Christ the King School- Mandan, ND

Christ the King School offers a core curriculum that takes on a traditional education philosophy in Mathematics, Science, English, Spelling, Language Arts, Social Studies and Physical Education/Health. Religion curriculum is also a major part of our program in addition to Art, Computer technology and Latin.

Fall of 2016, for grades 1-6, we plan to add a stimulating new curriculum component. We all remember learning things out of context and quickly forgetting them after the test. One of the things students need to be given is the ability to transfer their knowledge to the broader sphere of real life. An encouraging way to do this is through Project Based Learning. Through a given project, based on the interests of the children, various types of math, language skills, history, the sciences and more are incorporated in meaningful ways. Along with the traditional subjects, each class will be prepared to do one or more projects. Our staff will be attending training sessions in the spring for professional development in the area of Project Based Learning. You can anticipate that in the coming year your children, in addition to much of the standard curriculum, will begin to have a few projects that they are working on together to learn team work and integrate their knowledge beyond the textbook.

We are also making some changes in our Prek and Kindergarten programming at Christ the King. We will be using the Montessori Curriculum, a method with over 100 years of success throughout the world. There is much to know about the Montessori method. We want to share a few of the key principles to a Montessori education. The first is a belief that children naturally want to learn – think of what they have already taught themselves by the time they reach school age! They can walk, speak a language, ride bike, tell jokes, interpret emotion, show compassion, and make us laugh and cry by the time they get to school!

Second is that every child is unique and progresses at her own rate. Much about the preparation of the environment and the way lessons are taught allows a child both to develop at his own pace – fast or slow as the need may be. Lessons are taught individually or in small groups rather than to a whole class at once. This way, the teacher can assess the comprehension and needs of each child. Connected to the uniqueness of each child is the third point we want to share. That is that the most important thing a teacher can do is to observe the children. A deep knowledge of each student allows the teacher to know when and how to present each lesson. Finally, a Montessori education integrates knowledge to practical life and the real world. Many of the lessons help a child to know where he belongs in the world – geographically and culturally. The various materials used are connected so that the way math is taught is like the way that language is taught.