Grades 3-6

Katie Lamade is in her first year as Head of the Lower School, her eighth at Landon. She has served as a Form Dean in two grades at Landon, including Grade 6.  She has also served as our Grade 3–12 Curriculum Manager as well as a teacher and coach. Prior to Landon, Katie was the Athletics Director at the Madeira School and taught and managed curricular work on the elementary and middle school levels at Center City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. She holds her BA from Duke University, where she captained the women’s lacrosse team, and her MA cum laude from Loyola University in Curriculum and Instruction, with a focus on Educational Leadership. She has also been active in leadership work though our local independent school association, AISGW, in both their Women’s Leadership Initiative and Emerging Leaders Program. She also chairs the Board at Blessed Sacrament School.

We understand that every boy learns differently. If he needs extra help, his teachers and the Lower School specialist from our Center for Teaching and Learning Resources will work with you and your son to develop a plan tailored to his strengths and needs so he can improve academically, complete work on time, and develop a sense of confidence in his learning style. 

He will learn the core subjects: writing, reading, math, science, social studies, and Spanish. In science, there are live animals in our lab who he can help care for. In music, he can choose an instrument to play or join the chorus. He will also take art classes, where he will learn to paint, draw, and work with clay. There are also classes on ethics, wellness, and physical fitness. 

Landon owns and provides each Lower School student with a laptop to do work at school.

He will get to know his classmates well because our classes sizes are small. With recess, lunch, and special events like Bear Games or our annual school musical (every boy participates either on stage or behind the scenes), there are other opportunities to make friends. He will also meet Upper School students through our buddies program! 

Even though Landon is a boys school, he will have opportunities to participate in activities with girls throughout the year. From when they arrive on campus, Landon boys collaborate with girls from Holton-Arms School in hands-on learning activities for science, math, and other academic subjects. They also have fun with team building exercises!

Students sit with homeroom classmates for lunch. 

While community service is not formally required, service to others is a big part of character education in the Lower School. Under the leadership of the Lower School Student Council, with help from teacher-coach-mentors and parents, students participate in projects to learn the value of service. Each year, Lower School make packed lunches and Thanksgiving baskets for those in need and collect canned goods for Bethesda Cares. 

Our location in Bethesda, close to Washington, D.C., provides many field trip opportunities. Grade 3 social studies classes focus on the geography and history of Maryland, so he may visit Annapolis to experience our state capital. He may also visit the National Gallery of Art and learn about gems and fossils through the Mobile Mining program. Grade 4 learns about crabbing and the local wildlife with a visit to the Chesapeake Bay, watches a performance of Charlotte’s Web at George Mason University, and better understands our history with a trip to the National Museum of the American Indian. Grade 5 visits the National Gallery of Art, takes a trip to Gettysburg to learn about civil war history, and meets authors at the bookstore Politics and Prose. Grade 6 also participates in field trips as well as a capstone project!

Each Halloween, Lower School boys compete against each other in our annual Pumpkin Races, where they learn about physics by racing pumpkins outfitted with wheels. Lower schoolers also get to play field games with the Middle and Upper Schools when they all compete together in Bear Games as part of our "One Landon Day" program. And there is also the annual Spelling Bee!

Landon's teacher-coach-mentors are always ready to lend an ear. The same men and women who teach him in the classroom also coach him on the athletics field, advise him on the Student Council, and direct him on the stage. For example, Grade 5 Dean and Math Teacher Steven Micciche directs the Lower School play and coaches baseball and football in addition to his academic role in the Lower School.