Elementary Humanities

Heartwood Grove's curriculum, by definition, is infused in the humanities.  In becoming bi or trilingual, our students naturally learn of the cultures of the Francophone and Hispanic worlds and understand early that people from around the globe speak different languages and have different cultures.  Our social studies is also integrated into language arts through children's world literature, and science through an integrated focus on Animals around the World, learning about the geography of the continents and oceans. Going beyond the Hispanic and Francophone world, each year students study other countries and world regions.  

Our English Language Arts is a literature rich and phonics based program. Classical children's fiction literature is a large part of our curriculum and includes fairy and folk tales, fables, myths, children's world literature, and age appropriate award winning literature. Fiction helps develop imagination, creativity, problem solving skills, and higher vocabularies. It allows for discussion opportunities, and creates the beginnings of literary analysis skills as a fun group activity.  Story time with great books presents to children greater complexity of style, sentence structure, and vocabulary than the books the child reads on his/her own. Studies show that the gap between literature that can be enjoyed, understood, appreciated, and discussed, and books the child can read independently continues until upper middle school. Penmanship is practiced regularly, learning first the lower, then uppercase letters. Students are taught to write in cursive in 2nd grade.