As a top rated elementary school in Boulder, Colorado, we are boldly unlocking students potential to ignite global change. Significant growth occurs during the formative years of TK or Kindergarten through 5th grade, and we believe there’s no better support for that development than a BCD education.
We empower developing minds through...
A Strong Academic Foundation
Early mastery of fundamental skills like reading, writing, and math are the critical building blocks to academic success. A strong foundation aids in understanding more complex concepts and builds student confidence in their ability to work through not just academic challenges, but the complex issues of the future.
Experiential Learning
Inspiring, experiential units motivate students to be resourceful and give them opportunities to demonstrate their understanding through hands-on learning. As students create work that showcases their effort, problem-solving abilities, and collaboration skills, they build confidence in their potential to make a positive impact and, perhaps, even change the world.
Building Confidence
Elementary students participate in musical performances, plays, and assemblies on a regular basis during our all school assembly hour. Each student can expect to be on stage performing several times during the year. These performance opportunities help build confidence by allowing students to practice public speaking, teamwork, and self-expression in a supportive environment, all real-world skills essential for future success.
Providing the Right Support
Every child is unique, and so are the ways in which they learn. Small class sizes allow teachers to build strong, collaborative relationships with families in focusing on each child’s individual strengths and challenges. Our highly trained Learning Center faculty provide additional support that is integral to differentiating instruction, tailoring strategies, and creating goals to maximize each child’s academic potential.
Seeing the Whole Child
The social-emotional health of a child is just as important as their scholastic achievements—in fact, they are deeply intertwined. Studies show that when students feel safe they are able to be more present and create the neural-connections that process and retain information. As such, evidence-based programs such as Responsive Classroom, Kid Power, and the Learning for Justice standards are woven into our educational experience to ensure all students are seen and valued and to support the development of important life skills.
Partnering with Parents
Parental involvement is essential to student growth, as it strengthens the connection between home and school, reinforcing the importance of education and providing a consistent support system. We partner with families to support their child's learning journey by offering ongoing assistance and hosting regular Parent Education Series events that encourage families to take an active part in their child's learning journey.
Being Part of Something Bigger
Our state-of-the-art PS-8 campus offers a beautiful, safe, and secure place to grow up while benefiting from being part of a broader school community. Our size also enables us to provide instruction in World Language (French and Spanish), Physical Education, Music, Library, Art, and STEM. Choir, band, and athletics are offered in the upper grades. Multi-age activities provide students with the opportunity to interact with and serve as positive role models, helping them develop important social and collaborative skills that are essential in real-world environments. As students explore different interests, they are better able to understand their strengths and preferences, which is crucial in finding their place in the world.
Today, more than ever, parents carefully examine their many choices for Kindergarten: open enroll or neighborhood, public or private, full day or part day, morning or afternoon, academic or play-based…So what should a parent look for in a Kindergarten program?
Our vibrant TK Program sits between our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten years with a curriculum that supports students with a summer birthday. This dynamic and robust program provides families with a perfect experience for those choosing the gift of time.
World Language instruction at Boulder Country Day School starts with students as young as 2 1/2-years old in our preschool. Research analyzed by the education support organization, Ertheo, shows that a major benefit of teaching world language to very young students is an increased ability to connect to other cultures and build tolerance (https://www.ertheo.com/blog/en/learning-a-second-language#connect). Both objectives strongly support BCD’s mission. When working with very young students, the focus is on providing exposure to the new language and instilling a curiosity for cultures around the world. Come Kindergarten, instruction begins to include lots of sensory lessons, allowing the children to explore their world and the new language with their sense of smell and taste.
On a very chilly morning in February 2021, BCD Elementary Spelling Bee finalists gathered on the sport court despite the weather to spell it out - because…the show must go on. The event was broadcast into all elementary classrooms and to anxious parents via Zoom. At the end of the hour, it was Trevor who was named this year's winner! Congratulations to Trevor and all his competitors on an effort requiring stealth well beyond just spelling. Thank you to all the faculty and staff who made this event possible. We appreciate your efforts to make the show go on!
On May 18th, BCD 3rd grade teacher, Amanda Demler, rode her bike 85 miles to visit all 13 of her students at home. She left her home at 7:00am and rode from house to house on a trip that included 7 hours of riding and 5 hours of socializing from a distance.
While her students know of her athletic abilities, when the idea of a bike ride to every single house first came up on a class Zoom meeting, they were unsure. “That is very far!,” said Ryan Welch.
Demler, who has been a teacher at BCD for 16 year, says, “All of my students know that I have a passion for endurance sports. So I asked myself, why not?” As a 12-timed competitor in Wisconsin’s notorius Birkebeiner race, a 55K ski marathon, she has exemplified for her students what passion and commitment look like.
“This epic adventure was not only a way for me to see the smiles of my students and drop off a card and treats, but a way to show them that they too can do great things to inspire even in the middle of a pandemic. No matter what storm you go through you should use your talents to pitch in and make things better for someone else,” says Demler.
Thank you Ms. Demler for making a difference and thank you to all our teachers who have gone the extra mile this spring. You’re the best!
BCD’s Kindergarten program stands apart in its breadth of offerings and student support. Students are known and nurtured everyday by a faculty of many including their classroom teachers, their teachers in world language, science, innovation, music, art, physical education, and library, as well as, school counselors, literacy specialists from the BCD Learning Center, the Head of Elementary, and our Head of School. At BCD, every member of our faculty seen in this picture will be involved in the education of your student. Contact us to schedule a tour at (303) 516-4148.
When I was a child, the words joy and school were rarely used in the same sentence. Today, as I look around our BCD elementary school building, joyful is the first adjective that comes to my mind.
Next week you will be getting your student's report card. What is a good way to talk about the report card with my child? Talking with your child about the report card can be a positive, productive experience. How you react to your child’s report card can impact their motivation, self-esteem and sense of control over their learning. So it’s important to look beyond the grades before you respond. Please keep in mind that this is the first trimester and that grades are based on where a child is relative to end of the year standards. A '2' should not be alarming.
The following points may help:
1. Plan to talk in a quiet place and time.
2. Start with the good news. Talk about your child’s successes first.
3. For disappointing grades, ask questions so you and your child understand how a grade was earned. - How difficult was the work? - Was work completed and turned in? - Was extra help needed? - Would more participation or effort have made a difference?
4. Ask for a parent-teacher-student conference if you need more information.
5. Set realistic goals and make a plan for improvement.
Through an anonymous Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity grant by a BCD parent, Boulder Country Day School and I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County(IHAD) have partnered to form a combined First Lego League® (FLL) team. The grant funds transportation and course expenses for participating IHAD students and brings together students, technology, and BCD’s goal of inspiring students to reach their full potential.
Children are acquiring literacy from birth; from dinner table conversations promoting oral language development, to bedtime storytelling demonstrating that meaning can be made from text, to creating shopping lists which help children learn sounds and alphabetic symbols.
Last week, both third grade classes met for math to learn about angles and how to use a protractor. Students worked with a partner to design mazes and write the "coding" for getting through the maze using their knowledge of angles. This will support students as they solve more and more complex puzzles during coding class.
Last Friday, we watched a TEd Talk about an ocean explorer who talked about the power of wonder and why it's so important for adults and children to follow their curiosity and sense of wonder. He has explored the greatest depths of the ocean and has filmed some of the most interesting and fascinating ocean creatures. Our second graders then brainstormed a list of "I wonders" that they have about the world around them, and they worked with their partner to plan how they could pursue that "I wonder" as an adult.
Next week, we will start our first literature circle with Tuck Everlasting. During this unit, the students analyze the elements of narrative text structure. They study character, setting, plot, and conflict. We will also be studying similes, metaphors, and foreshadowing. Students use the different book club “jobs” (connector, summarizer, illustrator, word wizard, scene setter, and director) to help them deepen comprehension. During their book club conversation, the director will lead the conversation, allowing each student to have a voice in the discussion. The goal is that the students naturally discuss the novel while focusing on the jobs they have been assigned. Socially, they will analyze why it is important to be responsible and respectful, and they practice using discussion prompts to listen and build on one another’s ideas during discussion. They also explore an important theme in the novel: would you want to live forever!
As we establish a classroom community that fosters the best learning environment for all of our students, it is vitally important to incorporate our teacher language. It is our most powerful tool and permeates in every aspect of our day. Whether we are welcoming students in the morning, dealing with a conflict or simply trying to engage them in the what’s to come, we are using our words. We know that what they hear and how they interpret our message can impact how they deal with a situation and ultimately learn. Therefore, we are keeping teacher language at the forefront of our minds. We deliberately use teacher language as a tool so that students get the most out of our instruction.
Throughout our day as leaners we think about creating that environment conducive to learning and pay attention to the 3 R’s. Reinforcing what we notice (what students are doing well), reminding students of what is to come or what they will need to remember and redirecting if needed, when students are still confused about expectations. No matter the situation teacher language is a key component to our daily routine!
Over the past couple of days we have worked hard to build our classroom community. In order for everyone to feel safe, welcome, and cared for in our community, we have been working on getting to know one another. First, through morning meetings and closing circles, we have shared some of our interests, talents, where we were born, and what we are excited about to begin to lay down the foundation. Next, we set our hopes and dreams for the school year. We thought about what our dreams would look like when we achieved them and planned our strategies to overcome obstacles that we might encounter. After we shared our hopes and dreams with our classmates we broke into groups to think of some classroom rules that would support one another in achieving those hopes and dreams. We then came together as a class and narrowed down our rules into seven “be” phrases. The final vote chose the rules we have today. I was so proud of their hard work and collaboration to develop rules they established through supporting one another in the pursuit of our hopes and dreams.
During this unit, the students begin the important work of building their reading community. They hear and discuss stories, make text-to-self connections, and make text-to-text connections as they compare two stories in the same genre. They also explore the use of first- and third-person points of view in fiction. They begin Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) and learn how to select books at their independent reading levels, self-monitor their reading, and use a reading log. Socially, they learn the procedures for gathering for a read-aloud, “Turn to Your Partner,” “Think, Pair, Share,” and IDR. As they build the reading community, they practice listening to the thinking of others, sharing their own thinking, and working in a responsible way.
We have learned about parent/teacher language within Responsive Classroom. The article below builds on what we've previously learned about Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting Language. It discusses the importance of "naming positive identities" in helping children see their potential as learners and how "naming positive identities" motivates them to fulfill their potential. As state in the attached Responsive Classroom article, “Strong envisioning statements are ones that engage students by speaking to issues they care about, with ideas and words that matter to them.”
The 3rd grade classes donated encouragement and joy to the hospitalized children served by There With Care. Students donated new plush toys, then wrote up a super power they invented for it, and completed the package with handmade superhero mask and capes. 3rd grade…You are true superheros!!!
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Boulder Country Day School 4820 Nautilus Court North • Boulder, Colorado 80301 • Phone - 303.527.4931 • info@bouldercountryday.org
Boulder Country Day School is a leading private school serving students 2 ½ years old - 8th grade. In partnership with our outstanding faculty and committed families, we uphold the highest standard for our balanced educational experience. Through small class sizes and innovative engagement in a supportive environment, students at BCD learn to explore their strengths and apply them to the world. Guided by our values, we believe the empowered minds that graduate from BCD will be the ones to ignite global change.