Lower SchoolMission Hackley sets high standards for its Lower School students, encouraging them to work diligently through a dynamic, developmentally appropriate program that emphasizes the traditional disciplines. Its curriculum also stresses the importance of an appreciation of music, art and drama. Consistent with Hackley’s mission, the curriculum fosters mutual respect, discipline and an emphasis on strong conceptual foundations and basic skills. The School believes that projects, field trips, and "hands-on" activities also enhance daily instruction. Interdisciplinary projects are common. Across the disciplines and the grades, students are taught how to learn and are given ample opportunities to develop essential study skills and a personal work ethic. Community service, environmental awareness, science, international studies, foreign language, and geography are integral aspects of the curriculum. The Lower School seeks to relate courses to the students’ experiences. Concerned with the social and emotional wellbeing of the individual student, Hackley firmly believes that its younger students can be happy, enthusiastic, and creative while learning to write, compute, and reason.
The program is designed to develop the ability to read, write and speak with fluency, expression and understanding. Students learn to read, question, and write as they begin to appreciate a variety of literary genres. The English Department seeks to promote skilled, enthusiastic readers and writers using strategies that progress from Kindergarten through fifth grade, including the following:
The program enables the progressive acquisition of effective reading and writing skills. Students are encouraged to appreciate the interrelationship of reading, writing and speaking. Kindergartners begin to build words and write simple sentences in their own journals; by fifth grade, students produce both expository and creative writing. Each year builds on foundations established in prior years to assure continued challenge and increasing proficiency and sophistication. Teachers strive to connect mathematics to the everyday experience of students, using real-life problems, and to provide a solid foundation for learning higher level mathematics. Through classroom activities, students develop facility with both the mechanics and the underlying concepts of various mathematical ideas. The school is equipped with a large assortment of manipulative materials (Cuisenaire rods, geoboards, counters, tangrams, etc.) to provide the students concrete experiences as topics are introduced, and help in the transition through various levels of abstraction. Topics in the mathematics program include:
The program reflects the importance of mathematical literacy throughout the grades. As students participate in mathematical activities, they learn to value mathematics, develop confidence in their mathematical abilities, become competent problem solvers, and learn to reason and communicate mathematically. The history program helps students understand their place in society, beginning with the family unit and local community. In successive grades, students explore progressively broader historical, social and geographical contexts. Students are encouraged to question the world around them and to use the diverse resources available to them in order to formulate and present ideas. The curriculum provides opportunities for the study of many different cultures and geographical regions. Students engage in research at every level, beginning with investigating the origin of one’s given name in Kindergarten, and building to more abstract projects in fifth grade, such as determining impact of the ancient world on modern humankind. Some of our history units include:
The curriculum emphasizes an interdisciplinary appreciation for history through relevant literature, music, art and drama. Studies often culminate in special projects and presentations that tie together various historical, cultural, artistic, and even culinary aspects of the units. These activities throughout the Lower School promote an appreciation and enthusiasm for history while highlighting material learned and fostering student interest and involvement. These opportunities also allow each grade to share their learning with other grades. Field trips and presentations are integral to the Lower School history experience. Science is taught in all grades at Hackley. Students in the earliest grades start with topics with which they can have first-hand experience. Opportunities are provided that will engage their interest and stimulate them to ask questions about their surroundings. Teachers encourage them to collect and begin to organize information, enable them to seek reasonable and logical explanations or hypotheses, and help them participate and begin to set up experiments to prove or disprove their explanations and findings to adults and peers through oral and written summaries. Students learn and apply the scientific method at increasing levels of sophistication to major areas of study including natural phenomena, living organisms, and simple machines, as follows:
Hackley’s 285-acre campus and the G. Carl Buessow Memorial Nature Trail provide ample facilities for students’ investigation of the natural world around them. Students also explore the Hudson River ecosystem. Hackley’s Health Coordinator provides periodic instruction and educational activities at every grade level. Students learn about nutrition, hygiene and healthful living, and gain an understanding of their own bodies and growth. The program evolves into a more formal health education program in the fifth grade, when students learn about the physical and emotional changes inherent to human development. Other topics, including AIDS awareness and the dangers of the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs are also covered. In the Hackley Lower School, the curriculum employs technology to provide resources, to access information, and to teach critical thinking skills in support of the School’s mission. Technology is not an end in itself, but rather a means to enrich the academic experience. Students use technology as a tool for research and for the presentation of information, and to enhance areas of independent study. Technology is integrated with the curriculum and supports classroom lessons and activities. A Lower School coordinator assists students and faculty in using technology throughout the curriculum. Each classroom is equipped with three computers, which are connected to the school-wide network and to the Internet. The classrooms are also equipped with printers, and teachers have access to scanners, projectors, and digital cameras, that are all used to help enhance the Lower School curriculum. In addition, each class has access to a wireless mobile computer lab, where students and teachers can work on collabortive class projects. The Lower School library program supports and reinfrces classroom learning and offers a supportive language and literary experience. In addition, the Library serves as a resource center for students and teachers.The Head Librarian and the staff regularly collaborate with teachers on projects in each grade. Students are scheduled for weekly library visits, usually devoted to reading a variety of literary works and participating in related actiities. The library curriculum teaches library and information skills and fosters a love of reading by providing a collection that supports a wide range of individual reading interests and maturity levels. The Lower School Spanish Program begins in Grade 3. The course aims initially to enable students to express themselves in the language and to understand spoken and written Spanish. During the first year, simple writing exercises will be integrated into a curriculum that is based essentially on oral activities. Daily lessons and materials seek to bring the cultures, as well as the language, of the Spanish-speaking world into the classroom. Students attend classes three das each week. The Lower School art program seeks to enable all students to develop age-appropriate aesthetic sensitivity through individual and cooperative group projects. Principles of design such as line, form, texture, color and space are explored through a variety of two and three-dimensional experiences. Our art program often correlates with classroom curricula. Students develop skills that enable them to interpret non-verbal ideas creatively, to broaden their understanding and appreciation of other cultures and periods, and to develop discriminating aesthetic judgment. Our music program is an integral component of the Lower School experience. It promotes an appreciation for music as a discipline and as a vehicle for personal expression. Students explore singing, rhythmic development, and creative movement. Children are taught to identify such musical elements as rhythm, pitch, melody, and harmony as well as the study of musical notation and sight reading. To facilitate this experience, students participate in chorus and learn to play Orff instruments and recorders. Beginning in the fourth grade they may elect to participate in group study of instrumental music. Traditional performances include:
Students in grades K-5 may opt to enroll in private instruction at the Hackley Music Institute. Athletics play an important role in the total Hackley educational experience. Contributing significantly to individual development and to campus life, sports help focus the student’s pride, encourage participation, and build a strong sense of community, while fostering the ethics of hard work, fidelity, and courage. Sports offer a necessary release for a student’s natural exuberance while promoting physical fitness. The Lower School physical education program is essentially pre-athletic. It seeks to develop in each child cooperation, poise, leadership, self-control and self-confidence as it builds physical, mental and social growth. In particular, the physical education instructors aim to develop gross motor skills, directionality, hand-eye coordination, balance, agility and aerobic fitness. In fourth and fifth grade the program also prepares student for later involvement in team and individual sports activities, with emphasis on participation, sportsmanship and teamwork. All Lower School students participate in daily physical education classes including weekly seasonal swimming instruction. LEAP Extended-Day Program (Learning Experience Activities Program) Hackley Lower School offers extended-day and after-school programs. If parents need after-school care for their children, grades kindergarten through five, they can enroll them on a per diem basis Monday through Friday from 2:20 until 6:00. If the weather is good, children play outside. On Monday through Thursday, students who have homework must begin completing their assignment at 2:45. A classroom is designed as a homework room, and a teacher is there to supervise. In bad weather, arts and crafts, indoor games, videos and other activities are offered. Parents may pick up anytime before 6:00 p.m. Late fees are charged for late pick up. The after-school program offers courses in such areas as art, pottery, chess, computer, foreign languages, science classes and non-competitive games. Each class meets once a week for eight to ten weeks, usually from 3:00 to 4:30 PM.
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