Characteristics of Primary Learners

The instructional practices in the K-2 Skills Block are designed with the characteristics of primary learners in mind, incorporating music, movement, flexibility, and joy. For example, instead of being asked to raise their hand when they hear a set of rhyming words in the Rhyme Time instructional practice, students are encouraged to stand up and jump when they hear the rhyming words. Teachers model the practice, and then students join in. As students become more familiar with a particular practice, less teacher modeling and explicit instruction is needed. All of the instructional practices used in the K-2 Skills Block, such as Phonemic Blending and Segmentation, are detailed in Module 1 for each grade level.

John Dewey, an education icon, famously said, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Our curriculum for primary learners reflects that truth. Young children live in a world of activity, exploration, creation, singing, talking, and play. These ways of living—with the encouragement of loving and supportive adults—give young learners both meaning and joy. Primary children are learning as they move, sing, explore new ideas, make stuff, talk endlessly about what they are doing, and repeat songs and poems repeatedly. Our curriculum is rich and academically challenging, and it is built with the “Characteristics of Primary Learners” at its core:

Young children find security in rhythm, ritual, and repetition.
Young children learn through play.
Young children want to belong to a community that is safe, beautiful, and good.
Young children explore the world with wonder.
Young children “understand” the world first through their bodies.
Young children seek independence and mastery.
Young children thrive in the natural world.
Young children use stories to construct meaning.
Young children seek patterns in the world around them.
Young children construct their identities and build cultural bridges.
Young children express themselves in complex ways.

The Design