LOWER SCHOOL

Educating Kindergarten Through Grade 5

A Rashi education begins by cultivating the natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning in every child. In their formative years, children learn to understand the world around them through observation, exploration, and inquiry. Learning is hands-on, not only in the classroom but on our 162-acre campus—with the Charles River, walking trails, a pond and vernal pool right in our own backyard.

The Lower School comprises Grades Kindergarten through 5 and enables elementary-aged students to acquire foundational skills – the building blocks – of learning. We pride ourselves on our expertise in differentiated instruction: we meet each student where they are and challenge them to move out of their comfort zones. As students mature, classes explore increasingly complex ideas and concepts while building independence and personal and academic responsibility. Rashi Lower School faculty help students understand themselves as learners and adopt strategies that suit their individual learning styles.

Our classes lay the groundwork for lifelong learning. From the play-based environment of Kindergarten to the increased rigor of Grade 5, Rashi fosters the intellectual, social and emotional growth of every child and prepares students for our academically rigorous yet supportive Middle School.

Lower School Curriculum

Grade

Our Classroom Model

At Rashi, we believe that children learn best with the right balance of nurture and challenge, in an environment where they can interact with a variety of peers. We believe in a community of diverse learners, intelligences and personalities.

The Lower School utilizes a collaborative teaching construct where students learn from, and model themselves after, a team of faculty working together. Designed to support students’ academic, social, and emotional growth, this environment promotes risk-taking, flexibility, adaptability, empathy, and resilience. Students check in with a teacher each morning, participate in a morning meeting, and are then grouped flexibly throughout the day. There are times when the entire grade is together, and there are times when students work in small homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Students have plenty of peer choices. Our student:teacher ratio is approximately 7:1, spanning classroom teachers, Lower School generalists, learning specialists, division directors, and other faculty. Grades K-5 are supported by both a literacy specialist and a numeracy specialist who work directly with children and the grade-level teachers to design innovative, student-centered lessons in language arts and math.

    Think Math
    Lower School students learn mathematics through the Think Math! curriculum. Think Math! develops conceptual understanding, builds skill fluency, and connects problem solving with reasoning skills. Students explore mathematical ideas, develop and test conjectures, and explain and justify their thinking in studying number systems, operations, geometry, measurement, statistics, probability and algebra.