The Lamplighter Difference
At Lamplighter, we believe that students are capable of extraordinary things.
You will find our students engaged in deep discussions, collecting water samples from the creek on campus and working with friends to engineer cardboard arcade games. Our research-based, rigorous curriculum is wrapped in joy and discovery.
__________________________________
Come visit us to discover how your child can be challenged and stretched academically while holding on to the wonder of childhood.
Learn more about the Lamplighter experience
Welcome to The Lamplighter School. Let us show you around!
Lamplighter delivers serious education wrapped in the wonder of childhood.
The Lamplighter School places a strong emphasis on rigorous education combined with a social-emotional program that emphasizes respect, compassion, creativity, and confidence.
Every classroom at Lamplighter has a well, where students and teachers meet together for direct instruction, conversation, and collaborative learning.
In the Lamplighter Early Childhood program, you will find that we honor first the whole child, our mission, and core commitments, and treasure our rich history as a premier progressive school for young children.
The Lamplighter Math Program is based on Everyday Mathematics, a research-based curriculum developed by the University of Chicago.
Our teachers extend the math curriculum through: Cross-curricular integration, hands-on exploration, problem-solving skills, logic puzzles, math games, fact mastery, and special events.
At the annual Pre-K Farmer’s Market, students practice math skills as they sell their vegetables and crafts to Lamplighter faculty and staff.
The Lamplighter Literacy Program is rooted in the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, a research-based framework developed by Columbia University.
Lamplighter’s rich writing curriculum offers students the opportunity to spend several weeks immersed in each unit, moving through the writing process of generating, drafting, revising, and editing.
Lamplighter faculty are leaders in their field, with 42% holding an advanced degree. Lamplighter faculty publish articles in education journals, guest lecture in courses at SMU, author children’s books, and present at conferences.
The Lamplighter School was founded in 1953 on the principles that children are capable of extraordinary things and that early childhood education sets the stage for students to become lifelong learners.
The Eastin Family Innovation Lab is the hub of hands-on learning at The Lamplighter School, with spaces for science labs, the environmental science classroom, a woodworking studio, the Enrico Family Teaching Kitchen, and a Maker Space.
From Pre-K to fourth grade, all students take a one-hour class, once every six days, called Environmental Science, which focuses on the world around us: simple machines, biology, life cycles, outdoor spaces, hypothesis, and recording observations.
In Lamplighter’s Maker Space, you might find students building cardboard arcade games, engaged in engineering challenges, or taking apart solar lights to see how they work.
Students from every grade find creative expression while working on different projects, integrated units, and hands-on project-based learning in the Maker Space.
The woodworking studio allows children to build and create in developmentally-appropriate ways, from gluing and staining, to using basic tools, to designing images to produce on our laser woodcutter.
In the woodworking studio students learn the safe and proper use of hand tools and how to read and draw basic woodworking plans.
In the Enrico Family Teaching Kitchen, third grade students might help their first grade buddies mix up a batch of muffins, fourth graders might make pies for Pi Day, or the Spanish teacher might guide her class in making churros and chocolate sauce.
The fully-stocked kitchen, with ovens, refrigerator, and induction burners (which don’t get hot if a pot or pan is not set on them) is the setting of many food-related experiments and feasts.
At Lamplighter coding begins in Pre-K, as students program screen-free Bee Bots to move to specific squares on a grid.
As they advance through the science and technology curriculum, Lamplighter students will learn to design, build, and program sophisticated robots and drones.
Students are given the opportunity for collaboration and an interchange of ideas.
At the Lamplighter School, we believe a rigorous education goes hand in hand with a childlike sense of wonder.
Learning at Lamplighter extends beyond the classroom to include our creek, gardens, barn and chicken coop, two gymnasiums, playground and sport court.
Gardens are an important part of student life at Lamplighter.
The iconic LPA Barn and adjacent chicken coop serve as the hub for the School’s signature Lamplighter Layers Corporation, a business run by the fourth grade students.
The animal pen offers a shaded space for Lamplighter’s farm animals, including a cow, a pig, a donkey, and goats.
Pre-K students love to feed the chickens Cheerios, (and may snack on a few themselves!).
Lamplighter Layers is a cornerstone of our seven-year program. In third grade, students research and vote to determine the breeds of chicken they will purchase for their fourth grade flock.
In fourth grade, students take over the Lamplighter Layers business by purchasing stock from the graduating class. They vote on officers, work in afternoon crews to care for the chickens, and sell the eggs at carpool. At the end of the year, they choose how to spend their dividend, including making a charitable donation.
The Cook Gym offers 5,000 square feet of indoor space for our physical education program. The balcony of Cook Gym provides additional seating and flexibility for special events.
Games and activities improve students’ strength, flexibility, and endurance through fun activities.
Lamplighter's Outdoor Learning Center was designed with the theme of "WONDER," inspiring students to strengthen their motor skills as well as their imaginations through creative play.
Students at The Lamplighter School enjoy two outside play periods each day, and the space is reflective of how important this time is to child development.
The zip line is a special part of the Lamplighter playground where Lower School students in grades 1 – 4 can discover thrilling experiences.
The sport court offers basketball and other sports for students during recess.
Our drama, music, and art programs reflect a belief that as children develop creative expression in a safe environment, they also build critical thinking skills and grow emotionally.
Lamplighter’s fine arts program begins in Pre-K 3 and continues through fourth grade. It includes courses in art, music, and drama taught by full-time faculty.
In Lamplighter’s drama program, students are introduced to stories, creative movement, sequencing, retelling, and characterization. Our new Theater Arts Exploration Lab provides a dedicated performance space for students in all grade levels.
Students learn to express themselves through oral, written, and physical means. These skills, combined with those acquired through the music program, lead to the creation, design, production, and performance of a capstone project, the Senior Opera in fourth grade.
Students in Lamplighter’s music program learn patterns, music literacy and history, and music theory, as well as how to express themselves through music.
The Orff Schulwerk Method is taught in all level music classes; this method encourages and supports music composition, music improvisation, and movement.
At the Lamplighter School, students and staff alike realize they are an integral part of an interconnected global community.
Families are an integral part of the Lamplighter community and are welcomed to campus throughout the year for events both big and small.
Community engagement activities include volunteer opportunities in the Media Center and Spirit Store, Fall Carnival, International Night, Annual Auction Gala and Auction Socials, Dolores Evans Speaker Series, class events, Fireside book club chats, Grandest Friends’ Day, and more.
The Lamplighter Parents’ Association supports the School in building community, raising funds, and creating meaningful and lasting relationships among our families.
Lamplighter grandparents have the unique opportunity to contribute to the meaningful experiences of our students, including our Grandparent Readers program.
Lamplighter faculty, staff, and parents gather together a few times a year for community Book Talks to discuss a shared text.
Lamplighter students engage with the broader community through the school’s United to Learn partnership, which includes field trips and events with partner public schools, including a Saturday Science Club.
The fourth-grade year at Lamplighter for our “seniors” is the capstone of the Lamplighter program, encouraging students to apply skills, strategies, and enthusiasm built and sharpened over the seven years of the program.
Becky Walker
Director of Enrollment Management
214-369-9201, x345
sydney allen
Associate Director of Admission & Placement
214-369-9201, x337
liz balady
Admission & Placement Coordinator
214-369-9201, x347
valentina ortiz
Admission & Placement Coordinator
214-369-9201, x378
Lamplighter is a Community of...
Students
Joyful learners are engaged in rigorous academics, creative expression, and service to the community.
Faculty & Staff
Dedicated faculty and staff bring their passion, enthusiasm, and knowledge of early childhood education to our classrooms and campus every day.
Parents
Committed parents forge connections and deepen their knowledge alongside their children.
Alumni
Engaged alumni bring the joy of learning and sense of wonder they developed here into their careers, communities, and beyond.