Learning at Solid Ground

Curriculum at Solid Ground School

How our Curriculum Works

We follow an emergent, place-based curriculum, which allows teachers to create meaningful learning experiences based on what students are interested in and what our local ecology and community have to offer. Our curriculum emphasizes project-based learning, critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and healthy social and emotional development.  

Within a planned framework, teachers observe and collaborate with students to offer on-going project work and support for self-directed learning.  This work is based on the individual interests, experiences, and skill levels of the children in their group.  Children are often free to play and create in our home-like school environment, with teachers supporting their learning and enriching their play as it happens.  We know when to get out of the children’s way and let them play and value the natural learning that occurs during this time.

Children creating in our art studio and makerspace
Children at the school organize and teach one another classes on topics that interest them.  Here, one child is teaching another child how to braid.

Sample Projects from Solid Ground School

Gardening & Farmstand Project

Children learning science, math, and literacy while working to grow produce in the school garden to sell to the public in their weekly nature & entrepreneurship class.

Mapping Ways Up the Hill Project

In this project, children created collaborative and individual to-scale maps different walking paths back to the schoolhouse, practicing math, social studies, and writing in the process

Animals in Winter Project

Children wrote letters, searched in books, watched documentaries, and explored the outdoor environment for answers to their questions about how different animals adapt to winter.

Commonly Asked Questions

About Learning at Solid Ground

Creating a book from their story.
An older child reading to eager younger children
Children making their bodies into a "W" for the youngest children to add to a letter collection.

How do you teach literacy?

At Solid Ground, we integrate language-rich, structured literacy instruction that includes explicit instruction in phonics into our curriculum in the following ways:

At Solid Ground, we've focused on growing a love for reading and meaningful engagement with the language arts, and the children have blossomed! Children at SGS want to read, both by themselves and to their peers, and are confident in their ability to learn! Their drive to read and learn comes from within their own hearts and minds--a gift that will keep giving for years to come.

Small group of students working on number sense outdoors
A student tracking the growth of a baby chick

How do you teach math?

Math at Solid Ground is focused on solving problems, developing a strong number sense, and hands-on learning.  Here's how we approach it:

Regular community-building is an important part of life at Solid Ground
Children playing
Using real tools helps children develop a sense of themselves as capable.

How do you support healthy social and emotional development?

At Solid Ground, we believe that people deserve to be treated with respect and kindness—and children are people.  We work to lift children up through a caring community, and we understand that children need empathy and support to develop self-discipline.

Children work to create seed balls to grow pollinator habitat.

How do grades and groupings work at Solid Ground?

At Solid Ground, grade bands are loosely organized into 4 different grade-bands as follows:

Roots (Pre-K and Kindergarten):

The Roots have many opportunities for play, exploration, and story throughout their day to nurture their creative and social growth and to develop their budding thinking skills.  They enjoy their own separate space in the cabin, where they have a more flexible schedule and a cozier outdoor space.  By late afternoon each day, the Roots join the rest of the school community for outdoor classes and/or Choice Time, which includes multi-disciplinary project work, child-led classes, and play in mixed age groups. 

Shoots  (Grades 1-2) :

The Shoots have focused time as a group to develop their growing reading and mathematical skills, but also balance their day with time spent in play with their similar-age peers to nurture their creativity and social skills.  By late afternoon each day, the Shoots join the rest of the school community for outdoor classes and Choice Time, which includes multi-disciplinary project work, child-led classes, and play in mixed age groups. 

Saplings (Grades 3-4):

Our middle grades have the entire bottom floor to themselves.  Their days give them ample time for extended blocks of focused academic project work in the morning and again in the early afternoon, with breaks for outdoor play in between.  In addition, the Saplings join the entire school community for multi-disciplinary project work, child-led classes, and play in mixed age groups by late afternoon. 

Branches (Grades 5-6):

Our middle grades have the entire bottom floor to themselvesTheir days give them ample time for extended blocks of focused academic project work in the morning and again in the early afternoon, with breaks for outdoor play in between.  In addition, the Branches join the entire school community for multi-disciplinary project work, child-led classes, and play in mixed age groups by late afternoon.