A Different Kind of Elementary Education

Literacy at WHPS is taught through a workshop approach that helps children become confident readers, thoughtful writers, and increasingly independent learners.

Teachers explicitly demonstrate strategies that real readers and authors use, often through familiar books and mentor texts. A writing lesson might examine how an author crafts a strong lead, develops a scene, uses dialogue purposefully, controls pacing, or uses conventional and creative nonfiction text features. Children see the technique in authentic writing, practice it, and then make decisions about how to use it in work of their own.

Students read real books, talk about literature with peers, and make meaningful choices about what they read and write. As they grow, the work develops from foundational reading and writing skills into deeper comprehension, inference, analysis, vocabulary, structure, voice, craft, and increasingly purposeful communication.

Individual conferences and targeted small groups allow teachers to focus on the particular skill most likely to move a student forward. A child may be an advanced reader who is refining a particular comprehension strategy, or a sophisticated, imaginative writer who is still strengthening conventions. We teach the child, not simply the grade level.

Foundational literacy is equally intentional. Systematic phonics, decoding, fluency, and word study help children build strong foundations. Rather than simply memorizing the same spelling list for a test, students learn patterns and strategies they can apply to unfamiliar words and authentic reading and writing.

Writing also has a real audience. WHPS Publishing Celebrations give children opportunities to share finished work with classmates, teachers, and families, building pride, confidence, and a genuine sense of authorship.

The goal is for children to take the strategies they learn and use them independently in a new book, a new piece of writing, or an idea entirely their own.

At WHPS, mathematics is about much more than learning procedures or getting the right answer. We want children to become deep mathematical thinkers who can reason, make connections, explain their thinking, and apply what they know to problems they have not seen before.

Our program is built around Singapore Math, an internationally respected approach centered on conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

A hallmark of Singapore Math is its Concrete → Pictorial → Abstract progression. Children first develop an idea through hands-on experiences, then represent the mathematical relationship visually, and ultimately work confidently with numbers, symbols, and algorithms. This helps students understand not simply how a procedure works, but why.

Tools such as bar modeling help students make complex relationships visible. Children compare strategies, recognize patterns, communicate their reasoning, and persevere through multi-step problems where the solution is not immediately obvious.

The curriculum is academically advanced, with concepts often introduced earlier than in traditional grade-level programs. Students can deepen their understanding or continue into more advanced mathematics when they are ready.

The goal is not simply to produce children who are good at math. It is to develop flexible, confident thinkers who can approach something difficult, make sense of it, and find a way forward.

Science at WHPS is something children do, not simply something they read about.

Students observe closely, ask questions, make predictions, investigate, gather evidence, analyze results, revise explanations, and communicate what they discover.

As children grow, the work develops from firsthand observation and classification into experimental design, systems thinking, evidence-based explanation, and increasingly complex ideas in the life and physical sciences.

Just as importantly, students learn that discovery rarely follows a perfectly straight line. Evidence may challenge an assumption. An experiment may need to be redesigned. A good question may lead to another one.

We want children to know science, but also to learn how scientists think.

Social studies at WHPS is not about memorizing a single version of history. Children become curious investigators of people, cultures, ideas, and the forces that shape our world.

Students explore history and current events from multiple perspectives, examining evidence and asking whose voices are represented, whose may be missing, and how the same event can look different depending on where you stand.

The questions grow with the students: What causes people to create change? Why do societies develop differently? How do geography, culture, power, and ideas influence history? What can the past help us understand about the present?

Projects make that inquiry personal. In Upper Elementary, for example, our Finding Your Roots project invites students to investigate their own family histories and connect those stories to larger patterns of migration, culture, identity, and historical events.

Research, literature, primary sources, discussion, projects, and presentations help students understand history as something to investigate rather than simply receive.

The goal is not to tell children what to think about the world. It is to give them the knowledge, curiosity, and critical-thinking skills to think deeply for themselves.

The world our children will enter is changing quickly. The particular technologies and careers they encounter may change, but their ability to know themselves, work with others, adapt, communicate, solve problems, and keep learning will endure.

At WHPS, these abilities are intentionally taught. Drawing from child development, executive function, positive psychology, Responsive Classroom, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People adapted for children, students learn to communicate with empathy, navigate conflict, reflect on choices, set meaningful goals, and take increasing ownership of their growth.

Students learn to recognize their strengths, reflect honestly on where they are growing, and always have a meaningful next goal. As they mature, they set SMART goals, track progress in Leadership Notebooks, and eventually lead Student-Led Conferences, sharing their accomplishments, challenges, and aspirations with their teachers and families.

Expectations grow thoughtfully over time, from the earliest work with self-regulation, communication, and responsibility to increasingly independent organization, leadership, self-advocacy, and ownership of learning.

Academic potential is only part of a child’s potential. We want children to become confident, caring, adaptable people who understand themselves, contribute to their communities, and remain curious learners throughout their lives.

The WHPS experience intentionally evolves as children grow.

In Lower Elementary, TK–1st Grade, children build the academic and personal foundations for everything that follows, becoming confident readers, writers, and mathematical thinkers while developing independence, curiosity, and a love of learning.

Beginning in 2nd Grade, the structure gradually changes. Students begin working with different teachers and, at times, across our 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th multi-age groups.

By 4th and 5th Grade, the day begins to look more like middle school. Students rotate among teachers and subjects, manage increasingly complex projects and responsibilities, and develop the organization, self-advocacy, and independence they will soon need.

They get to practice all of this gradually, within the small community where they are already known so well. By the time middle school arrives, many of its rhythms and expectations already feel familiar.