging for students. Teachers place a great deal of emphasis on ensuring they are done gently and gradually.
All Elementary School students spend a great deal of time outside, in all weather, in our own playground and in local parks. We also ‘bring the outside in’ by bringing plants into our classrooms, telling nature stories, and featuring the natural world in all aspects of our curriculum. Older Elementary students take day trips and overnight trips that feature outdoor education lessons and activities.
Activities such as book buddies, our Festivals (three times a year), and multi-age community care projects bring students in different grades of the Elementary school together; the relationships between younger and older students are encouraged as we recognize they support students in their appreciation of the value of community.
Parents and caregivers are invited into the school and are a valued presence. They support all types of classroom activities, such as guiding handwork and building activities, doing presentations related to their areas of interest and expertise, celebrating student achievements, and chaperoning students during field trips.
Developmentally appropriate circle practices are a part of each grade. In the younger grades, these circle activities highlight music, movement, games, and the recitation of verses. In the older elementary grades, circle practice may consist of practicing for an upcoming play or performance, discussing an upcoming event, sharing reflections of a past event, or serve as a setting for restorative work when a challenging social scenario has arisen in the classroom and there is a need for whole class input.
Early grades feature an art-focused approach. Young students’ first response to a lesson is an artistic one: they draw, paint, model, sing, dance, skip, or act the lesson. Older students practice some of the handwork skills, and/or make art, and/or cook food and/or build structures connected to the various cultures they study in social studies, and drawing is featured throughout their curriculum.
Storytelling, featuring culturally sustaining themes, is an integral part of each grades’ curriculum.
Guest speakers, and field trips that support all aspects of the curriculum are frequent events. Students attend concerts, ballet, theatre, museums, parks, playgrounds, and other recreation facilities.
Students perform classroom chores at the end of each day, reinforcing the idea that they are part of a classroom community and that they play a role in maintaining an uplifting classroom environment.
Periods of silence happen at each grade level: younger students often draw and/or paint in silence allowing for each student to become immersed in the process. These activities have a meditative quality. Older students usually have a silent reading period each day.
Computer technology is not a part of the Elementary students’ daily school experience; Hydrostone Academy focuses on human relationships and interactions, fostering classroom communities and compassionate citizens.