In the early years of education, young children love to explore, discover, and learn new things. Our academic program for lower school (grades 1st – 5th) taps into this natural inquisitiveness with courses and activities that truly engage young minds and reinforce key concepts in meaningful ways.
Since this age group typically needs more direct, focused guidance, we bring teachers and parents together in close collaboration to ensure each student’s success.
LOWER SCHOOL (GRADES 1st – 5th)
Maximum Class Capacity: 8 students
The lower school class schedule is wide and focused. Full time and Part time classes are available. Classes are provided in the morning hours based on EST.
For lower school grades, the Anima Mundi online curriculum includes:
Welcome and Sun Salutation: Welcoming the day with a positive message.
A constructive welcome followed by a daily virtue, a bit of yoga, and a positive meditation. We encourage children to appreciate every day and its gifts, as well as to develop the emotional intelligence to face any obstacles and challenges throughout the day. These qualities–both in meditation and in daily life–strengthen inner character and develop spiritual awakening.
Green Art: Creating sustainable art that upcycles, recycles, and reuses existing elements
Art is the language of the soul. When we create art, we are able to touch beauty. Our students create sustainable art in a mindful setting where they learn to upcycle, recycle, and reuse existing elements to give birth to new beauty. Students interact with non-toxic, nature-sourced materials and tools that won’t harm them and that are in rhythm with nature.
Emotional Intelligence: Nourishing your inner self with awareness that creates long-lasting change.
Developing an emotional language is one of our aims, as it is the base of understanding oneself. This class helps children learn the basics of energy healing, empathy, and forgiveness. Our emotions are the ultimate vehicle to ignite actions, reactions, and solutions.
English as a Peace Language: English as a universal language to create sustainable change
English language proficiency is one of our goals but with the special aim of using it to acquire peaceful states that can impact the world and create sustainable change.
Languages for Unity: Merging expression and communication to sprout world harmony.
World languages can be used to create cohesiveness in our message and unity around different cultures. Students get to learn universal languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, and French.
- Spanish Skills
- French Skills
- Mandarin Skills
- Italian Skills
Math with a Purpose: Decoding the perfect orchestration of algorithms through numbers
We teach mathematical skills with the purpose of understanding ourselves and the environment to partake in better choices.
Expression: Mastering expression and communication through the English language.
Being able to express and communicate with others is the basic goal of this class. We encourage children to use appropriate vocabulary and verbiage in order to accurately convey their thoughts.
Reversive Medicine: Shaping the health of our students and our planet.
Biology, nutrition, and science classes are geared to shape the health of our students and our planet. Reversive medicine includes the 5 pillars of health. Our education empowers students to be the CEOs of their health. From a young age, children understand that their choices determine their health. We teach Reversive Medicine and epigenetics at the core of this subject.
Sustainable Technology: Adopting the use of technology that can enhance and enrich human and planetary well-being.
Students learn to use technology, but with a clear end to serve the planet. Our classes are not only geared to understand and “create technology” but to enrich in purpose and scope.
Earth Alive! Discovering nature, recycling, composting and creating new cycles of life.
Our class provides specific day-to-day actions and solutions for reducing, recycling, and reusing materials instead of contributing to waste. Instead, we learn the importance of using home waste to give new purpose to materials and to feed the soil. Students learn to connect animal, plant, and human food systems as well as understand structure and function, cycles of matter and energy in organisms, and interdependent relationships in ecosystems.
Food Foresting and Permaculture: Empowering food security as the core of self-sustainability
Growing our own food is as important as learning any other subject. Food security is essential for living and by teaching students to plant and grow their own food sustainably they will learn the ultimate way of living in harmony with the planet.
History for Decision-Making: Focusing on historical fact to advance present and future global awareness.
Students learn history, but one that focuses on the accurate representation of the facts through reliable and unbiased sources, including mistakes and successes. Our history class is not geared to the past but instead, it is made to approach the present and the future.
Healing Myself and the World: Mastering a comprehensive approach to health for human and planetary well-being
Students understand why we are sick and how we can heal. Through a wholistic, cohesive, and comprehensive perspective, they understand that all systems, physically and universally are connected. We also teach them the concept of holons, which basically means that we are independent but at the same time dependent on the world. If we heal the world, we will be healing ourselves, and if we heal ourselves, we will be healing the world.
Little Yogis: Building upon the repertoire of our own body for long-lasting strength, ability, and health.
Yoga helps kids to relax, relieve stress and anxiety, sleep better, improve emotional regulation, increase empathy, and improve mood and affect. Practicing yoga happens to be just one of the many ways in which we can teach mindfulness to kids.
Culinary Medicine: Mastering the culinary skills that heal yourself and the planet.
Following Hippocrates’ teaching, the kitchen is our medicine cabinet and we empower students to create their own healing medicine. Our students learn to prepare, cook, eat, and compost organic whole foods taking care of themselves and their environment.
Reading for Wisdom: Empowering the habit of reading as a fundamental foundation of knowledge.
This class focuses on gaining English literacy through empowering readings that fuel children’s curiosity, analysis, debate, and insight to seek answers to their questions.
Ancient Wisdom: Tapping into the power of knowledge, truth, and enlightenment.
Students learn the basis of ancient enlightenment through the sacred knowledge bestowed in nature, words, and the elders. This class goes beyond social studies as it delves into the essence of human communication and behavior. It focuses on the diffusion of ancestral thought as a tool to improve life and recover the link between human beings and nature. The class is taught by an indigenous master from the Teib Tribe in South America.
Daily Gratitude: Acknowledging everything we have!
This is a short gratitude that created the habit of remembering the gifts possessed and those received, as well as the wisdom learned during the day.
Teachers, Parents, and Students Working Together
In Pre-school and Lower School, from day one, highly qualified professionals with specific expertise in the younger grades are assigned to the students. They oversee all facets of the instructional experience for every subject, while you, as the parent, work side-by-side with your child to facilitate his or her progress through the daily lessons.
Every online course provides you with suggested lesson plans for the week, which update automatically as your student completes them. You can vary these plans to accommodate your child’s pace or abilities; our online scheduling and management tools make it easy to move things around.
For instance, some students do better when they can concentrate on a particular subject for longer hours per day, but fewer days per week. Other parents use their children’s favorite subject as a reward, to give them a periodic break from tougher subjects. Or you may take a day off or modify the schedule to accommodate your child’s outside pursuits.
On average in Preschool, you can expect to spend 3-4 hours per day supporting your child’s education, which most parents believe is “just right.” But you’re never alone. Throughout the week, your teacher stays in close contact with you and your student, communicating regularly by e-mail, over the phone, and in one-to-one, real-time meetings that take place online. He or she remains constantly involved in your child’s learning—monitoring progress, ensuring mastery, and developing specific intervention plans if needed.
