Lower School (Grades 1-5)
Dear Current and Prospective Students and Families,
Allow me to extend a warm welcome to the AIM Academy Lower School! Spanning Grades 1-5, the Lower School serves as the entry point to the AIM learning community and introduces students to the essential skills and strategies they will use throughout their scholastic journeys.
Our elementary curriculum celebrates inquiry and creativity as pathways to meaningful academic and social-emotional growth. Nurturing classroom experiences and positive relationships between teachers and students are the bedrock of our program. Each day, we strive to create a school culture that invites children to reflect on their unique learning styles and to take active roles in acquiring new knowledge. Our talented and tireless teaching team uses research-informed practices to ensure that all students receive systematic, explicit, and multi-sensory instruction in foundational skills.
Having worked in public, private, and charter schools over the course of my career, I can confidently say that there is something magical about AIM. At the Lower School, learning comes to life through our Interactive Humanities program as students participate in immersive investigations ranging from the origins of the Earth to the Italian Renaissance. Evidence of joyful learning and boundless student engagement is visible everywhere you look - from the music room to the Makerspace!
We hope this site will provide you with a glimpse into the vibrant daily life at the Lower School, and we welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you might have after exploring it.
Kind regards,
Maura Pritchard
Fearless & Future Ready
A Strong Foundation for their Academic Journey
Developing crucial foundational skills in reading, writing and math is the main focus of instruction in the Lower School. To accomplish this, individualized goals are set for each student, progress is monitored and assessed weekly and instruction is adjusted to ensure academic achievement.
- For example, in the fall, all students participate in benchmarking assessments to determine appropriate placement for reading, writing, math and Wilson Language Training® instruction. If it is determined that the child will benefit from phonics instruction, he/she will join a Wilson Language Training® reading group. If the assessments show that a child would benefit from more intensive instruction in reading comprehension strategies, the student will take a Comprehensive Literacy class that focuses on higher order thinking skills, including visualization and inferencing strategies.
In order to enable students to learn more easily and to retain concepts more effectively, teachers present information using visual, auditory and kinesthetic techniques. In addition, students are immersed in classes that mimic real-world situations and require them to find solutions to real-world problems.
- For instance, all Lower School students participate in daily Interactive Humanities classes in which history, social studies and geography concepts are learned through multisensory instruction and activities. Classrooms are transformed to mimic the time in history being studied and students assume the role of historical characters wearing historically appropriate costumes. They engage in opportunities to apply what they learn as they solve problems and interact with their classmates to make and use simple tools, to trade cattle in return for food, or to guard their castle from a hostile takeover.
