Lower School (K-3)
Case studies
Case Study 1: Fountain Hill School, it's Chapin's Kindergarten calling
 When one thinks of Kindergarten, blocks might come to mind, or crayons. But a videoconference? That seems beyond the scope of the average 5- or 6-year-old, but not at Chapin. Not only do Kindergarteners here learn how to use a computer, but they also experience some of its more complex capabilities.
Recently, some of the Kindergarteners held a videoconference with students at the Fountain Hill School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Teacher Mary Beth Burns had arranged the conference, and she explained to the girls how it worked. “Your computer can be used to talk to somebody else,” she said. “It’s like a telephone.” Using an Apple computer program called iChat, Ms. Burns and a colleague at Fountain Hill were able to have a “live” phone call, complete with a video projection of the students that was visible on a large screen.
The Kindergarten curriculum includes lessons about the world that most immediately surrounds the girls, such as their classrooms and school. Through this conference, the girls asked their peers in another place about their world and, of course, fielded inquiries in return. Soon enough, the Chapin students knew all about Fountain Hill and even more about themselves.
Case Study 2: Authors and publishers, one and all
Most authors work for years before they publish their first book. But the girls in Class 2 are ahead of the curve. Recently, each published two books on topics of her choice. To celebrate, the students invited their parents to Chapin for some shared reading time.
 The girls created the books as the culmination of a unit on nonfiction. They had been studying what distinguishes that genre from fiction and poetry, taking note of all of nonfiction’s features. They investigated larger issues — what are the books about? — all the way down to finer structural points, such as whether a book has a glossary.
Of course, there’s no better way to learn about a book than by writing one.
“Each girl started with a web of sections that she wanted to include,” teacher Karen Salzberg said. From there, the girls shaped their ideas to fit within the sections, yielding both a “how to” book and an “all about” book. They were free to write about a topic of their choice, but it had to be one on which they felt like an expert. The parameters yielded titles such as “Horses, Horses, Horses,” “Want to Wear a Necklace?” and “Lights, Camera, Action!”
The students then gave their compositions a physical manifestation. They produced actual books by selecting paper, designing covers and adding illustrations, taking their writing all the way from first ideas to beautiful, finished forms.
Case Study 3: The library treasure hunt
Lower School librarian Christina Kover has developed a method to help her students navigate the library’s shelves, which gives the space its proper due: a treasure hunt. Call numbers, which designate where in the library a book is shelved, serve as a map where J 031 LEO or 956.704 ALL mark the spot instead of an X.
 Working in groups of three, the students received index cards with five call numbers written on them, as well as five colored strips of paper. Their task was to locate the five books whose call numbers corresponded to those on the index card. Once the books were found, the girls placed a colored strip of paper in each, so that later, another trio could look at a different group’s index card and ferret out the appropriate tomes.
One morning, Ms. Kover’s Class 3 students excitedly engaged in the treasure hunt process. Soon enough, cries of “I found it!” emerged from the rainbow of book spines that line the library. The girls glanced from call numbers to tables of contents, confident that if they didn’t find an actual pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they could certainly find a book about it.
Last updated 06.12.08
This page overseen by the Head of Lower School
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