 Cascade Canyon School has offered an outstanding, developmentally-oriented Kindergarten program for the past twenty-five years, taught as both a stand-alone class and as a multli-age class in keeping with the philosophy of our school.
Peggy Tunder, our primary lead teacher and one of our former directors, re-initiated our Kindergarten program this fall, as a stand-alone class with a maximum class size of ten students. Because of our unique small class size, students are able to receive the attention they need to thrive socially, emotionally and intellectually in their first year of school.
Kindergarten students at Cascade Canyon spend the mornings with Peggy, integrating cooperative play, Sign Language, and the arts with studies in math, language arts, and social studies (community and world studies). In the afternoons, our Kindergarteners enjoy being a part of our rich Specialist program, visiting teachers who are specialists in the fields of art, music, science and nature, theater, Spanish, and physical education.
 A special added component of the Kindergarten experience at Cascade
Canyon School is becoming a part of the warm, loving K-8 Cascade Canyon
School community. Kindergarteners form special relationships with the older students in the school through cross-age
reading buddies, weekly whole school community meetings, whole school
morning recess and lunch, and traveling together on our overnight and
day trips. It is not uncommon to see our youngest children sitting on our oldest children's laps during morning meeting, or to witness an exuberant lunchtime soccer game with children of all ages playing together.
If you are interested in our Kindergarten program for this school year, please call our school office at 459-3464. We will begin accepting applications for our 2009-2010 Kindergarten class in October: come visit our school at our fall Open House, scheduled for November 8th, or call the office to sign up for a Thursday morning tour.
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This year’s school theme is “Cultivating Sustainability (a harmony of cycles)”. In the 1st - 2nd grade class, the theme will be integrated throughout the curriculum, from working towards a cohesive, supportive class culture, to planning, researching, planting and maintaining a garden of medicinal and culinary herbs, to interviewing local merchants prior to making our own Fairfax community model, to working in our Creation Station, where recycled items become treasures, to investigating connections between math and the natural world. We will also continuously explore and celebrate other cultures to encourage the students to remain open to all that is beautiful and instructive and inspiring about people who are different from us. The year will culminate with long-term group projects about the Ocean, the source of all life on the planet, and the transformation of our classroom into an Underwater Coral Reef (made out of recycled materials, of course!).
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In third and fourth grades, students stretch their skills immensely in reading, writing, listening, speaking, math and social studies. In our class, we work together to develop the necessary organizational and interpersonal skills to work successfully in groups, to complete short and long term assignments in a range of subjects, and to manage daily homework. Over these two years, students develop personal and academic confidence.
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Together, our fifth and sixth grade class will explore the subject
areas of Reading, Writing, Word Study, Mathematics, and Social
Studies. As a community of learners, our goal is to work cooperatively
in order to deepen our understanding of the many concepts presented.
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 The seventh and eighth grade program at Cascade Canyon School offers middle school students a unique opportunity to push themselves intellectually, socially and emotionally in a safe, personalized, vibrant and engaging learning environment. The class of fifteen students forms a close, supportive community under the guidance of veteran middle school teacher Linda Franco. Motivated to learn for learning's sake, without the competitive pressure or external reward of grades, our seventh and eighth grade students excel into confident students, mature young adults, and leaders on our K-8 campus.
Eighth graders at Cascade Canyon School also go through an exciting, innovative Transitions Program to prepare themselves for the journey through adolescence and into high school.
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In alignment with Cascade Canyon's multi-age classroom structure, the science curriculum at Cascade Canyon is based on a two-year alternating curriculum, with year one focusing mainly on earth and physical science and year two focusing mainly on life sciences. In this way, students have the benefit of going deep into focused units of study and of moving through a logically-scaffolded, thematic curriculum. Our science program includes standards-based curriculum as well as an emerging eco-literacy and gardening curriculum.
 This year, 2007-2008, we are in the life sciences cycle and we are excited to begin work in our new courtyard garden. Pictured on the left are our first and second graders from 2006-2007 working our native plant garden.
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1st and 2nd Grade Science |
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3rd and 4th Grade Science |
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5th and 6th Grade Science |
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7th and 8th Grade Science |
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Our Program 
