ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The Elementary students at The Foundation Academy are well rounded in their academics and their exposure to the performing and applied arts.  Our current enrollment includes Kindergarten through Sixth grade.  Cooperative learning is used where children work in a group using different roles to collaborate and learn.  Centers are also used within the classroom.  This allows the children to have many activities to choose from while working on a specific subject.  Portfolios are used instead of a term exam.  This encourages the students to look back on the folder for the term and select certain pieces to include in their portfolio. They in turn introduce the selection and reflect on the process of the final product.  Rubrics are tools used to assess individual learning styles as well as recording day-to-day observations.

Our students are actively involved in community outreach.  They make monthly visits to local health centers bringing cards, songs, smiles and lots of love.  Currently, they are participating in the school’s can food drive for the homeless as well as raising monies for the tsunami victims.  We use the local city park for our recreation time.  The Students do a clean up every week or so as a way of saying “Thank you”.

We include the Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes as part of our program in our tutoring lab.  We have Child Development students who assist the classroom teachers.  We encourage peer tutoring in the classroom.

The Foundation Academy Elementary students have a wide selection of electives:
                             
·        Art – drawing, painting, pottery and crafts
·        Spanish – Everyday vocabulary as well as conversations
·        Dance – Students are learning dances to go with their chorus music
·        Chorus – Students are working on a musical journey through the decades
·        Recorders – Students learn to play folk tunes
·        Violin – The Suzuki method is used
·        Piano – Class setting with theory and composition
·        Guitar – Class group learn styles of music
         Computer Lab – Availability for class use
                

Grades K - 4  

Classroom Centers:  

      Promote independence

      Help students become more responsible

      Students learn through self discovery

      Provides small group learning

      Provides teachers with time to work with small groups to target

      Builds specific academic skills
 

    Grades K - 2

      Project Based Learning:

For the next three months our class will be working on the Cultural project for Exhibition due in April. Our previous Exhibition was on Einstein's famous quote "Imagination is more important than Knowledge" The students agreed with Einstein but felt that it also depended on the individual person. They discussed imagination and why science needs it to be progressive. They also surveyed the elementary grades and developed a linear graph. They read a simplified version of Einstein's theory of relativity and connected his discovery to imagination. They created a poster about his childhood in Germany. This became the components of their "Exhibition" presented before a panel consisting of a community member, principal, teacher, parent and older student.

     Building on our previous knowledge from our scientific inquiry project on Einstein, we decided to stay with Germany and explore the work of the Brothers Grimm and their imagination. Everyday we read a fairy tale by the famous brothers and discuss the setting, characters, main events and conclusions. So far we have created a banner of the journey taken by the Brothers Grimm called "The Fairy Tale Road".  Every week we will explore more and more about the culture of this exciting time and place in history. We will then complete our preparations for our April "Cultural Exhibit"

Elementary Math

Cuisenaire Rods play a big part in our Elementary Math Program.Our math centers are full of these amazing blocks. Cuisenaire Rods make math interesting and fun through investigation and visual learning of math concepts. This exciting manipulative provides endless opportunities for introducing math. Students add, subtract, multiply, divide, measure, and much more with the Rods. Cuisenaire Rods help students understand important math concepts and allow students to progress from concrete to abstract thinking.