Academics

Primary Division (PK-K)

Casady School offers a 15-year experience intentionally designed to prepare students for success and to inspire young people to honor, to learn, to engage, to innovate, to serve, and to thrive.
Casady Primary is a special place, and not by accident. We strive for excellence in every facet of our institution by continuously reflecting on our craft and practices in service to our community. We build meaningful partnerships with our families and put our students at the center of every decision.

An early childhood school should be a place of wonder that children are excited to enter into each day. Our Montessori-based approach is the perfect model to facilitate this, as all our lead teachers are Montessori-trained and understand what it takes to prepare a learning environment that prioritizes independence, concentration, and joy. We work hard to engage with our students authentically and model respect while delivering a curriculum that is individualized to the needs of each child.

Clint McEwen
Director of Primary Division

Program Overview

The Primary Division is Montessori-based, integrating the School’s mission of educating mind, body, and spirit with the development of the whole child. Abundant materials and resources in this prepared environment provide multi- sensory learning opportunities and challenges for all Primary students in mixed age groups. The faculty works with children in individualized or small-group lessons to assist a child’s cognitive, social, and motor development and to help develop thinking skills and a love of learning.

We prioritize individual instruction and offer our students the freedom of choice, within limits. We seek to balance developmentally appropriate academic instruction, and support the growth of our student’s social emotional development, while working towards fostering a sense of order, concentration, coordination, and independence.

List of 5 items.

  • Practical Life

    Our Montessori foundation is rooted in Practical Life. By preparing the environment with purposeful, real work from food preparation to sewing, we provide each child the opportunity to develop their sense of order, temper their concentration, and hone their coordination. Through this work, we foster independence in the children, beginning the work of developing our students’ skills that will serve them for their 15-year journey at Casady and beyond.

  • Math and Sensorial

    Much of the magic of Montessori happens in the Math and Sensorial classroom. Students are introduced to materials that teach by introducing increasingly complex concepts through the senses. Our students develop a deep understanding of numeration, mathematical pattern, and logical thinking.

  • English Language Arts

    We begin the complex task of teaching children to read as we do our other disciplines: by first engaging students' senses. Students discover the building blocks of spoken and written language through sound, touch, and vision. In our ELA classrooms, students have the opportunity to engage with hands-on materials and games within our phonics-based Montessori curriculum, giving our students the tools they need to write and read increasingly complex words. Furthermore, we strategically help our students develop the eight skills needed to read as identified by research-based best practices known as the “science of reading.” Across all of our content areas, we provide organic opportunities for the child to discover their intrinsic motivation to learn to read, read to learn, and ultimately love to learn and read.

  • Block Lab

    Our block lab is a no-tech version of a “Maker Space,” utilizing wooden unit blocks as the primary teaching material. Students are given the opportunity to collaboratively plan, try, fail, revise, and try again. Through this process, our students develop resilience and the ability to embrace failure as a learning opportunity: skills perfected by our best thinkers, innovators, and leaders. Along the way, students are exposed to concepts that connect to all other academic areas. Trained teachers observe and scaffold as needed. The work is directed, and the environment is prepared in a way that aligns with our Montessori philosophy.

  • Enrichment Classes

    Throughout their time in PreK and Kindergarten, students have many enrichment opportunities to supplement their learning in core academic areas with classes such as Art, Science, Geography, Cultural Studies, Storytelling, Art and Cooking, and Soulcraft: a class that helps build social-emotional learning skills. All of these classes are aligned under the structure of our Geography curriculum, which directs the study of our universe, our world, and the seven continents, developing a nuanced sense of self, community, and the responsibility to care for others.
Our birthday guideline for August admission are:
  • 4-Half Day PreK: 3 years old by Sept. 1
  • 5-Half Day PreK: 3.7 years old by Sept. 1
  • PreK: 4 years old  by Sept. 1
  • Kindergarten: 5 years old  by Sept. 1
9500 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73120     |     Phone: (405) 749-3100
Casady School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, Episcopal day school serving students in pre-k-12. Educating Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Casady School is a PreK-12, independent, college preparatory Episcopal day school committed to deeper-level learning. Casady School welcomes a student body that reflects the diversity of the world around us and therefore does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nationality, or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered programs generally accorded or made available to students at the School.