Language Arts is integrated throughout the program at LFS. Writing and reading are viewed as interconnected and woven into other subjects through a thematic approach. Literature from the classroom, school, and local libraries provides the foundation for the reading program. Novel Study groups spark independent reading, analysis, and meaningful engagement with text. Cultural awareness, social justice, history theme, and students’ diverse experiences inform the choice of literature for the classroom. 

The Fundations Curriculum-Wilson’s Language Training is incorporated in the 1st through 3rd grades. This program supports students in developing phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.

Students are encouraged to see themselves as authors. Through the language arts program, students have the opportunity to develop their writing skills across genres, including journals, narratives, informational writing, fiction, letters, reading reflections, and note-taking. Mentor texts provide students with examples of authors’ craft. Students draft, revise, edit, and publish their own writing. In each classroom, there is direct instruction in vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and handwriting.

The goal of our Social Studies curriculum is to inspire students to become informed global and local citizens, instilling a sense of responsibility and the power to uphold the Quaker Testimonies in the world. This work is centered on developing students’ understanding of geography, economics, history, culture, interdependence, the role of conflict and change in human growth, citizenship, and service learning. Students gain experience with map skills, timelines, critical thinking, exploring their own and others' perspectives, analyzing primary source material, engaging in thoughtful discussion, and advocacy. 

A three-year cycle that includes civilizations from Africa, Oceania, Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, recognizing the true history of human development in each global region, guides the thematic curriculum in the elementary classrooms. Themes vary during the course of the year. Whenever possible, language, literature, social justice, science, math, music, and art are integrated into the themes. 

In mathematics, teachers implement the Open Up Resources Math Curriculum. It is a student-centered, problem-based curriculum that emphasizes collaborative learning, real-world problems, critical thinking, and student discourse to build conceptual understanding and a positive math identity. Students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics through shared reasoning, discovery, and structured learning routines that include embedded practice and spiral review. In addition, mathematical concepts are explored through math games, problem-solving, cooking, and practical life experiences. Our goal is to empower students with a profound understanding of numbers, the tools to solve problems in novel situations, and a sense of joy and excitement about math. 

Through questioning, hypothesizing, and investigating, our science curriculum ignites students’ innate curiosity and passion for the world around them. Hands-on experiments and projects help students develop the skills of a scientist, including observing, predicting, measuring, classifying, interpreting, and communicating. STEAM challenges are incorporated in the curriculum, inviting students to participate in the engineering design process by asking, imagining, creating, testing, and improving. Topics in Elementary science include environmental and life science, physics, and chemistry. Students in each grade participate in our LFS science fair, where they showcase their age-appropriate investigations, experiments, and projects. 

Lower school students will work with Spanish songs, stories, and games to get them interacting with the language in an immersive and conversational context. The Spanish curriculum is developed with native speakers and new learners in mind, to accommodate all members of the Lancaster community. Students will be involved in Spanish 4 times a week for 20-45 minutes in each class.

Through games and conversations, new vocabulary will be regularly introduced to learners and will be continually reinforced with continued interaction. The goal of the Spanish curriculum is to make students excited about and familiar with the language, and to build foundational conversational skills that will aid them in further language development.

We chose to focus on Spanish as a world language to serve the Lancaster community, and to better equip our students to be active and knowledgable global citizens.