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Here’s how we begin every day. With music or a quiet signal, we move into our morning circle on the rug. In silence, we settle our bodies and our minds and open ourselves up to a new day. We then greet each other and our teachers by name, share our hopes and questions, then spend time getting to know our friends and ourselves.

The work of our youngest students is hard. There’s so much to learn – the symbols and sounds of language, the puzzle and pattern of numbers, the feel of a pencil, the finger grips of tricky scissors, the way we use our feet to lift our swing up to the sky. We practice moving our bodies through a small space, flicking a math spinner, sharing a box of colored pencils, and helping a friend. We begin to understand the difference between home and school, inside voices and outside voices. Most of all, we learn that school is fun, sometimes challenging and that kindness, truly, is our daily gift. 

Like the sensory beings that we are, we use everything to learn about our world – our fingers and toes, manipulatives like frogs and bugs and cars, our woods and fields, our so-very-curious minds, and each other. We watch monarchs grow from the tiniest caterpillars to fragile-winged marvels that can fly hundreds of miles. We jump for joy when our tadpoles suddenly sprout legs. We learn that letter symbols turn into words which turn into books and poems that make us giggle and feel and imagine.

We know we will be wonderfully prepared for the next stage of school.  We will build our strong foundations, step by gentle step, hand by friendly hand, running, leaping, wondering, reveling in the process that starts as that tiny caterpillar and sends us on as mighty fliers, ready to embrace the world.
 

My first meeting partner’s name was Hannah. I worshiped her; I thought she was the bee’s knees, the bear’s overalls, and the cat’s pajamas. I remember asking her what it was like to be an older kid, and she replied “It’s fun, but it’s hard. We always have to make sure that we are acting appropriately so your class can turn out great, too.” I had no idea what that meant because I had no idea what it meant to be a leader. Now, as I am upon my last day at Princeton Friends School, I hope that the younger grades see this 8th grade class as I saw my elders.”

-Tara D., class of 2010

CORE CURRICULUM

MATHEMATICS

In the first and second grades, math instruction draws from the Bridges in Math program, an inquiry-based curriculum that promotes active learning through group investigations and games. The program focuses on developing problem-solving skills and creating mathematical thinkers. Topics covered include counting and numeration, understanding place values, measurement, computation, and geometry. This hands-on program helps build an equitable learning environment that engages all students.

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

In the first and second grades, students experience the joy of becoming readers. The students receive daily instruction in phonics through a structured literacy program involving Orton-Gillingham and the Wilson Reading System. These highly structured and sequential programs introduce students to basic phonemic elements, strategies for decoding, fluency, and the structure of the English language. Students practice comprehension strategies during shared reading sessions with their teacher. Through shared readings, students practice comprehension strategies guided by their teacher, instilling a lifelong love of reading.

WRITING

In the first grade, the children keep Capture the Day journals, using illustrations and words to document the high points of each day. In second grade, students build on those skills as they explore various genres and begin to learn the writing process from drafting all the way to publishing. In both grades, students are encouraged to use their ever-growing encoding skills and their emerging familiarity with mechanics. As part of their writing program, first and second students compose poems for the all-school poetry anthology and write memories of the year. 

SPECIALS

MUSIC

Vocal music is woven deeply into the fabric of life at Princeton Friends School. On Friday mornings and at all major school events, we use music to bring the community together, drawing our many individual voices into one voice. The songs that provide a sense of continuity and connectedness within our community tell stories, integrate with our Central Study or history units, engage our sense of humor, and carry enduring messages that connect with the school’s Quaker underpinnings.

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ARTS

Deep engagement with the arts is a critically important aspect of the Princeton Friends School experience. Including studio art for all grades and a variety of arts elective classes offered for 3rd-8th grades, the PFS art program engages students’ natural curiosity and imagination, offering time, space, and resources for individual exploration. Freed from rigid expectations of outcome, students are supported in becoming comfortable with self-expression and being thoughtful yet playful, well-informed yet inventive.
Curriculum Highlights:
- Winter Arts and Storytelling Festival
- Arts in Motion: culminating outdoor art festival and gallery walk celebrating visual student work in relation to the central study theme
- 6-8th grade pottery wheel unit
- Place-based Art Making: creating art with natural materials found around the PFS campus. Past examples have included wild clay, natural dyes, basket weaving with invasive vines, natural watercolors, and papermaking with invasive plants.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

At Princeton Friends School, we believe in play of all kinds. In first & second grade students will grow their Skills of Play: cognitive, social, communication, fine gross motor, and emotional. Students will do a light workout, practice skills like throwing, and play classic games like tag, and dodgeball.  We also mix in imaginative adventures designed for our students.

TAKING CARE

As critical as Princeton Friends School’s academic program is in preparing our students for academic success throughout their lives, PFS believes it is equally important to instill in our students a strong positive sense of who they are as individuals and social beings. The Taking Care program encompasses four intertwining threads: Knowing Oneself, Knowing One Another, Care of Oneself, and Care of Others. Throughout the year, students participate in games and activities, conversations with peers and adults, and workshops with visiting presenters all aimed at deepening students' awareness of themselves as individuals, as members of a diverse and inclusive community, and as agents in the world beyond the walls of the school.

Under the umbrella of Taking Care, teachers draw on multiple resources to present a broad array of developmentally appropriate activities that address such issues as personal identity, diversity, the meaning of friendship, social dynamics, conflict resolution, and ethical dilemmas. Over the years, as these issues are visited and revisited, students come to know themselves and one another more deeply, practice skills in taking care of themselves and others, and develop a heightened awareness of their importance to their community.

LIBRARY

At Princeton Friends School, we have a strong culture of reading. From Beginning School through 5th grade, this love for reading is nourished by once a week classes in the school library. In library class, students connect with books and learn to navigate the library; students focus on both, exploring personal interests and learning how to locate resources needed for academic pursuits. As students progress through the grades, they learn library skills and digital citizenship.