Students experience multiple Encore classes each week to enhance the core curriculum that is taught daily. The STEAM Initiative creates an environment where students take risks, try new ideas and live out the engineering design process. The strong, intentional and creative partnership between the classroom teachers and Encore teachers is a hallmark at CMDS. These enriching and stimulating learning opportunities enable students to foster and discover a wide range of new skills, interests and passions.
Art
2K-SK
In our early childhood program at CMDS, art is all about discovery, play, and building foundational skills. Children explore through sensory experiences that encourage them to come in, make a mess, and use a different part of their brain. They learn about primary and secondary colors, experiment with markers, painting, and playdough, and create open-ended projects like collages. Students practice how to draw a face and create self-portraits, while also learning to layer shapes and engage in 3-part projects that build skills step by step. Art centers change daily along with materials, giving students fresh opportunities to explore, strengthen fine motor skills, and express their creativity in new ways each day.
1st-6th grade
At CMDS, our art program for our Lower and Upper School emphasizes creativity while teaching students the respect of materials and the importance of keeping their workspaces clean. Students engage in process art, where the journey of creating is just as valuable as the finished product, and they are encouraged to get a little messy as they explore new ideas. From using a variety of art tools to experimenting with plaster in projects like the “dancing sculpture,” students gain hands-on experience in diverse techniques. Every class creates at least one portrait, culminating in our traditional 6th grade portraits that serve as a capstone of their growth. Along the way, students practice collage work, try unconventional materials like Legos to stamp, and discover that art is about exploring both materials and self-expression.
Bible
2K – 6th Grade
At CMDS, our Bible Encore class is a central fixture that has been part of our school since our opening in 1958. Bible class is offered to students in 2K through 6th grade and is centered on God’s Word and is designed to help students grow in their understanding of the Bible and its truths. More than just a class, Bible class shapes the heart of our school, carrying over into the regular classroom as students learn to apply Biblical principles to their academic subjects and daily lives. This class helps lay the foundation for both spiritual growth and lifelong learning.
2K - SK Bible: Our youngest students are introduced to the foundations of Scripture and the understanding that the Bible is one big story that points to Jesus. In Bible class, children explore the “who, what, when, where, and why” of these sacred truths in developmentally appropriate ways that allow for meaningful discussion. Prayer is woven throughout their learning as students are encouraged to speak their prayers aloud, revisit them over time, and celebrate how God answers prayers while trusting Him in the moments of waiting.
1st - 6th Bible: In our elementary grades, students journey through the entire Bible twice before graduating in sixth grade, engaging with its books through a three year cycle. As they study God’s Word, students also have opportunities to bring these stories to life by leading and performing in Chapel. Prayer is woven into every class as students learn to strengthen their connection with the Lord and seek Him for guidance in all things. The Fruits of the Spirit are central to our instruction, and all teachers across campus can recognize students who exemplify these traits with special Fruit of the Spirit acknowledgments.
Discovery Lab & Engineering Lab
2K – SK
Our STEAM-influenced Discovery Lab encourages our youngest students to be scientists and engineers. The course includes a rotation of science and nature, engineering and construction, and a tinker space where students can explore freely. The curriculum strategy is to encourage students to ask questions, gather information, form hypotheses, experiment, share, and collaborate. Introducing them to the design-thinking process at a young age fosters creative experimentation, critical thinking, problem-solving, and a love of science and engineering.
1st – 6th Grade
The E-Lab at CMDS has transformed into a dynamic design studio where students engage in hands-on, interest-driven STEAM learning. This space houses our school’s technology tools—including robotics kits, coding platforms, circuit-building components, drones, a Glowforge laser cutter, and two MakerBot Sketch 3D printers—giving students the opportunity to explore real-world applications of the design-thinking process. Building on the foundation laid in Discovery Lab, students deepen their skills by prototyping, testing, and refining solutions to open-ended challenges. Collaboration, creativity, and perseverance are at the heart of the E-Lab experience. By the time they graduate, CMDS students are equipped to approach problems strategically and bring innovative ideas to life with confidence.
Adjacent to the E-Lab, the newly renovated Makerspace serves as an extension of our STEAM learning environment. While the E-Lab focuses on technology-based projects such as coding, robotics, computer-aided and digital design, the Makerspace provides a hands-on building space where students can bring their engineering ideas to life. Though not a stand-alone class, the Makerspace is deeply integrated into the E-Lab experience and supports collaborative, cross-curricular projects across all grade levels. From constructing animal enrichment prototypes to designing models for school-wide events, students use this space to plan, build, test, and iterate—often collaborating across grade levels, such as in our pollination project, where second graders partnered with JK students to simulate the pollination process and learn from each other. These experiences help develop real-world problem-solving skills in a highly creative setting.
Electives
5th and 6th Grade
Electives at CMDS are designed to give fifth and sixth graders meaningful choice while cultivating curiosity, creativity, and ownership. Each elective centers around a compelling driving question that challenges students to think deeply and apply their learning in authentic ways.
Examples include:
How can we design, grow, and care for a garden using science, creativity, and technology?
Who is God, and what is He like?
How can student journalists give our school community a voice through a student-created newspaper?
Can we engineer a recycling system our school will actually use?
Students select the questions that spark their interest and participate in three six-week rotations, allowing them to experience multiple electives. Through these project-based experiences, students grow in academic excellence, social responsibility, personal integrity, and spiritual development, living out the Portrait of a CMDS Graduate.
Global Preschool Studies
2K – JK
Global Preschool Studies (GPS) is an engaging encore class that introduces students to geography and culture. As they explore countries across every continent, students celebrate God’s unique and purposeful design of His world and its people. Throughout the curriculum, they learn about habitats, animals, customs, and cultural celebrations. Through costumes and immersive play, students actively experience and explore countries from around the globe in meaningful and memorable ways.
Library & Literacy Lab
2K – 6th Grade
At CMDS, our Library Encore class is much more than a weekly opportunity to check out books for independent reading. It is a joyful and inviting space where students are taught to become confident, independent users of the library by teaching skills they will carry with them throughout their lives. Through engaging read-alouds, students are encouraged to discover new books and explore a wide variety of topics and interests.
Our library collection includes picture books, chapter books, fiction and nonfiction titles, Christian literature, research materials, and seasonal and holiday resources. The library experience also extends beyond the regular Encore block through partnerships with parents, book fairs, Book Madness, and our CMDS Reads Initiative. In addition, the library supports classroom instruction by providing resources that reinforce and enrich the concepts being taught across subject areas. The ultimate goal of our Library Encore class is to foster a lifelong love of reading in every child!
2K-SK
Students in 2K through SK participate in a unique Encore experience that directly extends the phonemic awareness instruction taking place in their homeroom classrooms. Literacy Lab builds upon each grade level’s current themes, units, and targeted skills, creating a seamless connection between core instruction, reinforcement and enrichment. These classes engage students in oral language development through meaningful conversations, vocabulary building, positional words, print awareness, working memory activities, book handling skills, interactive read-alouds, songs, games, and dramatic play. Through both whole-group and small-group instruction, students strengthen letter knowledge, rhyming skills, syllable awareness, onset and rime, and letter sorting skills.
Music
2K-SK
At CMDS, our Early Childhood Music program nurtures fine motor development and active listening skills through a joyful, kinesthetic approach. Students sing, move, and play instruments as they explore the foundations of music. Along the way, they are introduced to a variety of musical genres and composers, broadening their appreciation and understanding of the art form. Throughout the year, students also use their God-given gifts and talents to lead in weekly chapel services and participate in special musical programs, building both confidence and a heart for worship.
1st-6th
Our Lower and Upper School Music program centers on Christ, guiding students to recognize God as the Creator of all sound and song. Lessons are woven around Biblical themes while introducing students to a variety of composers and musical genres. Through engaging instruction that includes singing, movement, rhythm, and hands-on instrument practice such as recorders and ukuleles, students develop both musical skill and appreciation. Throughout the year, students have opportunities to share their talents in school programs and may choose to further cultivate their gifts through our optional choir program.
Pillars
1st - 6th Grade
Our Pillars Program was created by our Student Engagement Team to give students intentional opportunities for growth beyond their regular academic classes. The program focuses on the four pillars of the CMDS Mission Statement: academic excellence, spiritual development, social responsibility, and personal integrity. Together, these pillars shape our “Portrait of a Graduate,” preparing students to carry these values with them as they move on to their next schools. Each week, a member of the Student Engagement Team meets with every class to guide students in these areas through various activities and discussions.
Science Lab
1st – 6th Grade
The Science Lab at CMDS is designed to spark curiosity, build critical thinking skills, and foster a love of scientific discovery. Using McGraw Hill’s Inspire Science curriculum, students engage in hands-on, inquiry-based learning that explores life, physical, and earth/space sciences. Lessons emphasize collaboration, problem-solving, and real-world applications as students work in small groups to investigate questions and design experiments. Science instruction is further enriched by time in our on-campus Learning Garden and through age-appropriate dissections in Upper School. The curriculum spirals from year to year, deepening understanding and preparing students to think like scientists throughout their time at CMDS.
Spanish
1st – 6th Grade
CMDS Spanish is a FLEX (Foreign Language for Exploration) program. Just as children learn their native language, our students are exposed to the Spanish language through the process of comprehensible input, including hearing and acting out stories, singing songs and playing games in Spanish. Students also engage in activities that allow them to explore the cultures and people of Spanish-speaking countries. The goal is for our students to leave CMDS with a well-rounded understanding of the Spanish language and culture.
Wellness
2K – 6th Grade
Physical Education and daily recess at CMDS encourage students to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. Students play a variety of organized sports and games in Wellness and are taught the importance of sportsmanship. Our Wellness teachers also teach weekly “healthy habits” that children can independently apply to their daily lives.
