Lower School (Grades 1–4)

In the Green Acres Lower School, we know—and wholeheartedly concur with child development experts—that children learn best when they are fully engaged in purposeful learning.

Think with creativity.

Lean into curiosity.

Learn by doing.

Program overview

Academics

The Lower School program exposes students to exciting investigations that allow them to wonder and refine their thinking. A combined focus on learning collaboratively, while also building on the individual skills of students, helps them solidly grasp age-appropriate concepts.

A great deal of emphasis is put on the essential skills of writing, so critical to academic achievement across multiple disciplines, as well as life beyond school.
In social studies and thematic studies, students explore topics such as families, reptiles, oceans, migration, friendship, Native Americans, the early settlement of America, world geography, celebrations around the world, and rain forests.
As mathematicians, students investigate mathematical ideas and engage in analytical thinking through meaningful, hands-on activities. They sort and classify blocks at clean-up time or record the number of monarch butterflies emerging from chrysalides.
For science, the woodlands, stream, gardens, and fields of our campus present students with rich opportunities to observe and investigate the world around them and explore scientific principles. The Lower School science program balances a study of life, physical, and earth and space sciences.
Spanish language study begins in pre-k. Students not only enjoy gaining acquisition of a second language, but they also become immersed in learning about Spanish culture as it pertains to a variety of countries where Spanish is spoken.

Social development

The Lower School is centered around teaching students to be responsible, thoughtful, and independent in both their academic work and in their relationships with others. Through work in the classroom, within classrooms and units, and in discussion with individuals, the relationship between freedom and responsibility is highlighted.

Our students learn what it means to be accountable for personal choice—that, with freedom, there is the opportunity to take risks, but also accountability for decisions made and actions taken. Children are frequently given choices as a way to exercise independence and to support their interests. Additionally, students are expected to behave in a caring and compassionate way toward others and to act with care toward their school environment.

The close connections between students and teachers foster an atmosphere of honest, trusting communication where children are invited to voice their opinions and to learn the art of actively listening to the perspectives of others. Students in the Lower School have many opportunities to practice being part of a community through class meetings or Kid Talk. Students participate in forming classroom guidelines at the beginning of the year to support the development of student agency and investment in shared expectations for community norms. As problems develop, adults and students solve them together. Teachers support children as they work through problems, suggesting alternative solutions, if necessary. Children are encouraged to make choices and expand their ability to be responsible for their actions.

Intentional practices

As experts in child development and progressive education, Green Acres teachers are skilled at delivering a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for the students they teach. On a programmatic scale, the Lower School experience is intentionally designed to create an educational journey that is grounded in best practices in child development.

For example, homework is intentionally tiered with different expectations at different grade levels. Guided by research, we do not assign homework until 3rd grade. This gives children the space to "be kids," introducing additional academic responsibilities only once they have reached the age at which they are equipped with the necessary maturity, energy, and organizational skills to handle them successfully. In the 3rd and 4th grades, homework is designed to reinforce concepts and develop the study skills and personal responsibility that will ensure success with more advanced coursework as they progress in their academic studies.

We believe that assessments that are grounded in authentic learning experiences provide the best snapshot of a student's academic growth, and our teachers gauge student progress and skill mastery through a variety of assessments, tasks, projects, and assignments.

Lower School curriculum

Click a tile to learn more about each subject.

Student and teacher work on math together

Lower School touchstone experiences

A touchstone experience is an experience that makes learning at Green Acres unique and transformative.

Literature-based reading program & Writers' Workshop

The literacy approach that Green Acres teachers use immerses children in quality literature, which engages them and motivates them to read more. Participation in book clubs and guided reading intertwine to challenge children and to promote in them a love of lifelong reading. Our teachers use the "Writers' Workshop" model, in which children follow a series of steps that professional authors use: generating an idea, producing a first draft, editing, conferencing with peers and teachers, publication, and sharing. This multi-step approach enables children to engage actively in doing what “real writers” do. The motivation that children feel when they self-select writing topics that are meaningful to them makes them love writing and consider themselves writers with important messages to convey.

Integrated, thematic curriculum with a special emphasis on the arts

At Green Acres, we know that children acquire knowledge best when what they learn connects across disciplines and subject areas, as well as to what students already know. That is why, when students are studying a topic, the music, art, creative movement, science, and Spanish teachers use those topics to create lessons in their own disciplines that relate to those themes. For example, when 1st and 2nd graders study the ocean in their homecorner class, they create ocean animals during their art class. Research shows that connected learning leads to deeper learning, and integration is the perfect vehicle for forging those connections.

Students on the move

We all learn best when we are given consistent opportunities to move. Green Acres students move as they transition from building to building on our wooded 15-acre campus. They play outdoors twice a day on playgrounds designed to match their physical development. Our students enjoy physical education classes several times a week, and 1st and 2nd grades participate in creative movement, as well. At a time when many schools are decreasing children’s opportunities to move, Green Acres heralds moving as a vital part of children’s growth. Deep learning requires an active mind and an active body!

A long tradition of knitting & quilting

Quilting has been part of the fabric of Green Acres School's culture since the 1980s: 3rd graders stitch quilts each year as part of their study of early settlements; 8th graders sew decorative banners commemorating their Green Acres experience; and staff create quilts to celebrate the lifecycle events of their colleagues. These quilts symbolize the value that Green Acres places on artistry, collaboration, and community. Likewise, all 3rd graders learn to knit, and community members from multiple generations are welcomed to partake in this cherished tradition. Children's creations, typically hats and scarves, are donated every year to populations in need who enjoy and benefit from these gifts.

Monarch butterfly study & waystation program (grades 1 & 2)

Each fall, for over 50 years, students in 1st and 2nd grades have gathered monarch eggs and caterpillars, watched them metamorphosize into butterflies, and released them for migration. In recent years, we have tagged the butterflies and submitted our data as part of a national study of the migration. Green Acres' 1st and 2nd graders help to address the problem of endangered monarch migration (due to climate change and habitat loss) by participating in the Monarch Watch project. Our campus is a monarch waystation, providing host plants for larvae and nectar plants for adult butterflies—resources monarchs need to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Year after year, our students become deeply invested in the wellbeing of the monarchs, finding immerse joy upon receiving confirmation that some of the butterflies from our very own campus have successfully completed their journey to Mexico.

Trip to the Sultana & St. Mary's City, followed by an on-campus "late night" (grade 3)

Green Acres’ focus on hands-on experiences brings history to life. Third graders travel to Chestertown, MD to board, sail on, and learn about the Sultana, a replica of a schooner that moved along the North American coast in the late 18th century to ensure compliance with the tea taxes, which played an important role in the lead-up to the American Revolution. Students also journey to Historic St. Mary’s City to see, firsthand, the first colonial settlement in Maryland, learning about how the early settlers and native Americans lived. These experiences provide students with an in-depth understanding of the early American settlements through programming built upon authentic historical experiences. Third graders conclude this study with a “late night” at Green Acres, complete with colonial square dancing and time to reflect on their learning.

Overnight trip to Hard Bargain Farm (grade 4)

All 4th graders participate in an overnight at Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek, MD. Students experience life on a working farm by learning about the environment, agriculture, and history by engaging in hands-on activities, ranging from milking a cow to studying marsh life. The farm encourages students to “jump right in,” and we expect everyone to get muddy in the marsh and grubby in the barnyard! In addition to being a memorable learning and bonding experience for 4th grade students, this one-night trip is a way to get their feet wet for the many multi-night outdoor educational overnights students participate in during their Middle School years.

People are always encouraging you to take the lead. It doesn't matter that you're a kid—you're not too young to change the world. Julia '22, Sandy Spring Friends '26