Lower School Dean
Welcome to Lower School!
I’m so glad you are here to learn more about our Lower School division. As the Dean of Lower School, I have the privilege of witnessing every day the growth, curiosity, and joy that fills our classrooms and hallways and the dedication and enthusiasm from the staff that guides our students.
In Lower School, we focus on building strong foundations academically, socially, and emotionally. Through play, inquiry, collaboration, and hands-on experiences, students learn to think critically, take risks, build community, and embrace challenges. Our teachers create developmentally appropriate, joyful learning experiences that nurture independence and confidence in some of our youngest learners. Technology, the arts, and the natural world are thoughtfully integrated throughout our curriculum to support both creative and intellectual growth.
We invite you to discover what it means to grow not just academically, but more courageous, joyful, and connected at IDS. We hope to have the opportunity to share more with you soon.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Responsive Classroom is an approach to building class community, addressing misbehavior, and establishing a positive learning environment. Strategies are developmentally-informed and student-centered. Practices such as Morning Meeting, Interactive Modeling, Logical Consequences, and Closing Circle help to cultivate strong community relationships. Students cultivate greater emotional intelligence as they engage in lessons using Second Step and The Zones of Regulation.
Kindergarten curriculum
Math
The Math in Focus program provides Kindergarten students with real-world connections to their math work, a hands-on approach, and the opportunity to deeply explore each concept. Lessons follow a concrete-pictorial-abstract progression using manipulatives, pictures, diagrams, and symbols to promote deep understanding. Students practice verbalizing their mathematical reasoning, monitoring their own thinking, and assessing their attitudes toward math as they progress toward more sophisticated concepts.
Social Studies
Harnessing the innate curiosity of this age, lessons explore themes such as identity, community, local geography, and basic economics. Throughout our studies, students are encouraged to view issues from multiple perspectives, challenge bias and prejudice, and embrace diversity.
Literacy
Kindergarten students build their identities as readers, writers, and communicators. In support of this development, multiple lessons are provided each day to instill a sense of excitement, curiosity, and wonder about language. Using Fundations, students are given explicit instruction in phonics and phonological awareness, building a strong sense of the relationship between sounds and letters. As the year progresses, students apply this understanding to increasingly complex text, building fluency and comprehension skills. Synchronous with these developing reading skills, kindergarteners become authors, crafting stories and notes about meaningful events and topics and writing for multiple purposes and strengthening handwriting using the Handwriting Without Tears program.
Grade 1 curriculum
Literacy
In Grade 1, students build strong foundations in reading and writing. Through the Fundations phonics program and interactive literacy workshops, students strengthen their decoding, spelling, and comprehension skills. Whether they’re discovering new books, creating their own stories, or playing word games, literacy in our classroom is active, hands-on, and fun. Students learn to express themselves through writing, develop their reading stamina, and gain confidence as independent readers and authors.
Social Studies
Students explore their place in the world around them, building on their work in Kindergarten and expanding perspective beyond themselves. Through comparison of family, school, and community, students explore multiple perspectives from the past and today. The disciplines include Geography, History, Civics, and Economics. Learning for Justice is also a resource used to supplement learning about a range of anti-bias, multicultural, and social justice topics. Students engage in learning through stories, songs, games, and crafts.
Math
Grade 1 uses Math in Focus to teach five key aspects of mathematical problem solving: Skills, Concepts, Processes, Metacognition, and Attitudes. Topics include Numbers 0-120, Addition and Subtraction within 10-100, Shapes and Patterns, Calendar and Time, Length and Weight, Graphs, Money.
Grade 2 curriculum
Math
Grade 2 students demonstrate fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 20 and apply their understanding of place value to add and subtract multi-digit numbers. They also develop foundational skills in measurement, collect and interpret data through graphing, and explore the properties and relationships of geometric shapes. Most importantly, students will persevere in solving problems!
Social Studies
Grade 2 students explore the world around them through the lens of community, culture, and connection. They learn about the roles people play in their communities and how cooperation and responsibility help them thrive. Students study Native American cultures, gaining an appreciation for their traditions, history, and relationship with the land. Through geography, they discover maps and landforms, while basic economics introduces them to needs, wants, goods, and services.
Reading
Grade 2 students apply grade level phonics when decoding and become fluent readers, understand the structure of a story, and recall key details. Students identify the main idea in informational texts, as well as understand text features. Additionally, students build their stamina in independent reading throughout the year.
Writing
Grade 2 students learn to write across a variety of genres, including narrative, informational, and opinion pieces. They strengthen their use of writing mechanics and grammar, learn to craft fluent sentences, and practice organizing and elaborating their ideas with greater detail.
Grade 3 curriculum
Reading
Grade 3 students increase comprehension by building their reading skills. They begin to reference the text to support the answers to questions, describe characters in a story, use context clues to understand meanings of unfamiliar words, and compare and contrast themes, settings, and plot.
Writing
Grade 3 students begin to expand their writing through narratives, informative and explanatory texts, and write opinion pieces. They learn how to use effective techniques to write more clearly and with vivid descriptions. They also conduct a mini research project to build their knowledge about a specific topic.
Math
Using Math in Focus, Grade 3 students dive deeper into multiplication and division problems and develop an understanding of fractions as numbers. They practice measurement and estimation skills involving time, liquid, volume, and mass. They also begin geometric measurements of perimeter and area.
Social Studies
Grade 3 students engage in a year-long study on the development of the United States. They analyze the impact of geography, economics, and government structures to study the history and society of Connecticut and neighboring states.
Grade 4 curriculum
Reading
Grade 4 students start the shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” That means they access more complex texts together during read-aloud and shared reading instruction. This builds strong comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. During read-aloud lessons, fluent reading is modeled and students are guided in analyzing complex texts that are often above their independent reading level, allowing students to engage in rich discussions about characters, themes, and author’s craft. Shared reading lessons give students the opportunity to read grade-level texts together with teacher support, practicing strategies for decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Students deepen their understanding of literature and informational texts while developing the skills and confidence they need to become independent, lifelong readers.
Writing
Grade 4 instruction emphasizes building strong, independent writers through a balance of modeled, guided, and independent practice. Lessons are designed to connect directly to the reading curriculum so that students use knowledge from texts to inform their writing. Students develop skills in opinion, informative, and narrative writing, with an emphasis on crafting well-organized paragraphs, supporting ideas with evidence, and revising for clarity and detail. Daily writing opportunities encourage fluency, while structured lessons provide scaffolds that help students grow as confident, capable writers who can express their ideas effectively across genres.
Mathematics
Grade 4 students engage in whole class, small group, and one-on-one lessons based on what they need and where they are in their mathematical understanding. Using Math in Focus, students build computational fluency, problem-solving, and mathematical discourse. Some topics include multi-digit computations, factors and multiples, lines and angles, and unit conversions.
Social Studies
Grade 4 students explore the world and their place in it through geography, history, and civic understanding. Students learn how to read, interpret, and create maps. They explore world geography, with a focus on major mountain ranges, landforms, and how geography shapes cultures and communities. They research a U.S. state, studying its history, geography, economy, and culture. This project develops research skills and strengthens understanding of the diversity across the nation. In addition, they connect time and place to investigate key periods of American history including the Civil Rights Movement, the Industrial Revolution, and Immigration.
