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MIDDLE
SCHOOL
5th-8th Grade
Monday/Wednesday/Friday | 8:45am-3:45pm
In a spirit of describing the nature of our students, we give names to our class levels:
5th & 6th Graders are Voyagers
7th & 8th Graders are SpringBoarders
At the middle school level, education begins to take on a more structured approach. We focus on mechanics, study skills, digging deeper into our literature and history books and making more connections in math and science and in real life. Classes still incorporate many hands-on activities that keep students moving and engaged. There is also a strong focus on communication and collaboration through group and partner work. They are challenged to not only work together at this level, but develop team strategies that utilize all team members' strengths. Students are given unique problems and encouraged to develop creative solutions. Focus is given to building our students' study, time management, computer, cultural, and character building skills. Voyagers and SpringBoarders will have 60 minutes of Exploration Time each week to explore different art forms such as screenprinting, dance, film writing, and chorus.​
In the middle school years, we focus on developing student independence.
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Voyagers may need parent input on some assignments but are expected to take on more independence on the home days. The goal is to begin to develop personal work ethic and study skills, with growing independence and responsibility. Parents will need to monitor students' work and make sure that they are understanding assignments and concepts. The at-home days will require 4 to 6 hours depending on your student's personal work speed.
SpringBoarders should be able to complete most assignments independently at home. The parent's role becomes one of support and motivation. It will be expected that parents know what assignments are on the schedule each week, if their child is completing them and if they are struggling with any of them. Parents should be encouraging students to contact teachers when there are questions or if they need extra help. Parents should support students in executive functioning development. At home, students should expect to spend an hour on each subject.
​5th & 6th | Mon/Wed with an Enrichment Friday option
7th & 8th | Mon/Wed/Fri with an Enrichment Thursday option
This combined class of 7th and 8th graders are called our SpringBoarders. The students start their day at 8:45am with Community Time. This special time in the morning allows all 5th through 12th grade students to come together for a short devotion or team building activity. They begin their academic classes at 9am. They will also have subject specific teachers and change classes throughout the day. Along with science, math, social studies and language arts, students will have a rotating schedule of electives. Students have the same
academic schedule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
​AFTER SCHOOL
OPPORTUNITIES
The DaySpring Academy student has the great advantage of being able to choose from many extracurricular classes in a unique and creative environment. Through DaySpring School of the Arts students become well equipped in the disciplines of the performing and fine arts as they are taught by professionals with a passion for their disciplines. Students can choose from classical ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance, musical theatre, drama, technical theatre, fine art in many media, private music lessons and group music classes. Academy students who participate in these classes, will find them listed on their high school transcript and will earn credit for them.
ENRICHMENT FRIDAYS
Kindergarten thru 6th Grade
These Friday specialty classes enrich the educational experience of our students: giving them the opportunity to explore art, music, dance, engineering, circus, drama and much more. We also open these classes to the greater Saint Louis homeschool community.