Evolutions: Grades 7-9
Middle school students are anxious to explore their world, so we strike a balance between a comforting continuity from the lower grades and increased academic and artistic challenges. The key to education at Grace Holistic is balance; between students’ practical knowledge and their creative enthusiasm, and through a curriculum where challenging academics are integrated with arts, music, and movement. Our students analyze and synthesize, while problem solving real world situations.
By the seventh grade, students are forceful, expressive, and intent on challenging conventional wisdom. This is a time of assertion and independence as the child moves toward their vision of themselves as adults. What better time to study the Renaissance, a powerful period when independent thinkers sought to make reason the basis for truth?
Students at this age can relate to the stories, characters and mood of the times. This is but one example of how the curriculum is carefully designed to speak to the child at each stage of development.
Our hands-on middle school curriculum includes:
History: From Rome through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, revolutions, industrialization, into modern times students trace the development of civilization to the present.
English: Foundational skills in vocabulary, grammar, composition, reference papers, and public speaking are developed. Elements of poetry and figurative language, including ballads, sonnets, epics, novel and short story studies.
Geometry: Percents, ratio, proportion, areas, formulas, algebra from the simple equation through quadratics, powers and roots, binary system, numerical trigonometry, probability, logic and problem solving. Students also design their own business and offer it to the Grace Holistic community.
Geography: Western Hemisphere and the poles, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, oceans and winds of the world, world economic geography.
Natural sciences: Mineralogy, geology, astronomy, meteorology, human physiology and anatomy.
Physics: Optics, acoustics, heat, electricity, magnetism, hydraulics, mechanics
Chemistry: Combustion, lime cycle, acids, bases and salts, metals, and chemistry of foodstuffs.
The Arts: Drama, speech, singing, drawing, painting, handwriting, wool/fiber arts, and sculpting are woven throughout the core main lesson curriculum daily.
