Our Programs

Lower School
The Canadian American School provides an international education that empowers all students to be responsible and engaged global citizens.

Lower School at CAS is from Senior Kindergarten (5-year old Program) to Grade 5.

 

WHOLE CHILD APPROACH

CAS is committed to providing a responsive, engaging, challenging, and comprehensive curriculum and learning environment that addresses the academic as well as social-emotional development of each and every child.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING

Our outstanding and supportive teachers leverage their knowledge of each child’s skills, motivations, and interests as well as their understanding of overall child development and growth with the help of innovative tools and assessments to meet each child where they are.

LANGUAGE LEARNING

At CAS we believe that it is never too early to start learning another language. We subscribe to current brain research findings about multilingualism and how you can “build” a better brain with language exposure from an early age. At the Lower School, students get to pick and choose which World Language class they want to be in. World Languages are 45-minute to an hour-long subject held twice a week with a certified language teacher. Current World Languages offered are: French, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hebrew.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

CAS provide an inclusive education where both typically developing and students identified with special needs play and learn together to create a mutual respect and healthy understanding of diversity as we prepare them to become independent, productive, and globally competitive. Our Exceptional Education Program (EEP) is made up of licensed Special Educators, Speech and Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Adapted Physical Educator, and Developmental Pediatrician.

overview

Curricullum
CAS primarily uses the U.S. Common Core State Standards. The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards. These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.

The standards are:
Research- and evidence-based
Clear, understandable, and consistent
Aligned with college and career expectations
Based on rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills
Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards
Informed by other top performing countries in order to prepare all students for success in our global economy and society

English Language Arts

CAS uses the U.S. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts which are divided into four strands with the following key features:

Reading: text complexity and the growth of comprehension
Writing: text types, responding to reading, and research
Speaking and Listening: flexible communication and collaboration
Language: conventions, effective use, and vocabulary

In our ELA classrooms, students:

  • are supported in reading complex and high quality literary and informational texts
  • encounter engaging themes and texts
  • build strong content knowledge
  • adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline
  • are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners
  • value evidence
  • use technology and digital media strategically and capably
    come to understand other perspectives and cultures

Mathematics

In our Math classrooms, students learn the following mathematical practices using the U.S. Common Core State Standards:

  • make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
  • reason abstractly and quantitatively
  • construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
  • model with mathematics
  • use appropriate tools strategically
  • attend to precision
  • look for and make use of structure
  • look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

To view the complete standards, please click here:

Science and Technology

The Science & Technology program is designed to address central areas of scientific investigation: inquiry skills and practices as well as physical, life, and earth sciences. The processes of scientific investigation are emphasized throughout because process skills are embedded in and fundamental to all scientific inquiry, instruction, and content. The focus is on how children actively investigate through observing, recording, describing, questioning, forming explanations, and ultimately drawing conclusions. Our program follows the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards.

Social Studies

Our students engage in a wide range of historical and social issues at increasing levels of complexity as they progress through the Social Studies program. Students gain perspective on the diverse heritage of their own society while developing an understanding of themselves in the larger world. The exploration of social issues and their underlying theoretical constructs permit young children an opportunity to use meaningful content that helps prepare them as life-long learners. We foster a sense of commitment and responsibility, as well as active participation in our school and community. We use the U.S. National Curriculum Social Studies Standards (NCSS) and the Common Core State Standards to frame our study programs.

World Languages

The World Languages program is committed to objectives that develop proficient skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Teachers use Foreign Language National Standards aligned with the Common Core and the 5 C’s: Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. Grammatical concepts and vocabulary are taught in the context of real life situations as students develop accuracy in communicating. Students are also

Students made aware of the career possibilities open to persons in many fields if they have knowledge and skills in a foreign language. Students are encouraged to speak the target language from the beginning through many student-centered activities.

Physical and Mindful Education (PME)

We believe that a solid foundation of physical and health education creates the potential for healthy, physically active lives. Our Physical and Mindful Education (PME) program combines physical activity, healthy eating, and emotional well-being and aims to support children’s optimal physical and emotional development by inspiring and motivating them to make healthier choices today and develop lifelong healthy habits. Like other academic courses of study, physical education is based upon rigorous national standards as set forth by the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and Physical and Health Education Canada, that define what students should know and be able to do as a result of participation.

The CAS curriculum also includes self-defense, dance, and a variety of individual and team sports like basketball, tennis, badminton, football, fencing, golf, squash, bowling, archery and floor hockey. Experts and specialists in their respective fields instruct our students under the guidance of our Athletic Coordinator.

The Arts

The emphasis of the CAS arts program (dance, dramatics, music, and fine arts) is on children’s engagement both actively and receptively, rather than mastery of skills and techniques related to particular artistic media. The components address two key ideas: how children use the arts to express, represent, and integrate their experiences, and how children develop an understanding and appreciation for the arts. It focuses on how opportunities to use and appreciate the arts enable children to demonstrate what they know, expand their thinking, and make connections among the arts, culture, history, and other subjects.

Field Trips

Lower School Application Files

Senior Kindergarten to Grade 2

Health Forms

 

Identifying Information

  • Birth Certificate (original or certified true copy)
  • Current Passport bio and visa pages of student and parents

Previous School Documents

  • Transcript of Records (original)
  • 2 most recent Report Cards/Progress Reports

 

Additional Requirements for Exceptional Education Program

  • Previous Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
  • Program plans or progress reports from related service providers (Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, etc.)
  • Previous testing information
  • Recommendation Letter Form to be completed by the Learning Support/Resource/Special Education
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