Curriculum & Nursery Program - The Common School

The purpose of the educational program at The Common School is to teach children as imaginatively as possible what they need to know in order to be fully human in the world in which they are growing up.

— Emily Johnson, Founder

The Nursery Program: Three to Five-year-olds

Our Nursery classrooms are integral to the life of the school. While many families choose to have their children enter the Nursery and remain in the school through age twelve, our early childhood program has also served many families who want a high quality pre-school experience before going to the public school kindergarten.

Hands-on investigation, social interaction, and play are the core of our program. In the context of play, Common School Nursery children make discoveries about themselves and their classmates, the larger school community, and the world they live in. We want children to feel known and safe so that they are ready to make choices, take risks, and develop a strong sense of self as they build social, emotional and cognitive skills.

Elementary Curriculum

Curriculum is organized around In-depth Studies which are cover a broad range of human experience and are chosen for the authenticity of experience we can offer children. In recent years they have included West Africa, Geology, the Middle Ages, Electricity, China, Native Americans of the Northeast, Birds, Colonial Life, Slavery and the Civil War, Botany, the Maya, and the Greeks.

For children of all ages, hands-on activities as well as appropriate art experiences, literature, authentic artifacts, dramatic simulations, myths, experiments and research are common elements of the studies. Whatever the topic, we spend considerable time on each study in order to engage children’s imagination and sense of wonder about the world.

Children also receive systematic instruction in reading, spelling, handwriting, and mathematics; then hone their emerging skills in the pursuit of projects and problems of immediate interest and relevance.

Music, Physical Education, Library, and (starting in 2004) Spanish programs supplement the core curriculum.

Careful attention is given to the social and emotional development of every child at school. Helping children experience a positive and realistic perception of themselves and a strong commitment to community is central to our work with children.