Learning

Middle School Program

Our middle school curriculum (grades 5-8) is designed to deliver excellent academics that will fully prepare students for high school; however, our hallmark is delivering those academics in a way that recognizes each student's unique approach to learning. Our teachers challenge students and also give them the opportunity to create, to imagine, and to enjoy the fun of learning.
The address of our middle school campus is:
601 Dolores Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

The Middle School Day

The core of the middle school day revolves around four core curricular areas: math, science, humanities, and Spanish. Learning in these classes is typically project-based, hands-on, student-centered, and intellectually challenging. In practice, what this has looked like in recent years includes:

  • Sixth grade humanities students used GarageBand loops to mix and perform original rap lyrics exploring the controversial presidency of Andrew Jackson from different viewpoints.
  • Seventh graders studied migration and immigration in their humanities classes, visited an exhibit on refugee camps by Doctors without Borders, and then created their own museum about the refugee experience.
  • Sixth graders worked together in their science classes to build a Rube Goldberg machine in the middle school’s rooftop garden.
  • Fifth grade Spanish students read stories and novels in Spanish and then composed their own stories, skits, and comic strips using vocabulary they had learned from these texts.
  • Eighth grade math students worked in pairs to create maps of the solar system, drawing upon their study of scale, density, volume, and radius to develop their maps.

Specialist Classes

In addition to the core curriculum, middle school students also study art, drama, and music throughout the school year. The art program exposes students to drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, and fabric arts. Grounded in the principles of Orff Schulwerk, our middle school music program offers students the opportunity to engage with music through improvisation, composition, and performance on a variety of instruments. Drama students move through a social justice and performance-based curriculum. They explore topics such as acting, playwriting, scenic and costume design, dramaturgy, and direction.

CDS middle schoolers also rotate through two additional specialist classes each year, spending one semester in each. This rotation consists of Innovation Lab and Food and Agricultural Sciences (FAS). In the Innovation Lab, or iLab, students tackle design and engineering challenges using a variety of equipment, including a laser cutter, 3D printer, circuit-building materials, and numerous carpentry and metal-working tools. In Food and Agricultural Sciences, students investigate the science behind where our food comes from as well as social justice issues related to food and nutrition.

Children's Day School

333 Dolores Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-861-5432
Children's Day School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school.  Learn More
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