SF Day Signature Programs
Setting SF Day Apart
SF Day's signature programs spark the talents and passions of every student in the classroom, in our city and in the world beyond. From expanding intellectual curiosity through robotics and math enrichment, to nurturing the bonds of community through our Buddy Program and Community Engagement Days, to enriching young lives with the visual and performing arts, SF Day's signature programs nurture kind, respectful, unique, self-aware, confident, and brave humans.
Lower School Signature Programs
Outdoor Education
Our signature Outdoor Education program began in 1985 and remains an integral part of the SF Day educational experience. It begins with overnight stays in 3rd grade, and ends with two 8th grade trips, one in the fall and one in the spring. Outdoor Education provides SF Day students with the quintessential risk-taking opportunity, and gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their learning in different ways. An emphasis is placed on group dynamics while students actively build their knowledge of ecology, geology, history, and environmental issues. We teach our students to develop their own ideas about responsible use of the outdoors and how we can help protect our planet's vital resources.
SEL & Wraparound Care
Fundamental to the values of the school, our teaching and learning is based on the belief that children learn best when children feel safe socially and emotionally. Providing a toolkit for self-regulation and emotional wellness is part of the curriculum and is reinforced early and often to mirror the arc of child development. As educators, we understand that learning differences and behavioral issues are often interconnected, so we think about the whole child from heart to mind. The School’s Office of Student Support and Wellness, the first of its kind in San Francisco, ensures that teachers, specialists and counselors are aligned in vision, so that our students can be successful.
Artist of the Month Program
SF Day’s visual arts program is foundational to the school and enriches the academic experience, by helping students make connections to the real world and grounding their learning into interdisciplinary thinking. We teach our students how to see and listen actively, give form to their thoughts, and empower their confidence and belief in themselves. An SF Day signature is the Artist of the Month program, a K-8 based curriculum where lessons are planned around the artist’s creative expression, aesthetic perception and values. All grade levels study and model the artist’s techniques and learn about the artist's sensibility in a developmentally appropriate way. The Visual Arts curriculum culminates with the all-school Imagination Celebration, where all grades display artwork that reflects artwork inspired by the artists that they have studied.
Robotics & Engineering
SF Day’s robotics and engineering curriculum makes it a priority to include underrepresented voices in this field. We start early with the idea of innovation and design partnered with digital citizenship, and are intentional about screen time with regard to our youngest students. From kindergarten on, we teach computational thinking skills to our youngest learners, including sequencing, pattern recognition, and algorithmic design. We have a competitive robotics team, starting in 5th grade, that competes in the First Lego League Qualifying Tournament each fall.
Middle School Signature Programs
Innovation, Design & Passion (IDP)
This program ignites student passion and empowers student agency through an increasingly personalized and student-centered learning experience. Beginning in 6th grade, students will develop research skills and learn to manage complex projects inspired by real-world events and experiences. By 7th grade, students begin exploring their own interests investigating more abstract systems. By 8th grade, they set and work toward their own meaningful goals. Most significantly, students will build community and belonging by discovering shared interests, passion, and purpose by identifying a topic of interest and articulating their own personally set learning goals. They conduct research and develop a detailed project plan with interim goals/milestones culminating in a show case.
Music & Performance
Just as the visual arts has been a core part of SF Day’s programming, every student at SF Day learns to play an instrument, aligned with our belief that musical literacy and appreciation is core to a well balanced graduate. Music is an important part of the fabric of SF Day culture. Teachers and students provide joyful musical experiences that bring the school community together, including two all-school concerts which showcases their team work, collaboration, and sense of community.
City-Wide Competitions
SF Day Middle Schoolers compete against other SF Students in a host of programs, including Speech & Debate, Model UN, Math Counts and robotics competitions. These experiences give them crucial practice in public speaking, critical thinking, collaborative work, and developmentally appropriate socialization from kids with other backgrounds and perspectives.
Community, Culture & Engagement
SF Day was, and remains, a pioneer in intentional incorporation of identity into the K-8 curriculum, not just in what we teach but how we teach it. Celebrating identity and community happens every day in the classroom and at special moments throughout the week – affinity groups in the Lower School and Middle School and Middle School – and year – like our Community Engagement Days. The school is constantly evolving our programming in and out of the classroom to ensure that we remain relevant and responsible to our students, so they can meet the world that they live in with openness, compassion and an abiding interest in the stories of other people.
Engaging Math Curriculum
SF Day doesn’t teach math: we teach mathematicians. We help students understand early and often that getting the right answer is just as important as asking the right questions and justifying your thinking. With two dedicated K-8 Math Coaches, our goal is to prepare students with the confidence and competence to speak the language of math and be flexible and resourceful thinkers that can apply skills and knowledge across complex problems. Our students are avid mathematicians who often participate in state and national competitions, including MathCounts and AMC8.
Buddy Program
The Buddy Program links students in different grade levels and provides each student with a younger or older "buddy." Buddy classes meet throughout the year during the weekly afternoon assembly period. On any given buddy day, you may see a kindergartner working with an 8th grader on an art project or reading a book together. Other buddy day activities include math games, team building games, service projects, and banners for graduation. The buddy system is one way to strengthen ties across grade levels to build a stronger school community and a lasting connection for our children. Our students often remember their buddy fondly, whether younger or older. In fifth grade, students write a letter to their former kindergarten-8th grade buddies to wish them luck in their first year of college.