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Our Mission
Our goal is to create life long learners; children who learn how to learn become grown-ups who are self-sufficient, thoughtful
and inspired participants in life. We want to foster learning behaviors that can be carried to any situation throughout
the long lifetimes of our students.
Our History
The Multi-age 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade program has been in continuous operation since 1994. We are honored
to have the opportunity to teach your kids in an educational environment we believe benefits a wide variety of learners. We
provide a wonderful base to create students who are confident learners with a positive attitude towards school.
Renae Taylor, one of the co-creators of the program, was honored with the Doors of Opportunities Award by the Vashon
Island School District in 2002. The award recognizes those who have given outstanding effort to the children who attend
our schools and to their education.
The Multi-age 1, 2, 3, program was the proud recipient of the Golden Apple Award in 1998. This Washington
State award recognizes excellent educators and programs.
Learning Behaviors
Each of our students will learn many useful skills that will enable him or
her to become life-long leaners. We call these the "Learning Behaviors" and they include: Empathy, Metacognition,
Cooperation, Risking, Attending, Persistence and Quality of Work. We will spend some time talking about and teaching
our students and parents about these important skill areas.
We adapted our "Learning Behaviors" from great information found at the Tahoma schools website.
Click here to see our source material.
Multi-age Writer's Workshop
The Multi-age Writing Program provides basic skills in conventions, vocabulary development and daily experience with a wide
variety of classic literature and informational texts. Our careful scaffolding and dedication to the important skill and
art of writing allow us create third graders who are confident, self-motivated, accomplished writers comfortable in a wide
variety of genres.
We set high expectations, provide a wide variety of writing opportunities, and significant time every day devoted to
writing. We teach and encourage the writing process (rough draft, edit and revise, polish and perfect, final draft) for writing
that will be posted or presented to others. Our students write poetry, stories, informational text and journal entries based
around our units and experiences in the garden.
Our students feel that Writer's Workshop is one of the favorite times in their day. They have the chance to choose what
to write which creates ownership and engages each student's voice and heart in their writing. Real writing comes from the
heart. Our students are real writers.
Multiple Intelligences
We believe in Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. All students
have areas of strength that should be recognized and celebrated whether they are traditional "school" subjects or not.
The Multiple Intelligences give us a way to explain that everybody is smart just in different ways. Imagine how good
this is for self-esteem to know that you are smart even if you aren't great at reading or writing or math!
Multiple Intelligences currently recognized include Verbal/Linguistic, Mathematical/Logical, Visual/Spatial,
Musical/Rhythmic, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Naturalist, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Existential.
20 Years Later by Howard Gardner
Click here for a list of activities that may appeal to each kind of smart!
If you'd like to learn more about Multiple Intelligences click here.
Take a Multiple Intelligences test and find out how you are smart.
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