Elementary School
Elementary school prepares students to develop critical and divergent thinking.
At St. Luke, our elementary school is a warm, welcoming place where children experience great joy: from the moment they enter our doors each morning, through morning prayer and weekly Mass; as they play in daily recess; create in art and music classes; serve others in the community; learn about the Catholic faith in religion classes; and grow and develop in their core academic subjects with their homeroom teachers.
Our students learn under the loving and watchful guidance of our outstanding and innovative teachers who are well-versed in adolescent emotional development, differentiation and subject integration practices. They are focused on delivering a responsive and challenging curriculum that meets the unique needs of all learners.
Learn More About Our Elementary School Curriculum
In first grade, students are in a transitional stage where they begin to think about the world logically, develop concrete thinking skills, and increase their ability to reason. Our students use a balanced literacy approach to encourage students to be successful in reading. Sight words, spelling words, word families, and vocabulary are the focus of the reading program. This approach allows for reading achievement while enriching phonics, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, and writing skills. The MyMath curriculum includes lessons in addition and subtraction strategies, greater than/less than, basic geometry, fractions, place value to one-hundred, solving word problems, measurement and estimating, and making and interpreting graphs.
By second grade, students begin to utilize abstract thinking and reasoning. They have developed basic skills, which they now use to learn more about the world. They express their ideas in complete sentences and begin to write with more depth and complexity. With their increased ability to observe and make predictions, hands-on experiential learning in both individual and group settings takes on new meaning and is regularly incorporated into science and social studies, with a focus on project-based STEM programming.
Third through fifth grade is a time of intellectual expansiveness. In response to students’ increasing aptitude, ability to engage in abstract thought, and keen interest in discovery and exploration, classes become departmentalized. Our students are given opportunities to further develop their increasing independence and to take ownership of their learning in all areas of study with a focus on building organizational, time management, and study skills.
Students at every level discover passions and develop talents through rotational classes of art, music, Spanish and technology. Weekly visits to the library and daily recess enrich the education of the whole child—mind, body and spirit.