Blocks

Simple, solid, three dimensional wooden unit blocks give our younger students the opportunity for creative problem-solving using scientific and mathematical concepts as they plan, design, build, and present their block creations. Teamwork and communication skills are emphasized.

Media & Journalism

Students create and manage the school’s newspaper and the yearbook. They analyze different forms of media and journalistic writing for bias, learn to construct effective stories, and develop critical thinking skills as they digest news, interview people, and write stories. Through the class they learn self-advocacy and become educated consumers of advertising and media. 

Visual Arts

Our Visual Arts courses energize creativity while building a strong foundation in Art History, Visual Vocabulary and craft skills. Each student has the opportunity to learn, create, and engage with materials that support their individual learning styles. Projects explore manipulation of media and techniques while referencing artists and artistic movements to develop a well-rounded cultural and creative understanding and appreciation of art in a global view.

Creative Writing

The Creative Writing class encompasses both expository, creative writing skills, and grammar. The class commences with the structure of a sentence and progresses to a paragraph, and culminates with a five-paragraph essay. By the end of the second semester, students should have abundant practice writing all forms of essays as well as a research paper. The research paper often includes a project board and oral presentation. In addition, students develop a myriad of creative, innovative projects while some classes even produce their own short stories.

Literature

Our literature classes combine the practice of reading and analyzing a variety of texts while developing a robust vocabulary. Our classes drill words in a number of multi-sensory ways that challenges the learner to engage the words and understand their meanings in multiple contexts—instead of learning them and forgetting them. In addition to exposure to both the classics and modern texts, students practice speeches to develop written and oral communication skills.

Social Studies

The DNA of social studies curriculum is geography. By knowing geography, students more easily connect with the news, ecology, history, and, ultimately, critical thinking. Geography is a more tangible asset that helps orient our students to learn about the content areas we teach: Ancient Civilizations, the Medieval period, Colonization, the American Revolution and Civil War, and America in the 20th Century so they are prepared to be citizens in the 21st Century.

Science

The Science department’s philosophy is to aid in the development of these students in a concise and experimental manner. We cater to each child and the curriculum we teach is driven by the interest of the class; therefore, curriculum can change each year dependent upon the make-up of the class. Every class is taught in a multi-sensory manner to better engage students. Harnessing their curiosity is paramount to our science curriculum.

Physical Education

Physical Education at The Chandler School aims to improve our students’ mental, emotional and physical health. Each individual will recognize the value of physical activity for health, self-esteem, social interaction, challenge, and enjoyment. Students will demonstrate good sportsmanship and a positive attitude while using their fine and gross motor skills to accomplish different skills. In addition to these skills, students will incorporate directional words and positional words into their physical activity and performance. 

Math

At the Chandler School, our math philosophy is based around numbers sense. Our teachers use strategies and math manipulatives to help our students to think flexibly. We believe math is best taught in real-world contexts and try to incorporate as many project-based tasks as possible to encourage students to see that math lives in the world around them. Math teachers pull material from a variety of resources and curricula to provide Chandler Pirates with ideal lessons that are geared towards their learning styles.

The A.C.E program teaches many different skills, including how to utilize both Math and Chemistry knowledge. For example, students need statistics to learn averaging and analyzing readouts. It also teaches geometry, like what is the strongest part of a roll cage-would the strongest be a circle or a triangle, and which part can hold more weight? Chemistry is also incorporated when we discuss fuel makeup and how it burns to create torque. It also shows them what can happen at different octane levels with fuel, etc.

A.C.E.

A.C.E. is our Automotive Culture Engineering program. It consists mostly of our 7th and 8th, but it theoretically starts with our 1st - 5th graders in our blocks program. 5th and 6th graders formally begin their ACE journeys by watching the 7th and 8th graders in the paddocks. The ACE program allows students to work with hands-on projects that stimulate their minds.

We have created an entire curriculum that spans all subjects. It teaches the students executive function skills, forward-thinking, and organization. It fosters cooperation and group project work. It promotes auditory processing by being able to communicate the necessary information to drivers and pit crew. However, the main purpose of the program is to be a vehicle for children that struggle with reading and writing and promote a code breaking thought process though a multi-sensory, phonetic approach.