Curriculum & Electives

Our Curriculum: An Immersive Block Approach

At Clear Spring School, our curriculum is a dynamic and immersive journey designed to foster deep understanding and a love of learning. We move beyond traditional subject silos and use an integrated block schedule to weave academic disciplines together around compelling, real-world themes.

Lower School (Grades 1-6)

Our Lower School program operates on a Quarterly Block Schedule, where students dive deep into a central theme for 8-11 weeks at a time. Each block integrates language arts, math, science, and social studies, though a specific block may emphasize one area more than others. Over the course of the year, this approach provides a rich, balanced, and comprehensive academic experience.

Instead of traditional report cards, students are assessed through detailed Narrative Conference Reports and student-led conferences twice a year, providing a holistic view of their progress and growth.

Upper School (Grades 7-12)

Our Upper School students also learn through an integrated, thematic block schedule organized into two semesters. While the learning experience is interwoven, students earn traditional letter grades (at the high school level) and credits for distinct academic subjects (e.g., Algebra I, American History, Biology). These credits are carefully documented on official transcripts to support their college and post-secondary goals. In addition to their transcripts, upper school students are also assessed through detailed Narrative Conference Reports and student-led conferences twice a year, providing a holistic view of their progress and growth.

Our Progressive Approach to Grouping

True to our progressive roots, we recognize that students grow in spurts and plateaus. We group students based on their developmental stage, interests, and academic readiness rather than strictly by age. This flexible, multi-age approach allows every child to be appropriately challenged and successful.

Our typical class groupings are:

1st - 2nd Grade
3rd - 4th Grade
5th - 6th Grade
7th - 8th Grade
9th - 12th Grade

Note: Individual student placement may vary based on their unique academic and social-emotional needs.

Core Themes and Skills

Our academic blocks are built around core themes of outdoor science, practical life skills, and active engagement with the world around us. Within each block, we intentionally schedule dedicated time for foundational skill-building in math and language arts. Learning is also enriched with age-appropriate travel experiences, allowing students to connect their classroom studies to the broader community and environment.

PrePrimary - Sunshine & Rainbow Groups

The Sunshine Group

In our pre-kindergarten class, students will learn through multi-purpose, hands-on, learning centers with integrated curriculum, as well as practical life learning centers for open play. Students will learn about the world around them including the seasons, weather, and other natural sciences. Students will take walks to the Rainbow Garden throughout the year and participate in planting, growing, and harvesting in our garden.Students build their social and emotional development skills throughout the year and will also build up large and fine motor skills.

The Rainbow Group

The Rainbow group, our kindergarten class, meets together daily for a separate more detailed daily lesson or activity that will build upon the knowledge the students have already learned. Students will work together in groups and learn to collaborate, and students begin working on their writing skills. Students take weekly trips to the campus woodshop and the campus library. Students also create their own Nature Journal that will be built upon throughout the year.

Whole Child education
Hands on learning
Outdoor Classroom

Elementary: Chickadees, Magpies, Rock Pigeons

Classrooms are structured into three groupings, creating more focused learning groups. This setup allows us to provide targeted instruction that meets students exactly where they are, ensuring a more personalized learning experience.

Each student transitions through three key learning environments: a homeroom, where they engage in curriculum work and projects; a targeted math class, designed to support their individual learning needs; and a targeted reading group, where they receive focused literacy instruction.

This structure not only enhances academic growth but also allows students to interact with different peers and teachers throughout the day, fostering a collaborative and dynamic learning environment.

The Magpies

The Chickadees

Sewing 101

This is an introductory course to hand- and machine-sewing, with an emphasis on following basic patterns and making functional pieces. Students will first learn the basics of threading a needle, making a straight stitch, and adjoining pieces of fabric, then move on to more complex operations of operating a sewing machine, assembling a nine-patch quilt block, and making a pillow. Students will be familiarized with terms such as bias, seam allowance, right- and wrong-sides of fabric, and will learn how to use an iron, fold and sew a hem, and follow a sewing pattern. Subsequent projects will include cutting out patterns for and sewing together a work apron for each individual student, as well as fashioning a tote bag. Overall this course is aimed at fostering a love for making things with one’s hands and using the materials at one’s disposal to create functional art without contributing to mass-produced consumer culture — in short, to do more with less.

Middle & High School -The Robins & The Owls

Block studies integrate core academics into thematic classes

Collaborative project based learning

Concurrent classes at NorthArk available

Focus on the 21st Century Skills for lifelong educational and vocational success

No Laughing Matter: How satire, humor, and comedy shape politics, culture, and society

In a world where the public forum is divisive and devoid of nuance, a strong sense of humor is our only hope of finding common ground. This is the launching point for our English course, which will attempt to underline the ways in which humor can reflect social and political realities, and effect change therein.
This language arts course centers on the study and craft of rhetorical styles, namely satire, humor, and comedy. We will read, analyze, and discuss informational and literary texts, and synthesize our understanding by means of written reflection, formal essays, oral presentations, and group projects. We will study the art of improv sketch comedy, and practice various techniques used by improv actors to promote creative elasticity, spontaneity, and versatility. We will study not just what is considered funny, but how it conjures laughter.

Fine Arts & Humanities

The goal of this course is to create a strong knowledge base in studio art and learn how art relates to our culture. We will begin by learning and practicing the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design. These skills will be used to complete exercises and build an art portfolio. After completing these exercises, we will move onto more elaborate projects. Our main focus for the second part of the semester will be a collaborative art show that we will present in the community. This art show will include drawings, sculpture and creative writing, and we will be working with the elementary and high school students on this project. The students will learn how to write a proposal, approach businesses and secure a venue for the show.

Along with the hands-on art studies, we will learn about the modern art movements from 1831-Present. As we move through the ever changing world of art, we will study different artists, important pieces of work and what was driving the art world at the time. There will be a specific interest in how art shaped the culture, and culture shaped art as we move through the timeline.

We will utilize a combination of sketchbook exercises, research, writing and field trips to develop a deeper understanding of art. Students will be responsible to manage their time wisely, treat each other with kindness and respect and help maintain the classroom and art studio space. All students are expected to participate in group discussion, group projects and complete their individual assignments.

Origins

“Origins,” invites students to explore the story of the universe before life began. While we focus on the scientific origin story—the Big Bang—we also create space for students, families, and cultures to share and honor their own origin stories.

Through the lens of the Big Bang, students will journey from nothingness to the Singularity, through the birth and life cycles of stars and galaxies, the creation of solar systems, and the formation of planets. We’ll investigate their relative sizes and distances, and explore the dramatic early history of Earth—its geology, atmosphere, and conditions for life.

It’s nine-and-a-half billion years of cosmic pre-history, condensed into eight fascinating weeks of discovery.

Language Arts: Character and Design

This course is designed to teach students how to take the deep and complex stories that we often see so vividly within our own minds, and bring them out into the world completely and entirely. The class will be focused on learning the fundamentals of story writing, critical analyzation of various media to gain further understanding of character motivations, creating active and engaging settings and characters, and presenting stories that keep listeners enraptured until the end. Whilst this class will have a focus on the writing process, this skills the students will learn should easily translate into the world of audio and video, allowing for more diverse forms of storytelling.

Part of our Wisdom of the Hands program, Welding and Woodshop allows students to explore their creativity, apply their curriculum knowledge, and create personalized learning experiences.

Woodshop

Travel

Travel immerses students in real world applications, putting learning into context.

Kansas City, MO

Camping

Students spend eight weeks preparing for their biannual camping trips. From setup and safety to budgeting and field journals our camping trips become the 5C's in action.

Blanchard Springs

Wisdom of the hands

Doug Stowe

Wood Working

The use of the hands in learning not only allows students to better assess the truth of what they learn, it also allows students to respond to what they’ve learned, by creating useful beauty in service to family, community and human culture.