Curriculae

Daily Schedule

Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade

At West Branch School, we acknowledge the individuality of our students and recognize that each child is at his/her own stage of development socially, emotionally, and academically. Our non-graded program is designed to honor the uniqueness and individuality of each student, allowing a child to progress at an appropriate rate, based on demonstrated abilities. Each student can then be challenged at a level determined by skill rather than age or grade.

Our goal is to nurture, guide, and teach the whole child. Learning at West Branch School is an integrated experience. This means that our academic program is complemented with a social curriculum that helps the child to develop interpersonal skills within a loving, safe, and caring environment. Respect for others and self, character-building, and global awareness are all recurring principles within our social curriculum.

At West Branch School, we utilize Everyday Mathematics, a comprehensive and rigorous program developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project. This is a hands-on approach to math that integrates into our overall approach quite well. Everyday Mathematics emphasizes the following content areas: numeration and order, operations, data and chance, geometry and spatial sense, measures and measurement (including use of tools, coin and currency skills, etc.), reference frames (clocks, calendars, thermometers, time lines, etc.), patterns, functions, sequences, algebra, and uses of variables.

The Science curriculum at West Branch School focuses on the interconnectedness of all things. Through hands-on projects, students embark on the journey of understanding the world in which they live. Each year a particular branch of science (i.e. Earth science, Life science, Physical science, etc.) is highlighted, although the learning each year is in no way limited to that particular area of study. Regardless of the focus, certain projects are undertaken every year, including Monarch Watch (in association with the University of Kansas) which is the raising, tagging and releasing of monarch butterflies through the complete life-cycle; maple sugaring (in which the children attend a local field presentation of the process and follow-up with an on-campus tree-tapping project which concludes with the boiling down of sap into syrup); an embryology study (during which the students incubate and hatch poultry eggs perhaps chicken, pheasant, quail, etc); plant study (which includes planting seeds both indoors for observation and an outside school garden); and an annual Science Fair project.

Social Studies are integrated into every aspect of learning. Awareness of and appreciation for other peoples and cultures, geography, map skills and history are all emphasized in our daily learning.

The Language Arts curriculum in the downstairs of West Branch School strives to maintain a balance of early literacy experiences which include: reading aloud to the children, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, shared writing, interactive writing, and independent writing. We incorporate real life experiences and often student initiated interests in our curriculum. We have formal assessments three times a year. We use a variety of resources, however, the core of the curriculum is based on the Four Blocks Literacy Model and the Wright Group Sunshine Skills Guide Grades K, 1, and 2. The writing program implements The Wright Group Writing Kit (Early Emergent and Upper Emergent) and Kid Writing: A Systematic Approach to Phonics, Journals, and Writing Workshop by Eileen Feldgus and Isabell Cardonick.

The Art curriculum for the younger students at West Branch School emphasizes exposure to a multitude of materials. We often incorporate an art project with a project in another academic area such as making papier mache volcanoes or clay animals for a science diorama. Creative expression is an integral part of our curriculum. The dramatic arts flourish as well with reader's theater, skits, mime, plays, puppet shows, story re-enactments, and public speaking.

Third through Eighth Grade

The larger West Branch School community already seems to be actively involved in making this school year an energetic, productive, caring, and communicative one. The Upstairs student dynamic is in the fascinating process of discovering itself. Early experience with multiple groupings and varied problem-solving situations has been nicely fostering this self-discovery, and we all seem poised to tackle the challenges ahead. We continue to strive to meet the underlying Big Seven Goals of each year's program. These are to do the following:

The upstairs teachers, Steve and Sandy, have created a schedule of learning situations that should prove particularly compatible with the requirements of our students' age ranges and capabilities. We are continuing to capitalize on our team-teaching skills by including individualization and smaller group work within a series of core-curriculum presentations. We are also aiming to keep a very tight time schedule in order to accommodate even grander academic schemes.

Each morning consists of specific time slots dedicated to skills. Note that we have added a Writing Workshop time on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday that provides an additional writing time with more immediate feedback. Note also that Wednesday mornings after break, all skills are integrated in our extended Theme time. In Theme, we have increased opportunities for experiences such as multi-groupings of older and younger children, research projects, presentations, decision-making sessions, and problem solving situations. While time slots are tighter,we naturally modify activities within the subject matter and maintain an eye to flexibility appropriate to abilities, personalities, and special circumstances. Some application times are included within the classes this year (rather than setting aside a separate application period), giving children a start on homework or relevant in-school projects. Friday mornings, after math and before Writing Workshop, are a time for spelling tests, Mad Math Minute, Mad Maps, quizzes, challenge games, and week review. We also take time to summarize current events, Scholastic News articles, and Time news bits.

Morning meeting is always extremely important in the Upstairs. During the first fifteen minutes, assignments, daily business, and personal announcements will be the emphasis for the entire Upstairs group. Morning meetings often include social studies and science-related discussions along with short shots in many other areas. Please, please, please have your child at school on time to be present shortly before the beginning of meeting. It is a hardship for teachers and students alike when information is missed. Morning Meeting begins at 8:45 and ends at 9:30. We view it as an actual class.

Lunch, as usual, will be extremely busy with more than lunch. Students often get involved with projects, computer assignments, writing assignments, or field games for half of the period. As you have learned from the Nag Rag, pizza days will be Tuesday and Friday. Children with specific permission slips may still go to Newberry Plaza during lunch on any day. After lunch, around three days a week, we shall add a reading time (D.E.A.R. Drop Everything and Read), with independent or group reading (Buddy Reading with a Downstairs child on Mondays, sometimes oral reading to the whole group, sometimes working in a small group with one of the teachers). Friday afternoons (see basic schedule) are teacher meeting times twice a month. In an attempt to foster more exchange between the Upstairs and the Downstairs, some afternoons will bring the possibility of activity choices with various teachers in the school. Sometimes Downstairs children will be working with Upstairs children. On Thursdays, Julie will be taking different groups downstairs for pottery experiences. On Tuesdays, Liz Narcisi will be working with the Upstairs in our life science studies. Thursday and Friday afternoons will also sometimes include small group field trips pertinent to our science and social science thrusts along with science and social science projects and/or phys ed. Our afternoons will be full of projects that combine all the skills we have been learning and might be Theme-based, community-based, current event-based, writing-based, math-based, language arts-based, science-based, social studies-based, music-based, or drama-based (again, see the enclosed schedule for an example of a week).

As you look at our curriculum pages here, please understand that these are broad pictures and that we really accomplish even more than what you see. Our fund raising activities, for example, involve each child in some part of our juice, frozen treat, pizza, and school store purchasing/selling scenario with all the required decision-making and record keeping. The project encourages skill integration. Also, when viewing our curriculum pages, please look at the listed topics horizontally. Because we teach at a variety of levels in multi-group settings, discovery and learning is not a strict vertical ascent. There are trickle downs and trickle ups (if you will) as well as amoeba-like envelopments, probings, and digestions that present an actual landscape of understanding. When we teach nouns, for example, the basic understanding of common and proper nouns and their plurals might be all that is required of one student while the challenge of learning compounds, collective nouns, masculine-feminine-neuter-common gender nouns, gerunds, and infinitives might be appropriate for another student. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Similarly, not all students will divide fractions this year. Some students simply are not expected to be ready for that. Those who can, will.

We encourage your inquiries and questions about how to understand our nongraded program. The Upstairs plan is a dynamic, successful, progressive one that can extend through middle school. Because this is a developmental program, and because the process is one that builds, we feel (and many former parents have acknowledged) that the pivotal sixth-grade age year is very important. We repeatedly find that children who complete this sixth-grade year at West Branch School are maximally equipped in both social and academic realms.

Special Programs

Monarch Butterfly Project

Monarch Watch is an educational outreach program of the University of Kansas. Its goals are: to further science education, particularly in primary and secondary school systems; to promote the conservation of Monarch butterflies; and to involve thousands of students and adults in a cooperative study of the Monarchs' spectacular fall migration.

Monarch Watch is a collaborative network of students, teachers, volunteers and researchers dedicated to the study of the Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus. The project is directed by Orley R. "Chip" Taylor and staff within the Entomology Program at the University of Kansas.

Each year the students of West Branch School participate in the Monarch Watch program. Each of the students prepares a caterpillar cottage and places a caterpillar (3-5 days old) in it. The students then feed and observe the caterpillar for approximately 2 weeks. The caterpillar pupates and remains in its chrysalis stage for 12-14 days. Upon the emergence of the butterflies, the students place a tag (with tracking number and University of Kansas identification) on the butterflies and release them to begin their migration to Mexico. The students record pertinent data (tracking number, release location, gender of butterflies, etc.) and submit the data to the University. The monarch study is incorporated across the curriculum and provides an endless array of interdisciplinary applications. Participation in a real scientific study is exciting and motivating for the students.

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