We have one classroom for each of the grades two through five, with co-teachers (one full-time and one part-time) in each room. Though there are about 24 students in a class, you will rarely find all of them in one room sitting and listening quietly to their teachers. Often, half the children are in the homeroom, while the other half are in art, music, computers, physical education, French or Spanish, or the library. Sometimes students work independently, or in smaller groups, or with teachers. Always, they are actively engaged in the process of learning.

During these years, children learn to use language with increasing skill and pleasure, focusing on speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Formal reading instruction begins in first grade and continues into second and third with an emphasis on the Phono-Graphix program. Appreciation of literature's power and forms goes hand in hand with comprehension. Children write frequently, read their work to others, and revise and edit.

Mathematics is another language for describing and understanding the world. We call on children to search for spatial and numerical relationships and patterns and to solve problems creatively, articulating the process as well as the solution.

Teachers center activities around major themes, usually in science or social studies, that help integrate children's work in seamless ways. When first graders study life cycles, for example, they might observe butterflies and cocoons, count larvae, experiment with hatching, read stories about insects, and write about and draw what they have learned. Fourth graders' exploration of American immigration delves into related geography, history, science, art, and literature, as does the second grade's study of Native American cultures and the fifth grade's study of ancient China.

Children in the elementary grades interact with younger and older students in all-school assemblies and in a multitude of activities planned with partner-classes. They learn to be supportive of classmates and to seek peaceful means of resolving disagreements.