text: Because we begin with the end in mind, our programs build from the very earliest 3-year old preschool class toward the knowledge and skills we expect of our eighth graders.
  This is where it all begins! Challenger preschoolers start early and start right! Our exceptional preschool programs lay the foundation for our students’ future learning. Challenger preschoolers enjoy an effective mix of music, reading, math, art, drama, social relating time, science, and physical activities that aim to improve small and large motor skills. In Challenger’s uniquely fun and academic preschool, children learn in challenging, but attainable, steps, and they begin to experience the joy of achievement as they employ their newly acquired knowledge and skills. Even our youngest preschoolers begin to gain self-worth through achievement, and we encourage parents to support this important development. We are careful not to do for a child what she can do for herself, lest we dampen her independence and her confidence in the strength of her own mind. Our curriculum channels a child's insatiable thirst for discovery and helps improve her focus and concentration—skills necessary to excel in life. Come see what our students are able to achieve!
  Challenger’s fun-filled kindergarten program challenges students and their ability to stay on task in order to optimize their success. We’ve perfected the balance between play and learning so well that our kindergartners can’t tell the difference—it’s a seamless environment of learning and fun. Our curriculum and teaching methods are designed to help students become precise thinkers and self-reliant individuals. Challenger kindergartners read stories and write their own. They solve real-life logic problems, add and subtract numbers, and begin to understand fractional parts. Our kindergarten students radiate confidence and happiness! This confidence, in part, is what propels them to think for themselves—questioning everything—and to achieve well beyond other children their age.
  Challenger first graders can confidently diagram simple sentences, solve story problems, make analogies, identify animal classes, and recognize landforms. Because our teachers present concepts in a logically ordered sequence and demonstrate how each new idea is connected to previous learning with observable facts, our students learn to discover and make new connections on their own. Challenger first graders love to learn!
  Challenger second graders are able to label place value to millions, read novels, diagram compound predicates, draw landscapes, and identify the stages in a plant’s life cycle. Because our students are learning and succeeding, they approach school with exuberance!
  Challenger School’s curriculum helps students gain the ability to think clearly, question, and reason. As a result, Challenger third graders can write multi-paragraph compositions, explain how Roman ideas about government influenced America’s Founding Fathers, write computer programs to create graphics, draw and label the layers of the earth, find the perimeter of complex figures, and much, much more! They take pride in their abilities and delight in increasing their knowledge and skills as they move into advanced subject matter.
  By fourth grade, Challenger students are speeding along in their education, becoming more and more skilled and self-assured. Because of our emphasis on conceptual learning and critical thinking, Challenger fourth graders understand the reason for the process of dividing fractions, distinguish fact from opinion by basing their thoughts on observable facts, explain the causes and effects of the American Civil War, describe what factors impact Earth’s tilt, draw conclusions about fictional characters from their actions, and deliver speeches with poise and power. Challenger fourth graders know that their success is in their own hands! Taking responsibility for their actions and performance leads to independence and self-respect.
  In fifth grade, we continue to emphasize independent reasoning skills, resulting in our students’ exceptional academic performance and success at pursuing life. By introducing concepts in a sequence that allows the student to discover the truth instead of being given answers to memorize, we promote our students’ enthusiasm for learning. Challenger fifth graders are able to make inferences, organize ideas in outlines, program computer animations, describe cycles and changes in ecosystems, distinguish between a democracy and a republic, use and cite sources in research, subtract fractions with different denominators, and so much more.
  As sixth graders, students are now part of Challenger’s top-notch middle school program! Because they have experienced both rigor and success in previous grades, they transition easily to middle school. Sixth graders have multiple teachers who specialize in individual subjects. Sixth grade studies include higher-level concepts and activities such as writing in active rather than passive voice; solving problems using measures of central tendencies like mean, median, and mode; evaluating the validity of arguments; modeling the Earth with globes and maps; interpreting the mood of a piece of music; and examining the effects of colonization and imperialism on world history. Challenger students take pride in their intelligence and accomplishments!
  Challenger seventh graders are fearless scholars! They approach even demanding assignments with self-confidence since they have been taught how to look at the relationships between things to find connections to what they already know. They are able to easily incorporate new learning because the new learning builds on already-acquired knowledge such as what factors influence patterns of heredity; how to recognize and avoid errors in logic; what events led up to the principle of the Monroe Doctrine; when it is appropriate to use standard and nonstandard English; and what can happen when illusion supplants reality, as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Our students attain a high degree of mastery of the traditional subjects, preparing them for a productive life.
  In their final year at Challenger, eighth graders study topics that many students don’t get to until college! They independently apply the concepts they have been taught to solve two-column geometry proofs, examine the corrupting effect of power in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, spike a volleyball, program arrays to store a collection of data, explain the circumstances that lead to inflation, correct dangling modifiers, and more. Challenger eighth graders exude confidence knowing they have bright futures ahead of them because they know with certainty that they have the tools to thrive and achieve in life!
  Most Challenger campuses offer an extended class program (7 a.m.–6 p.m.) before and after regular school hours for kindergarten through eighth grade students. The time is structured, and activities are organized for the maximum benefit of students. Our all-day preschool programs include extended care from 7 a.m.–6 p.m and, therefore, do not require the parents to pay for extended class time.
  Whether you want your child to advance academically or just have some summer fun, Challenger School is the perfect way to enrich your child’s summer days. Students are engaged in unique learning exercises, drills, and activities using methods that have proven successful for more than five decades.
  2021 National Blue Ribbon School