Intermediate Level Curriculum Overviews

Language Arts

In intermediate language arts, we look at what the children already know and then help our students strengthen their skills and expand their knowledge. Independent reading is at the heart of language arts in the intermediate grades. To maximize growth in this area, we enlist activities that help students read on their own, become more facile at reading, and begin to see with the eyes of the author. We teach and practice strategies that are used by successful readers and examine why these strategies work. In language arts we also focus on writing to learn, writing across the curriculum, and the process of writing. Students attain developmentally appropriate skill with the physicality of writing and letter formation, spelling and punctuation. We begin to work on automaticity and speed, using writing as a tool for learning and expressing oneself. The best way to learn anything is by doing it, by being able to initiate and repeat the process in a different situation, and by keeping the skills in context where there is a need to use them correctly and efficiently.

Mathematics

Undergoing revisions---coming soon.

Science

At the intermediate level, we believe that science is about developing and sustaining curiosity. Through advancing one's ability to frame questions about the physical world, building and testing hypotheses, conducting investigations, and consulting reference work, students are lead to understanding the basics of scientific inquiry. In short, we hypothesize, experiment, refine, observe and draw conclusions. To develop the idea that scientific inquiry is reflexive, reflective, and on going, students keep and maintain science journals where they not only collect and record data but reflect upon the process itself.

Social Studies

At the intermediate level, we focus the child’s awareness of society by introducing traditional areas of social studies instruction such as cultural and physical geography, formal history instruction, and basic concepts of citizenship and government.  We pursue these goals through inquiry based instruction and research.  We expand on the primary level’s presentation of social studies as the study of the world in which we live, work, and play by conducting research-based projects, presentations, map making, and group work. We believe that process, skill, and content are of equal importance. 

Spanish

Similar to and building upon the primary Spanish program, the intermediate curriculum focuses on the students’ overall communicative abilities. The students are in a total immersion setting and emphasis is placed on the students’ ability to read, write, listen, and speak in the Spanish language. Thematic units for each level are based on the ACTFL National Standards and often relate to subject material being taught in other content areas. At the intermediate level, students will complete a unit based on their “home and family” and will also explore “Ocean Life in the Caribbean.”

Art

Intermediate children build upon their earlier understanding of materials to explore a sense of self, a sense of others, and a sense of place.  This is a time when their skills and understanding of media properties flourish.  They actively engage in “world making”:  individually and with friends they create both real and imaginary worlds inhabited by real or imaginary people and animals.  Multicultural explorations are connected to social studies units.  Children explore their cultural heritages and construct knowledge about the art objects and artifacts of divers cultures, past and present.

Music

The music curriculum in the intermediate grades continues the development begun in the primary years.  All children participate in a choral experience, developing the ability to sing in a group.  Partner songs, rounds and two-part harmonies are performed at this level.  Elective instruction on band instruments begins in the 4th grade and includes the opportunity to play in a concert band.  Intermediate children learn to read basic tonal and rhythmic notation and use these skills to play instruments, and listen to and sing music from a variety of genres and cultures.

Physical Education

The intermediate students follow a similar pattern as the primary level but with activities that are more complex and more specific.  More time is given to manipulative skills, sport skills and games, cooperative challenges and fitness activities.  Students are encouraged at every level to respect, cooperate, and motivate themselves and others.  In addition, good sports manners and following rules/directions are essential to their learning.

Library

Undergoing revisions---coming soon

Technology

At the intermediate level, Falk School seeks to encourage and reinforce a student’s natural desire to strive, experiment, and work collaboratively with age-appropriate technology hardware, software, and curriculum. Integrated projects reinforce learning concepts and add new dimension to children’s developing thought processes. With an emphasis on creativity and authentic learning, the intermediate student will engage in meaningful projects that allow use of varied technological tools and processes. Intermediate students begin to move beyond the concrete technology skills to a modest expansion of ideas and challenges in readiness for the middle level.