Academic Excellence

Reading
By focusing on oral comprehension, fluency, and expression, Eighth Age reading class aims to develop critical thinking skills, such as making inferences, drawing conclusions, and predicting outcomes. Using the Houghton Mifflin reading series, trade books, and Smiling Hill Farm, children are taught to understand story structure and develop comprehension skills as well as expand their vocabulary through reading strategies. Children are also taught to understand text and recognize key information.

Writing
Children produce compositions weekly in Calvert Script using formal steps in the writing process; prewriting, thought organization, drafting, and editing. The mechanics of writing are taught through the correct use of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. Children write fiction and non-fiction papers, poetry, letters, and compose basic research reports.

Spelling
Children use Everyday Spelling, a supplemental program which teaches spelling based on the common parts of words and emphasizes frequently used and frequently misspelled words. The program is enriched by the Calvert Spelling computer program.

Mathematics
The Math Connects series used at this grade level builds upon content from prior years. Children continue to be grouped by developmental readiness, and practice addition and subtraction with increasingly larger numbers and then move to multiplication and division facts later in the year. Fractions, measurement, geometry, place value, and statistics are also covered. Problem solving is integrated within each skill area.

History and Geography
Using the Famous Americans text, children experience United States history through the lives of men and women who have helped shape our nation through their acts of courage, leadership, generosity, creativity, and strength. Stories of presidents, explorers, writers, artists, and inventors inspire students to learn more about the important individuals and events of our country. Additionally, in Geography children study the Earth and how people live and work focusing on five main areas: location, place, human/environment interaction, movement, and regions.

Mythology
Ancient Greek culture is explored through the storytelling of myths, creation of Greek clothing, and an assortment of games and audio-visuals. Mythology class meets weekly and is taught using specially developed materials and enrichment materials.