As we turn the corner to a new year, we are excited about the progress students have already shown, and we eagerly anticipate the achievements they’ll attain in the months ahead. A Challenger education is a priceless investment!
In January, students have the opportunity to visit classrooms to see for themselves the exciting lessons and concepts coming up in the next grade level. We do this in order to “preview” for your child the great learning experiences ahead. The concepts your child has learned this year will be strengthened and connected to new ideas as he transitions to a new grade.
During Student Previews, four-year-old through seventh grade students will, for a portion of a school day, join a class in the grade ahead of them. In kindergarten classrooms, preschoolers may engage in phonics drills, mental math, or reading practice. Third graders who visit fourth grade classes may participate in sentence diagramming or computational math exercises. Visitors to middle school rooms may join in discussions of U.S. history or learn about geometry proofs. In every class, students will get a feel for the interesting things they’ll be learning and the fun they’ll have in the following grade.
The next week, we encourage parents of four-year-old students to attend the Parent Previews of Kindergarten, which is a wonderful opportunity for you to see how much our kindergartners love learning to become self-reliant, productive achievers. Our students are our finest treasures, and we’re excited to present them in action! We host these previews because we want to show you how committed we are to helping your child transition seamlessly from one program to the next. (Preview options vary by campus. If we do not offer a parent preview for the program your child will be entering, please stop by the office to visit a classroom.)
Throughout our entire curriculum, each grade level at Challenger builds on previous learning, and every subject is connected through our conceptual approach. And through our engaging teaching methods, our students enjoy learning and gain confidence.
Our curriculum has been carefully designed to maximize student success. Teachers use curriculum guides that describe what students have learned in previous grades and what they’ll be taught in the grades that follow. As students encounter new concepts, teachers help them connect the new learning to things they already know.
For example, when grade three teachers read the book The Cabin Faced West with their students, they purposefully guide students to not only use their phonics skills to read challenging words but they also refer back to their study of the Revolutionary War in history and their discussions of the Allegheney Mountains in geography. This conceptual approach helps students draw vivid mental pictures and better understand the setting and the book in general. Because learning is supported across subjects (and grades as well), students can more quickly and effectively internalize the material, which prepares them for future learning. Consequently, students are able to advance academically at an accelerated pace.
Our standardized test results indicate that the longer a student stays with Challenger, the more he excels when compared to his non-Challenger peers in his exceptional abilities to read, reason, comprehend, and communicate. Let us help your child reach his full potential.