Our Curriculum
The Lupine Community School values project-based learning. Academic subjects are not taught in isolation, but rather in the interconnected way that they exist in the real world. Teachers create highly intentional, guided project experiences where students work on both individual and collaborative learning opportunities. The integrated projects include the North Carolina state standards for math, reading, science, social studies, art, music, and physical education. Fine motor development, gross motor development, whole body movement, social emotional learning, and mindfulness are also components that are integrated into the students’ school day.
We've included a sample project below to demonstrate how
all subjects are interconnected within our curriculum.
Under each subject is only a few of many opportunities for learning and exploration.
Sample Curriculum Project
Planting a Community Garden
Literacy
Read books relating to gardening
Create a catalog of vegetables in the garden
Identify letters on seed packages
Keep a log book of plant growth using words and illustrations
Social Studies
Collaborate on the best way to care for the garden
Compare and contrast different growing zones to our growing zone
Mathematics
Plan the garden beds with a specific number of vegetables and specific patter
Group seeds and practice counting the grouped seeds by those intervals
Measure the height of different plants using a ruler and record the data on a graph
The Arts
Use plant parts to create 3-D sculptures
Dye fabric using flower petals
ad something about music?
Science
Create an infographic of the needs of plants
Design experiments to show why some plants are growing better than others
Compare properties of soil samples from various places in the garden
Movement
Gross motor: dig, move soil, pull weeds, water plants
Fine motor: pinch and sprinkle seeds
Culinary
Create recipes with vegetables grown
Use the vegetable to prepare a snack to share
Environmental Stewardship
Conserve natural resources by watering the garden with rainwater
Use natural methods of insect control
Compassion
Care for the plants by understanding their needs
Donate vegetables to members of our community in need
Social Emotional Learning
Work as a team to design the garden
Set goals for what we want to achieve
Mindfulness
Be present in our space and appreciate the hard work that was put in
Communication & Compassion
Respectfully disagree with someone else's opinion
How and why we can feel joyful about people's differences
Social-emotional learning
Social emotional learning is a crucial aspect of the Lupine Community Schools curriculum. Please see below for an elaboration of our above curriculum sample for social-emotional learning:
1) Collaboration/Teamwork:
• How do we make the group decisions about our vegetable garden?
• How do we feel and what do we do if our team or class or a different class have a different idea of what we should plant?
• How do we decide on our design for the garden?
2) Sharing:
• How can we share our garden with our community?
• How can we share the responsibilities of planting our garden within our team/class/school?
• Would we let one person do all of the work? Most of the work? How do we choose roles? What do we do as a team if one person is struggling with their shared responsibility?
3) Flexibility/Flexible Thinking/Failing:
• How do we feel and what do we do if our first try planting something doesn’t work?
• How do we feel and what do we do if a team member wants to plant something a different way or has a different idea about an element in our process?
4) Goal setting:
• What are our goals for our garden?
• Do we have personal goals that we can match with the symbol of our growing vegetable? We can each “plant the seed” of our personal goal when we plant the seeds of our garden. Plants need energy to grow. What can give us energy to grow our goal? Sometimes unexpected weather might create a setback or a challenge for a growing plant. Too much wind or rain or a different temperature than expected can affect the vegetable. How will we feel and what can we do if we have a setback with our personal goal that we are working towards as our garden grows?