Country Day’s math program is designed to build fluent mathematicians, skilled and perseverant problem solvers, and creative thinkers. Our students learn not just how to solve rote problems but how to think mathematically and tackle real-world, rigorous mathematical problems. This starts in the JK classrooms as students are describing and extending repeating patterns all the way to our advanced Upper School courses. Through innovative, challenging, and differentiated instruction, teachers foster an appreciation for the power and beauty of mathematics, often through project-based units.
One very well-known example and enduring tradition is the Third Grade Kids in Business. It serves as the culminating entrepreneurial project for the third-grade unit on economics. Students design and create a product, and then sell it to parents and other community members. Head of Lower School Bill Mulcahy reflects, "As wonderful as it is to see our children’s joy and pride in developing their products and selling them, it is equally great to see how the unit creates foundational understandings of economic principles that our students carry with them as they get older. On a personal note, I always need to budget for it in advance, as our third graders have developed strong skills of persuasion from their persuasive writing unit, and know that I can easily be talked into purchasing their products. My wallet will be a lot lighter by the end of the day tomorrow."
Congratulations to all of our third graders!