Begin with the End in Mind

Curriculum Overview

Because we begin with the end in mind, our programs build from the very earliest 3-year old preschool class toward the knowledge and skills we expect of our eighth graders.

Pre School

This is where it all begins! HCA preschoolers start early and start right! Our exceptional preschool programs lay the foundation for our students’ future learning. Preschoolers enjoy an effective mix of music, reading, math, art, drama, social relating time, science, and physical activities that aim to improve small and large motor skills. In HCA uniquely fun and academic preschool, children learn in challenging, but attainable, steps, and they begin to experience the joy of achievement as they employ their newly acquired knowledge and skills. Even our youngest preschoolers begin to gain self-worth through achievement, and we encourage parents to support this important development. We are careful not to do for a child what she can do for herself, lest we dampen her independence and her confidence in the strength of her own mind. Our curriculum channels a child's insatiable thirst for discovery and helps improve her focus and concentration—skills necessary to excel in life. Come see what our students are able to achieve!

Grade 1

HCA's fun-filled kindergarten program challenges students and their ability to stay on task in order to optimize their success. We’ve perfected the balance between play and learning so well that our kindergartners can’t tell the difference—it’s a seamless environment of learning and fun. Our curriculum and teaching methods are designed to help students become precise thinkers and self-reliant individuals. Holy Cross kindergartners read stories and write their own. They solve real-life logic problems, add and subtract numbers, and begin to understand fractional parts. Our kindergarten students radiate confidence and happiness! This confidence, in part, is what propels them to think for themselves—questioning everything—and to achieve well beyond other children their age.

HCA first graders can confidently diagram simple sentences, solve story problems, make analogies, identify animal classes, and recognize landforms. Because our teachers present concepts in a logically ordered sequence and demonstrate how each new idea is connected to previous learning with observable facts, our students learn to discover and make new connections on their own. Our first graders love to learn!

Kindergarten

Second graders are able to label place value to millions, read novels, diagram compound predicates, draw landscapes, and identify the stages in a plant’s life cycle. Because our students are learning and succeeding, they approach school with exuberance!

Grade 2

Grade 3

HCA's School’s curriculum helps students gain the ability to think clearly, question, and reason. As a result, third graders can write multi-paragraph compositions, explain how British ideas about government influenced India's constitution. Write computer programs to create graphics, draw and label the layers of the earth, find the perimeter of complex figures, and much, much more! They take pride in their abilities and delight in increasing their knowledge and skills as they move into advanced subject matter.

By fourth grade, HCA students are speeding along in their education, becoming more and more skilled and self-assured. Because of our emphasis on conceptual learning and critical thinking, HCA fourth graders understand the reason for the process of dividing fractions, distinguish fact from opinion by basing their thoughts on observable facts, explain the causes and effects of the American Civil War, describe what factors impact Earth’s tilt, draw conclusions about fictional characters from their actions, and deliver speeches with poise and power. Challenger fourth graders know that their success is in their own hands! Taking responsibility for their actions and performance leads to independence and self-respect.

Grade 4

In fifth grade, we continue to emphasize independent reasoning skills, resulting in our students’ exceptional academic performance and success at pursuing life. By introducing concepts in a sequence that allows the student to discover the truth instead of being given answers to memorize, we promote our students’ enthusiasm for learning. Holy Cross fifth graders are able to make inferences, organize ideas in outlines, program computer animations, describe cycles and changes in ecosystems, distinguish between a democracy and a republic, use and cite sources in research, subtract fractions with different denominators, and so much more.

Grade 5