Lower School

GFA’s Lower School students grow intellectually, realize personal creativity, and competency, develop self-confidence, build enthusiasm for excellence and achievement, and gain respect for the diversity of the world around them. Small group work, hands-on learning, personal challenge and responsibility, and an appreciation for the connections among all disciplines are integral components of our program.

Academic Programs

Jane Doe

Social-emotional learning

The RULER Approach

Social, emotional, and academic learning are equally important elements of the GFA experience. Our teachers know that we are not simply delivering content to our children, we are helping an emerging generation of children build the skills that will position them to thrive, not just at school, but in their future relationships and life and work experiences as well. Using the RULER Approach out of Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Lower School focuses on Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulation emotions, designed to help children develop emotional intelligence.

By helping our children develop an understanding of their emotions and the ability to regulate them, we are arming them with important skills for life.

Carolyn Hale

Literacy

The Wilson Fundations Program

For students in grades K–3, this program is part of our comprehensive approach to literacy instruction. A multi-sensory, structured language program, it provides students with strong foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics/word study, reading fluency, spelling, and handwriting.

Based on the science of reading, our program explicitly teaches children the skills they need to be successful readers and writers.

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Math Fluency

Math in Focus

Math in Focus is the cornerstone of our math curriculum in the Lower School. Students develop a deeper understanding of new concepts through engaging teacher lessons, repeated practice, and enjoyable activities. Our goal as educators is to help our students develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills so they may persevere, not just in the math classroom, but in the world at large.

Our teachers focus on conceptual understanding as well as math fluency.

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Hands On

STEAM

The school has embraced a hands-on, design-focused approach to integrating STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics). Every class engages in a range of projects aimed at fostering curiosity and design-thinking: e.g., robotics, prototyping, 3D modeling and printing, circuitry, animation, programming, video production, and music-making.

STEAM time in the Lower School gives students the opportunity to collaborate and innovate through project based learning. The children are free to design, create, discover, take risks and embrace their curiosity.

The journey is the destination.

Each grade in Lower School is a step (or a hundred steps!) in a journey. Our teachers create an intentional, immersive experience that moves naturally from one week (and month, and year) to the next. We pay attention to fundamental skills and habits of mind, but we also practice leadership, develop social connections, and explore the outdoors. The result is a safe, fun, challenging education in cooperation and creative thinking, risk taking and resilience, identity and independence.

What leadership looks like.

Our fourth graders—the oldest students in the Lower School—take an active role in leading their community. Together, we organize committee groups (such as leading our weekly Assembly or planning a Spotlight guest speaker experience) which allows students to take an even greater responsibility for the well-being of the Lower School.

What it feels like to be here.

It’s spacious, light-filled classrooms. It’s family-style lunches and weekly assemblies. It’s a full gymnasium and an organic garden, a science lab and a robust service learning program. It’s dedicated classrooms for world languages and music and art and technology. It’s a salt marsh and Audubon trails. It’s a playground and a courtyard and a community assembly room. Most of all, it’s the warmth and spirit and brilliance of the inspiring people who want to be here.

A word about what we wear.

Lower Schoolers wear uniforms. Why? They make getting dressed in the morning super-simple, they keep everything equal, and they convey a general sense of respect for learning. Details matter. So does an inclusive, affirming community.

An almost random, highly meaningful example of the way we work.

A little while ago, our PreK students built an exhibit at Earthplace, a nature center in Westport. The exhibit allows you to work through—and possibly help solve!—nitrogen pollution in Long Island Sound. Building it required hands-on work in specialized topics across disciplines: the biology of kelp and oysters, digital photography and computer applications, exhibit design and engineering, sculpting and painting and measuring. And the result was a form of civic engagement. Oh, and the whole process was a blast. All of those things are happening most of the time in the Lower School.

“Can you imagine what our children will be capable of if we give them wings to soar by offering them a sense of belonging, new experiences, exposure to new ideas, and the courage to do hard things? Anything is possible for these children, and unlocking their intrinsic motivation and helping foster a sense of wonder and creativity is an enormous responsibility that we cherish with the utmost care.”
jane Verlin, Head of Lower School

A Look Inside Lower School

PreK: Birds of Play

Kindergarten: Paleontology

First Grade: Arthropod Hotel

Second Grade: Snowflake STEAM

In STEAM, second graders learned the science behind snowflakes and how they are formed. They learned about symmetry and created their own symmetrical Q-tip snowflakes. Students listened to a biography about Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, who photographed snowflakes back in the 1880s and then followed instructions in Spanish to create grid paper snowflakes. Exploring patterns and engineering concepts, students created snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and pony beads. They learned logo coding through the use of turtle art, as well as coding and created their own snowflake on their iPad. With the help of Mr. Iacobelli, they will be able to burn their snowflake in acrylic on the glow-forge. Second grade transformed into a winter wonderland!

Fourth Grade: Poem Dissection

An almost random, highly meaningful example of the way we work

My favorite thing about campus: GFA has amazing gardens and trees. Some of the trees are really old! Oh, and the bees!
Alex, grade 3

In This Section

Lower School

Academic Programs

Jane Doe

Social-emotional learning

Carolyn Hale

Literacy

New Panel

Math Fluency

New Panel

Hands On

The journey is the destination.

What leadership looks like.

What it feels like to be here.

A word about what we wear.

An almost random, highly meaningful example of the way we work.

A Look Inside Lower School

PreK: Birds of Play

Kindergarten: Paleontology

First Grade: Arthropod Hotel

Second Grade: Snowflake STEAM

Third Grade: Bucket Drumming

Fourth Grade: Poem Dissection

An almost random, highly meaningful example of the way we work