UPPER ELEMENTARY ESTABLISHES NEW TRADITIONS AND IDENTITY

4th - 6th Grade

UPPER ELEMENTARY

Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills & Group Collaboration

Upper Elementary

Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade, Sixth Grade

Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills & Group Collaboration

We aim to cultivate students with the tools to think critically and independently for the rest of their lives. This requires an intentional approach with the goal of understanding rather than mere memorization. In these Upper Elementary grades, students learn to work collaboratively with one another, developing their interpersonal skills and fostering self-discovery.

UPPER ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM

UPPER ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM

The aim for Upper Elementary is to equip students with lifelong tools to think critically and independently. This requires an intentional teaching approach in all subject areas with the goal of understanding rather than mere memorization. Students learn to work collaboratively with others to develop interpersonal skills, value others’ giftings, and foster self-discovery.

The Upper Elementary reading program teaches students to create visual representations of literary concepts. Intriguing novels are paired with historical time periods to help reading and history come to life! Through various types of literature, our teachers challenge students to examine situations from a Christian worldview. Students are also exposed to various areas of science such as physics, biology, and engineering through experiential learning and the intentional incorporation of technology. Mathematics topics are tailored toward student readiness and are applied into real world situations. Upper Elementary students are also continually challenged to examine the world around them through a Christian Worldview by the study of the Bible in its entirety.

UPPER ELEMENTARY ESTABLISHES NEW TRADITIONS AND IDENTITY

In the 2023-2024 school year, ECS did a new thing.

What started out as a solution to relieve space constraints at the Lower School campus ended up being the beginning of a new community now rich with sweet memories and newly instituted traditions.

Last August, for the first time, the fourth and fifth grade classes moved to the Shelby Farms campus, joined by sixth graders, to form a new Upper Elementary school in a recently renovated Eagle Hall.

Instead of fully grown high school students clanging lockers shut in the hallways of Eagle Hall, this newly transformed Upper Elementary building is now outfitted with smaller desks occupied by shorter students. Higher pitched voices singing praise songs during weekly chapels were heard spilling out of what once were the biology and physics labs, now combined into one space also used as their own cafeteria.

Called intermediate school nationwide, these middle grades are oftentimes combined intentionally to serve as a bridge between childhood and the teenage years. The new Upper Elementary school at ECS provides a smaller environment for students to learn greater responsibility and develop leadership skills which will help set them up for success in middle and high school.

“I think it is a sweet developmental pocket when you can combine fourth, fifth and sixth grades into their own community and space,” said Luke Matzke, the Upper Elementary Principal who was tasked with leading this new effort at the Shelby Farms campus.