Lower School

The key to effective communication is the mastery of language arts. Our approach provides students with ample and meaningful experiences to read, write, speak, and listen. Over the course of the lower school program, students learn to:

• Enjoy and recognize the purposes of a variety of literature and writing styles
• Explore a range of genres
• Demonstrate and utilize comprehension strategies
• Understand and incorporate literacy devices and the elements of story
• Apply standard conventions of spelling, punctuation, and grammar
• Develop a personal style in writing and speaking
• Use the writing process to plan, draft, edit, revise, and publish writing

At AOS, we use a conceptual, age-appropriate approach to mathematics. Students learn to explain their reasoning verbally and through the use of concrete and pictorial models as well as written expression. Students practice applying mathematical concepts to games and real-life problem-solving situations. Through the mathematics curriculum, students:

• Develop and practice numeration skills
• Practice algorithms for various operations and computation
• Explore methods for collecting, displaying, and analyzing data
• Measure using standard and non-standard units
• Identify and describe geometric shapes
• Develop an understanding of fractions as numbers
• Use patterns, functions, and algebraic thinking to solve problems
• Utilize a range of strategies to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills

Physical activity is a core tenet of our mission statement. With reportable benefits to structured and unstructured play, our lower school students enjoy both recess and P.E. daily. 

Through twice daily physical activity, students:

• Obtain desirable social behavior and increased levels of self-awareness
• Establish positive behaviors that promote higher levels of health
• Develop appropriate levels of personal fitness and an understanding of the importance of physical activity

Through weekly religion classes, teachers nurture the whole student through the teachings and practice of Jesus Christ, the traditions of the Orthodox Christian Church, and the many lessons of the Bible. Learn more about Greek Orthodoxy and what it looks like at AOS.

Students attend Greek as one of their enrichment classes. As an enrichment course, it does not aim for fluency or immersion but instead exposes students to the language, ancient and contemporary Greek culture, and mythology.

Kindergarten, 1st-, and 2nd-grade students receive 30 minutes of instruction once a week. Third-grade students receive 30 minutes of instructions twice a week, and fourth-grade students receive one hour of instruction once a week.

In the lower school, students attend science as one of their enrichment courses. The science program strives to encourage curiosity and to develop student confidence in scientific methods and skills as they apply to the students' lives and in their communities. 

Kindergarten and 1st-grade students attend science once a week. Second through fourth-grade students attend science twice a week.

Lower school students spend time each week engaging in curriculum-aligned STEM activities in our STEM lab/maker space, the Eureka Lab. The STEM initiative at AOS includes a blend of scientific investigation and discovery, coding, robotics, building, engineering, technical design, and technology skill development. Instruction in the STEM areas promotes design thinking, self-motivated problem solving, and collaborative idea development.

As enrichment courses, art and music introduce lower school students to the fundamentals of those two mediums. Offered as separate classes once a week, students develop their artistic expression and have opportunities to perform and present their work.

The Second Step Social-Emotional Learning program is a research-based, teacher-informed, and classroom-tested curriculum designed to promote the social-emotional development, safety, and well-being of children. It teaches the skills that support social and emotional competence at developmentally appropriate levels for our students in prekindergarten through 4th grade.

To learn more about the wellness and social-emotional programs in the lower school, view our Lower School Wellness page.