Dapper in their little blazers and Saint David’ s ties, on May 9 the Alpha boys stood on stage in the Otto- Bernstein Theatre with poise, confidence, and an excellent sense of humor. As they presented the story If You Give a Mouse a Muffin, authored by Laura Numeroff, these five-yearold boys demonstrated their learning by actively applying all they had practiced this year including public speaking, teamwork, sportsmanship, and of course, kindness. No man was left behind. If a boy forgot a prop or a cue or a line, his peers jumped in to support. In this moment, the Alpha boys so acutely represented the holistic rigor of Lower School at Saint David’ s.
As she so beautifully shared in her post on TBI’ s The Wisdom Within blog series earlier this year, master teacher Cathy O’ Neill reminded us that as boys begin their educational journey, play is paramount. It is through the movement from parallel to cooperative play that boys learn to communicate with each other, navigate social situations, manage interactions, and harness the tool that is their own voice. This is the basis for the instruction that will follow in years to come that includes fluency, comprehension, and problem-solving skills both academically and socially. It is in moments of play at the pre-primary age when teachers can support boys in developing these skills, so that they are more prepared to adequately navigate their learning and more complex social dynamics throughout their development. Furthered in their Athletics classes, cooperative play and sportsmanship are emphasized in a way that supports gross motor development, coordination, and body awareness. Mastery of this is the precursor to introducing boys to the rules and skills required to play and enjoy various sports, which begins in first grade.
Research and experience tell us that through play and other transitive factors, boys connect better to their learning. At Saint David’ s, our teachers continuously study best practices in teaching boys, applying them on a daily basis. In Lower School mathematics, boys engage in hands-on activities and group work to build their problemsolving skills, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency. Students use visual models and manipulatives to make sense of mathematics and have opportunities to apply what they learn each day. During Morning Meeting, boys practice counting by different quantities, identifying patterns, sequencing, and other mathematical skills. In the pre-primary years, boys have additional time to practice and develop their math skills during math centers. Teachers tailor the activities to ensure that each boy is appropriately challenged.
Through mathematical conversations with their teachers and classmates, the math classrooms are abuzz with vocabulary and explanation as well as visual representations of concepts. Boys bring their wonderful intellectual curiosity to all mathematical investigations, through a program designed to engage and stretch them.
This“ humming” in the classroom resounds throughout the day and can be sensed when you walk into a reading classroom and listen to a boy as he reads a book for the first time. There is nothing more rewarding for an educator than to be visited by a kindergarten boy, book in hand, asking to sit and read it aloud, proudly displaying his first success at independent reading. Throughout Lower School, reading and writing are taught in small groups ensuring that instruction is tailored to meet boys’ needs. Expert reading specialists provide individualized instruction that appropriately challenges each student. Our curriculum emphasizes phonemic awareness, phonics, reading comprehension, and as the boys progress, fluency. Beginning in pre-kindergarten, daily practice with foundational skills, sight and trick words, guided reading of a range of genres, including non-fiction and children’ s literature, and spelling rules expands to meet each boy. This is accompanied by writing instruction during which boys use pictures, words, and complete sentences in order to tell a story. At the end of first grade, boys regale their families with the time-honored Saint David’ s original play based on the antics of the character Rotten Ralph from Jack Gantos’ s books. To culminate the performance, boys join their families in the audience to read their very own version of a Rotten Ralph tale, a full book written and illustrated by each boy.
This poignant moment not only celebrates the tremendous writing journey of the boys but also serves as a reminder that even at the end of first grade, boys are not too old to cuddle up with their parents to read a good book!
Lower School boys, even those who deny it, are still little boys. They thrive with consistent routine and clear, concise explanations. At these developmental stages, boys still need direct instruction in the area that to many of them is the most important aspect of their day- their friendships. Socialemotional development is at the forefront of our spirituality pillar and is taught weekly through a focused and carefully considered curriculum we call Sophrosyne. The unit themes are strategically designed to address common interpersonal dilemmas that arise at each particular grade level. By directly instructing the boys on topics such as kindness, integrity, self-control, social intelligence, teamwork, and sportsmanship among others,
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