Curriculum Overview
Reading
Teachers design the reading instruction at CNH to offer multiple opportunities every day for students to read and discuss their reading. Generous amounts of time are dedicated to helping children grow in their abilities as readers, writers, spellers, and communicators through a variety of interesting activities relevant to the children, their projects and studies, and their developmental stages. The goals for language and literacy instruction at CNH are for children to become independent and productive readers who enjoy reading and who recognize its relevance in their lives.
Art
Inspired by the schools of Reggio Emilia, the arts are an essential component of our educational approach – not an add-on, but a connecting point to involve and challenge students in their entire academic and creative evolution. The arts permeate the CNH community, where the halls are designed to showcase drawings, paintings, poems, and constructions by students. Artistic expression is admired, respected, and honored.
Math
Think Math! is a comprehensive kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum that provides high-quality mathematics for all children. Think Math! does not pit skill against problem solving. Rather, it builds computational fluency through plentiful practice in basic skills as students investigate new ideas and solve meaningful problems. Lessons provide glimpses of ideas to come, letting students build familiarity and develop conceptual understanding as they apply, sharpen, and maintain skills they already have.
Social Studies
Each year, students at CNH will explore three overarching themes. These themes will serve as the primary focus in social studies, but will be integrated when possible into other areas of the CNH curriculum. Each theme lasts approximately thirteen weeks (the length of one trimester) and culminates in a school-wide celebration of learning.
Science
Full Option Science System (FOSS) modules begin with hands-on investigations, then move students toward abstract ideas related to those investigations using simulations, models, and readings. FOSS provides long-term inquires for each grade level, and the modules build upon each other toward the grand ideas of science.