A Journey of Learning
Through Language and Faith
Every All Souls student walks the same ten-year path — from a first hesitant "hola" or "你好" to a capstone reflection delivered with confidence in two languages. This is what that path looks like, year by year: the benchmarks reached, the milestones celebrated, and the small daily miracles in between.
Foundations of Wonder
The world arrives in fragments of song and story. A child learns to hold a pencil, count to five on one hand, and greet a new friend — in English, and in the first bright syllables of Spanish or Mandarin.
The Fall Family Dance brings families together, and every TK student is matched with a 7th grade Buddy — a friendship that lasts all year.
Names numerals 0–5 and counts with one-to-one correspondence; tracks print left to right; sorts objects by one attribute.
Novice: first words — echoes greetings (你好 / hola), names family in photos, follows one-step gestures.
God made me & loves me — first Sign of the Cross, first quiet moment of prayer.
Reading Takes Root
Somewhere between September and June, the letters on the page stop being shapes and start being words. Kindergartners cross that threshold twice — once in English, once in their second language — while counting all the way to 100 and asking their first real questions about push, pull, and motion.
The Teddy Bear Clinic (TK–2) brings real nurses in to give stuffed animals checkups, and every K student is paired with an 8th grade Buddy to show them the ropes.
Blends & segments onset-rime sounds (RF.K.2); counts to 100 by ones and tens (K.CC.A.1); investigates pushes & pulls (K-PS2).
Novice: building blocks — follows two-step directions, matches spoken words to written letters.
God our Father & Creator; the parish becomes an extended family.
Independent Readers, Confident Speakers
First grade is the year a child realizes they can read a whole book by themselves — and tell you what happened in it, in complete sentences, in two languages. It's also the year the sacraments stop being a story about someone else and start becoming a story about them.
The whole school celebrates Lunar New Year together — around this age, it's often a child's first playdate where snacks get ordered entirely in the target language.
Adds & subtracts fluently within 10, within 20 (1.OA.C.6); narrates events in sequence (W.1.3); investigates light & sound (1-PS4).
Novice Mid — builds complete sentences with modeled support; compares noun-verb agreement across languages.
Preparing for the Sacraments; learning the Bible's story from Genesis forward.
First Reconciliation & First Eucharist
There is a particular kind of quiet in a church full of second graders making their First Communion — ten years in, and this is often the moment families remember first. It happens the same year students learn to carry a number past a thousand and start to see how their own neighborhood fits into a wider community of history and helpers.
The whole school gathers for the Hispanic Heritage Assembly — around this age, birthday parties often feature a piñata song sung in Spanish.
Adds & subtracts fluently within 100 (2.NBT.B.5); reads with purpose & fluency (RF.2.4); investigates ecosystems & plant needs (2-LS2).
Novice High — retells a story in sequence; asks & answers clarifying questions unprompted.
First Reconciliation and First Eucharist — celebrated together as a school family.
Multiplying Language and Number Sense
By third grade, the languages start doing real work — not just naming things, but explaining them. Multiplication tables lock into place, fractions appear on the number line for the first time, and All Souls students sit for their first formal language assessment, posting scores that already outpace the national average.
CYO sports eligibility opens up (select sports) — the start of a team tradition that continues every year through 8th grade.
Multiplies & divides fluently within 100 (3.OA.C.7); places fractions on a number line (3.NF.A.2); explores forces & interactions (3-PS2).
AAPPL debut — Intermediate range in Interpersonal Listening/Speaking (Spanish), Novice High in Mandarin, both above the national average.
The Creed, studied article by article; the Beatitudes as a pattern for living.
California, Decimals, and the Missions
Fourth grade belongs to California — its missions, its Gold Rush, its long and complicated becoming — taught by students who can plot a coordinate grid, compare decimals to the hundredths place, and explain the whole thing in Spanish or Mandarin as easily as in English.
The Moon Festival brings mooncakes, lanterns, and a shared harvest tradition to the whole school.
Compares decimals to hundredths (4.NF.C.7); explains CA missions, Gold Rush & statehood (HSS 4.2–4.4); models energy transfer (4-PS3).
Novice High → Intermediate Low — writes short structured paragraphs using connectors.
The Church as the Body of Christ; corporal & spiritual works of mercy in daily life.
Founding a Nation, Beginning Middle School
Fifth grade is a hinge — the first year of middle school, when subjects split into separate classrooms and separate teachers. Students found a nation in social studies, find the volume of a rectangular prism in math, and find, in religion class, the words to explain why Christ's death and resurrection matter to them personally.
The whole school gathers for the All Souls Day prayer service, remembering loved ones by name — and the All Souls Musical opens its cast & crew to students, starting in 5th grade.
Multiplies fractions & finds volume of rectangular prisms (5.NF.4, 5.MD.5); traces U.S. founding through the Constitution (HSS 5.5–5.7); models matter & energy in ecosystems (5-PS3, 5-LS2).
Intermediate Low–Mid — sustains a guided conversation; writes a multi-paragraph informative or opinion piece.
The Paschal Mystery — Christ's Passion, Death, Resurrection & Ascension; the role of Scripture and the Magisterium (PF.5.1–8).
Ancient Civilizations, Algebraic Thinking
Middle school opens onto the ancient world — Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome — the same year students first meet negative numbers, ratios, and the idea that atoms rearrange but are never destroyed. It's a lot to hold. Students learn to hold it in two languages.
Sixth graders head off to overnight Science Camp — a week of hands-on ecology, teamwork, and independence away from home.
Solves ratio & rate problems (6.RP.A.1–3); graphs rational numbers in all four quadrants (6.NS.C.8); models atomic structure & chemical reactions (MS-PS1).
Intermediate Low–Mid — analyzes a central idea and its supporting details in the target language.
The four Gospels and the life of Christ, read closely for the first time.
Medieval Worlds, Proportional Reasoning
Seventh grade asks harder questions — about proportional reasoning, about how medieval empires rose and fell, about what a Catholic actually owes their neighbor. Students learn to argue with evidence, in class and in two languages, and the arguments get better every month.
The Buddy program continues — their TK buddy looks up to them, a role that shapes how they lead — and 7th graders travel to Catalina Island for an outdoor education trip.
Solves multistep percent & proportion problems (7.RP.A.3); analyzes the spread of the medieval Islamic world & Europe (HSS 7.2, 7.6); models natural selection & fossil evidence (MS-LS4).
Intermediate Mid — evaluates a speaker's reasoning & evidence; writes an argument with counterclaims.
Catholic Social Teaching — human dignity, the common good, and the first steps of vocation discernment.
Ten Years, One Story
Ten years end the way they began — with language. In a capstone synthesis project, eighth graders look back across everything they have read, written, and lived in two languages, and reflect — in speech and in writing — on what it has meant to become bilingual, bicultural, and formed in faith. They leave ready for algebra, geometry, or higher-level math, for high school, and for whatever comes next.
The Buddy program comes full circle — their Kindergarten buddy remembers them as a first mentor — and 8th graders travel on an extended trip over spring break, a capstone send-off before high school.
Solves systems of linear equations (8.EE.C.8); analyzes the causes & aftermath of the Civil War (HSS 8.8–8.10); completes a capstone synthesis project reflecting on ten years of bilingual growth.
Intermediate Mid–High / Advanced Low — presents a sustained bilingual reflection; some students sit for the AP Spanish or Chinese Language exam this year.
Church history & the Church's mission today; forming a mature conscience for vocation and moral decision-making.
The Portrait of an All Souls Graduate
Ten Septembers and ten Junes later, this is who walks across the stage.
Biliterate & Bicultural
Reads, writes and speaks with confidence in English and Spanish or Mandarin — Intermediate Mid–High on the ACTFL/AAPPL scale, capped by an eighth-grade capstone project reflecting on ten years of language growth.
Academically Prepared
Completed the full CCSS / NGSS / CA HSS sequence, ready for Algebra, Geometry, or higher-level math — prepared for competitive Catholic and independent high schools.
Formed in the Faith
Ten years of the ADLA's four pillars — Creed, Sacraments, Morality and Prayer — shaping a mature Catholic conscience, ready for Confirmation and everything beyond it.
Globally Minded
Formed by "Choose Love" SEL: courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion in action, every year TK–8.
Whole-Person Formed
Ten straight years of weekly Music, Physical Education, and Fine Art — learning that extends well past the academic core.
