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Why K-12?

K-12 Classroom Collaboration

SAN DOMENICO LEADS THE WAY IN K - 12 EDUCATION

Every day at SD, exceptional academics and our core values of study, reflection, service, and community cultivate lives grounded in a sense of purpose. We dedicate ourselves to discovering and celebrating meaning, purpose, and joy as part of every endeavor. And when our children uncover their purpose, they recognize that the most powerful motivation possible can come from within.

In a K-12 educational experience, teachers and administrators become the extended family, the proverbial village integral to raising healthy, happy, well-adjusted children.

ACADEMIC BENEFITS

A comprehensive K-12 education provides students academic and social-emotional continuity and stability that is unparalleled in most school settings. Young people who experience a cohesive curriculum that builds upon itself year-over-year, are better able to integrate and retain what they have learned, while not being disrupted by school setting changes which are often accompanied by significant stress, achievement loss, and curricular content gaps. Within our K-12 program, SD, students feel safe taking academic risks and are able to immerse themselves in classroom and community activities with confidence and pride.

A DEEPER LOOK AT MULTI-GRADE COLLABORATION

Seniors and Kindergarteners: Cow Eye Dissection

Seniors and Kindergarteners: Cow Eye Dissection

A memorable and favorite event for all, each year the Kindergarten class participates in a collaborative dissection project in the High School Science Lab with their senior buddies. Wearing goggles and lab coats, and with guidance from their buddies, Kindergarteners use dissection instruments to examine a cow’s eye and learn about vision.

High School and Middle School: Biomedical Ethics Debate

High School and Middle School: Biomedical Ethics Debate

Each spring, our High School Biomedical Ethics class moderates and leads an Oxford-style debate for the entire Middle School. Beforehand, Middle School students are coached by their High School mentors on debate techniques, protocols, and how to develop an argument.

First and Fourth Grades: Polar Express Adventure

First and Fourth Grades: Polar Express Adventure

Fourth Graders escort their First Grade Buddies to the “North Pole Train Station,” complete with ticket booths, “train tracks,” and a lighted pathway. Smiles abound as students enjoy hot cocoa and holiday tunes, while participating in a series of creative activities designed by the Fourth Graders.

Fourth and Seventh Grades: Sand Mandala

Fourth and Seventh Grades: Sand Mandala

A ceremonial artform, the sand mandala is made with colorful grains of sand carefully placed to create a temporary sacred design, encouraging meditation, mindfulness, and impermanence. In their Philosophy, Ethics, and World Religion classes, both Fourth and Seventh Grade students study Tibetian Buddhism, and work together to complete a sand mandala for the whole school to reflect upon. After completing the mandala, students sweep the grains of sand into the creek in order to experience the meaning of impermanence.

Kindergarten and Third Grade: Biomes Study

Kindergarten and Third Grade: Biomes Study

In their science classes, Third Grade and Kindergarten students learn about diverse plant and animal communities known as biomes. As a culmination to their units, each Third Grader teaches a Kinder Buddy about the habitat that they researched. Students learn about the life forms in ecosystems, such as oceans, deserts, tundras, forests, grasslands, and wetlands. They study plant and animal adaptations and take a deeper dive into the rich biodiversity of their biome of study.

Second and Seventh Grade: Owl Dissection

Second and Seventh Grade: Owl Dissection

Our Second and Seventh Grade science classes team up for this fascinating activity while learning about the interconnectedness of life, predator/prey relationships, and the environment in which owls live. Younger students partner with their older buddies to sort and classify the bones of rodents consumed by owls, and to reconstruct their skeletons.

Student Volunteering as Part of ROSE Project

High School and Eighth Grade Students: ROSE and Capstone Project

Meaning and purpose is the nexus of a San Domenico education; SD’s partnership with Stanford University provides our High School students access to Stanford’s Project Wayfinder curriculum which equips them with the tools to create purpose-driven lives, both in and out of the classroom. The Capstone Projects begin the process which will lead to the more in-depth ROSE Projects students are required to conduct in their Junior year.