Literacy activities include reading novels aloud daily, weekly library visits, reading books in and out of the classroom and receiving one hour of guided reading per day. Students write in their dialogue journals every day in class or for homework. Students contribute to the team newsletter by submitting experience stories, poems, and interviews with staff. In math, the students begin to learn to compute by using manipulatives. Each student tries to achieve the ambitious goal of being able to compute math problems mentally by the time he or she leaves the grades 3,4, and 5 team.
Students practice a variety of math skills by participating in hands-on activities.
They also learn to budget by participating in fund-raising projects, selling snacks and drinks. In social studies, students hold demonstrations or workshops showing what they have learned at the end of each quarter. The students apply research skills to construct timelines, biographical sketches, and diagrams of famous buildings. They use many different research sources, including books, encyclopedias, the Internet, magazines, and newspapers. The students learn about a variety of historical and cultural issues by integrating anniversaries or other special dates with their daily study.