Since 2012
74 Themes
K–9 Program
When your child discovers dinosaurs, they don't just think about science. They think about size, time, geography, art, survival — everything at once. That's how kids naturally learn. At Pear Tree, school actually works that way. We call it The Pear Tree Method™.
In most schools, your child has math at 9, science at 10, English at 11 — and none of it connects. At Pear Tree, we teach through real-world themes that bring subjects together naturally.
Each theme connects to something real — the Solar System, Construction, Natural Resources, Flight. Not a textbook chapter.
Math, science, English, social studies, art, and design all weave through the same theme. Nothing is isolated. Everything has context.
Presentations, research, prototypes, artwork. You see what your child actually learned — not just a letter grade.
See It in Action
Grade 2/3 · One theme. Four subjects. Real learning.
Field trip to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. Workshop on light from the Sun. Designed a Mercury survival shelter.
Tracked Moon phases daily. Graphed cycles. Applied measurement to the STEM shelter project.
Researched planets. Wrote and delivered two presentations — one on Venus, one as a final presentation to parents.
Created artwork on Moon phases. Built scale models. Designed the Mercury shelter prototype.
That's science, math, ELA, and art — all through one theme. Students didn't switch between disconnected classes. They built understanding that sticks because every piece connects.
Now See It at Grade 6/7
Grade 6/7 · Six subjects. One question: What happens when oil runs out?
Students trace crude oil from formation to refinery. They investigate renewable vs. non-renewable energy sources and model the carbon cycle.
They calculate per-capita energy consumption across countries, graph production-to-demand trends, and model what happens when supply can no longer keep up.
Students research and write an argued position paper on a specific oil-related policy. They present their case to the class and respond to cross-examination.
They examine how oil wealth shapes political power, trace the causes of specific resource conflicts, and debate who benefits when pipelines are approved.
Students map the lifecycle of an everyday petroleum product from raw material to landfill — and propose a redesign that reduces dependency.
They argue both sides of a real dilemma: economic development vs. environmental protection. No easy answers — just evidence and reasoning.
Same method. Higher stakes. In Grade 2, your child tracked Moon phases. By Grade 6, they're modelling global energy crises and arguing policy. The method scales — and so does your child.
When students learn about gravity during a Flight theme, it's not abstract. They're calculating wing lift. They're building models. The concept sticks because it has a reason to exist.
A child who loves science might tune out in English class. At Pear Tree, they write about science. They present their findings. Every subject feels relevant because it is.
The Pear Tree Method™ isn't one teacher's style — it's a school-wide system. Every teacher follows the same method, backed by the same curriculum documents. Your child's experience doesn't depend on getting lucky.
Students produce real deliverables — presentations, projects, prototypes, research. You don't wait for a report card to know what your child is learning. You can see it.
Designed for Depth — Not Repetition
The same big ideas return at every grade band — but each time, the question gets harder, the thinking gets deeper, and the stakes get more real. Your child isn't repeating a unit. They're continuing a conversation that started in Kindergarten.
Self → Society → Systems · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 8 encounters across nine years
K–1
K–1
2–3
4–5
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9Who am I — and what is my body telling me?
Emotions as physical signals. Naming feelings. Learning to calm down, use words, and ask for help.
How do my choices help others belong?
Friendship, play, sharing, fairness — belonging isn't automatic. It's something we create through how we treat one another.
What culture and community am I part of?
Heritage, languages, traditions, and stories that shape daily life. How knowing your own story helps you understand others.
What kind of learner am I becoming?
Strengths, habits, responses to difficulty. Growth isn't about being "good at" something — it depends on practice, self-discipline, and courage.
Who decides what's "normal" — and what happens when you don't fit?
Bias, stereotypes, gender, race, class — how labels open doors for some and create barriers for others. The difference between equality and equity.
What do people assume about you — and what can they never see?
The cultural iceberg: values, beliefs, family stories, and experiences all live below the surface. What happens when identities are misunderstood or judged.
Who are you online — and who decides?
Algorithms, platforms, digital footprints. How media and technology shape self-expression, relationships, and the pressure to be seen in certain ways.
Who are we allowed to be — and who decides?
Laws, institutions, and power structures that reward or police identity. The systems that shape who gets to be fully themselves — and who doesn't.
Body → Relationships → Community → Cultural roots → Personal agency → Social structures → The invisible self → The digital self → Systems of power
Observation → Systems → Responsibility · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 8 encounters across nine years
K–1
K–1
2–3
2–3
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9What changes when the seasons change — and why does it matter?
Animals store food. Trees drop leaves. People gather the harvest. Nature's cycle as first science.
What happens to the things we throw away?
Noticing waste. Small habits with real environmental impact. Becoming an eco team.
How do living things depend on where they live?
Ecosystems as interconnected habitats. What happens when one part changes.
Who owns the water — and who goes without?
Access, pollution, scarcity. Water as the resource that connects everything.
Are we changing the planet faster than it can adapt?
Human activity altering planetary systems. Data, evidence, and what the science actually says.
What do we owe the forests that sustain us?
BC forests as ecological, economic, and cultural systems. Competing interests, hard trade-offs.
What does it cost to make something that lasts forever?
Material science meets environmental consequence. Plastics as a design problem, not just pollution.
Who is responsible when the damage is invisible?
Molecular chemistry of contamination. Systemic responsibility. Who pays, who profits, who suffers.
Noticing nature → Ecosystem relationships → Resource systems → Planetary impact → Material science → Molecular understanding → Systemic responsibility
Local → National → Structural · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 8 encounters across nine years
K–1
2–3
4–5
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9
8–9What makes a neighbourhood work — and who gets left out?
How communities function. Who belongs, who helps, and what happens when someone is missing from the picture.
What truly holds a country together?
National identity, stereotypes, and who shapes the story. What does it mean to belong to a country still being built?
Who benefited, who was harmed — and how do those choices still shape Canada today?
Colonial history. Residential schools. The head tax. Who paid the costs of 'progress' and whose stories were left out.
What kind of country is Canada still becoming?
Indigenous rights, immigration, climate, housing. A country shaped every day by who is listened to and what is protected.
What does a city reveal about its values?
Crowded rooms, shared kitchens, hard labour. Housing as tied to health, dignity, race, and whose stories a city preserves or erases.
Whose lives, stories, and futures matter most when we design a city?
Gentrification, densification, equity. Decisions about housing and transit that make neighbourhoods liveable for some while displacing others.
What happens when a city can no longer keep its promises?
Infrastructure failure, migration, inequality in real cities. When systems break, who suffers first?
What drives people to overthrow systems — and what comes after?
When systems fail people badly enough, they rise. The question isn't just why — it's what kind of future their struggle makes possible.
My neighbourhood → My country → Who built it and who it excluded → How governance works now → How poverty persists → How cities serve or exclude → When infrastructure fails → When people overthrow systems
Observation → Mechanism → Ethics · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 8 encounters across nine years
K–1
2–3
4–5
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9
8–9What can we learn by watching very small creatures very carefully?
Close observation. Lifecycles. Curiosity about creatures most people overlook. The start of scientific thinking.
What happens when two living things need each other to survive?
Symbiotic relationships. Ecosystem interdependence. What breaks when one partner disappears.
How does an invisible force power everything we depend on?
Energy production, distribution, and access. The invisible force behind modern life — and who controls it.
How do the choices we make become the body we live in?
Body systems working together. How choices about food, sleep, and movement interact as feedback loops.
How does life continue to change — and what does that reveal about survival?
Natural selection. Evidence-based reasoning about change. Why survival is tied to relationships, not just strength.
How do we understand the body well enough to help it thrive?
Human body as measurable system. Performance shaped by nutrition, recovery, data, and design — not just effort.
Just because we can change the code of life, does that mean we should?
Genetics, CRISPR, bioethics. The mechanism of life meets the moral weight of intervening in it.
Where does the body end and the machine begin?
Bioelectricity. Pacemakers. Brain-computer interfaces. The blurring boundary between biology and technology.
Close observation → Symbiotic systems → Invisible forces → Body as system → Natural selection → Measurable performance → Genetic code → Bioelectricity
Local → Regional → Global → Structural · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 8 encounters across nine years
K–1
2–3
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9
8–9
8–9How are families around the world the same — and beautifully different?
Cultural diversity at the simplest level. Differences and similarities in how families live, eat, celebrate, and care for each other.
How does where you live shape how you live?
Geography shapes everything. How people adapt, build, and survive in the world's most challenging places.
How did people create order, solve problems, and live together in times very different from our own?
Systems of land, loyalty, trade, and protection. Castles, villages, and marketplaces — a world deeply interconnected.
Which ideas did we inherit — and which are still worth carrying forward?
Democracy, philosophy, art, and debate. Both the brilliance and the limits of a civilization that still shapes us.
Why can't half the world's population be understood through a single story?
Ancient trade routes, belief systems, fast-changing cities. A vast continent that defies any single perspective.
What happens when cultures collide — and who writes the history?
When people separated by geography meet, the results are creative, disruptive, and deeply uneven. Power, perspective, and lasting consequences.
Whose stories define a continent — and whose are left out?
54 nations, 2,000+ languages, and innovations from mobile banking to community conservation. Africa is not a single story.
If we can see decline coming, what choices do we have?
Empires erode through overextension, inequality, and loss of legitimacy. The analytical tools to recognize fragility and imagine what comes next.
Cultural diversity → Geography shapes life → Historical societies → Democracy and philosophy → A continent's complexity → When cultures collide → Africa beyond stereotypes → Why empires fall
Needs → Trade-offs → Systems → Agency · K–1 through Grade 8–9 · 7 encounters across nine years
K–1
2–3
4–5
4–5
6–7
6–7
8–9What should we build so it helps people now and still makes sense for the future?
Materials, purpose, planning. Building for people — and thinking about what a community needs to work.
What does it mean to arrive somewhere, to take, and to share a place?
Newcomers, Indigenous peoples, and land. Who claims a place, who was already there, and what gets built on those choices.
When a place can grow food, what should matter most?
Food production, economics, land use, rising costs. Farming as a system full of trade-offs, values, and consequences.
What does a city taste like when it's fair, diverse, and connected to place?
Local food systems. Culture, business, and the service industry. Who has access to fresh, meaningful food — and whose traditions are celebrated.
What does fashion say about us — and what does it cost people and the planet?
Supply chains, labour, marketing, and consumer identity. Clothing as art, industry, and global system of waste.
What kinds of energy and invention are worth powering our future?
How energy flows through systems and how machines extend human capacity — always with environmental and social consequences.
What needs to change — and how could you do it better?
Innovation, risk, funding, marketing, and real value. The boldest ideas start with seeing what's broken and building something that works.
Building for people → Arriving and sharing → Food production and trade-offs → Local food systems → Supply chains and consumption → Energy and invention → Innovation, risk, and impact
Click any question to see details
See how these threads come alive in the classroom.
Book a TourThe Identity and Environmental threads above are two of six deliberate progressions running through the curriculum. Here are all six:
Body & Emotions → Social Self → Culture → Bias & Stereotypes → Visible vs. Invisible → Digital Identity → Who Is Allowed To Be
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 9 themesFall & Seasons → Go Green → Biomes → Water → Climate Change → Forests → Plastics → Pollution
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 9 themesOur Community → O Canada → Canada Then → Canada Now → Tenements → Urban Design → Cities Under Stress → Revolution
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 8 themesInsects & Salmon → Plants & Pollinators → Electricity → Healthy Bodies → Evolution → Sports Science → Code of Life → The Body Electric
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 11 themesConstruction → Settlers → Rural Farms → Edible Vancouver → Fashion → Energy & Machines → Entrepreneurs
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 7 themesIt's A Small World → Extreme Environments → Medieval Times → Ancient Greece → Asia → First Contact → African Studies → End of an Empire
K–1 through Grade 8-9 · 9 themesEvery theme belongs to at least one thread. Every thread spans the full K-9 journey. Explore the program pages to see how each theme connects.
The Result
Themes aren't just a better way to teach subjects. They're a way to teach children how to think — about systems, about ethics, and about themselves.
Every theme at Pear Tree teaches children to look for connections. In K-1, a child studying "Pets" learns that an animal's wellbeing depends on food, shelter, attention, and the choices its owner makes. By Grade 6-7, a student studying "Oil" traces one substance through chemistry, economics, geopolitics, and environmental damage — all connected, all affecting each other.
This is systems thinking: the ability to see how parts relate, how actions ripple, and why simple answers rarely work for complex problems. It's the skill behind every good scientist, every good policy-maker, and every good citizen. And it's built into every theme, from Kindergarten onward.
We don't give children a sanitised version of the world. Even our youngest students think about fairness, access, and responsibility — through questions sized for their age. In K-1, "Our Community" asks who gets safe play spaces and who doesn't. In Grade 4-5, "Canada Then" asks who benefited from colonisation and who was harmed. In Grade 8-9, "Who We Are Allowed To Be" asks which identities society rewards and which it polices.
This isn't politics in the classroom. It's trust — trust that children can engage with real questions if they're given the right tools and the right support. The families who choose Pear Tree want their children to think, not just comply.
Our K-1 themes are concrete and sensory — children touch, see, and feel their way into ideas. By Grade 4-5, the same kinds of ideas return with causal reasoning: why does this happen? Who benefits? By Grade 8-9, students build structural models and confront ethical complexity.
A child who learned to name their emotions in Kindergarten becomes the teenager analysing how institutions shape who gets to belong. That progression doesn't happen by accident. It happens because someone designed 74 themes in a specific order.
The Design Principle
Every theme at Pear Tree ends with a question that can't be answered with a fact. That's deliberate.
What does it mean to create a home where another creature can truly thrive?
Who benefited, who was harmed, and how do those choices still shape what feels normal in Canada today?
Just because we can change the code of life, does that mean we should?
If we can see decline coming, what choices do we have?
These questions aren't decoration. They're the point.
Each theme gives students the knowledge, evidence, and perspectives they need to wrestle meaningfully with its question. The goal isn't to arrive at the "correct" answer — it's to develop judgement: the ability to weigh competing evidence, hold complexity, and reach a reasoned position you can defend.
That's what separates a school that teaches content from a school that develops thinkers. Content gives you information. Open-ended questions give you something harder and more valuable — the practice of figuring out what the information means.
By the time a Pear Tree student reaches Grade 9, they've spent nine years practising this. Not in a single "critical thinking" class. Across 74 themes, each one ending with a question worth arguing about.
Every theme at Pear Tree is backed by a detailed curriculum plan that maps exactly which BC Ministry of Education learning standards are covered — and how.
Your child covers the same curriculum as any school in BC. They just learn it through real projects instead of worksheets.
We've developed 74 themes across K–9, built over nearly a decade of practice. This is a refined method — not a pilot program.
School Certificate No. 3996918
More Than Academics
The Pear Tree Method™ isn't only about how subjects connect. It's about building the whole child — physically, socially, and emotionally — through daily habits, not occasional programs.
One full hour of PE every single school day, led by a dedicated PE teacher. Not twice a week. Every day.
A Red Seal chef prepares fresh, nutritious meals daily. Seasonal, locally sourced, included for all students.
Every classroom teacher holds a graduate degree in education. Classes capped at 16. Your child is known, not just counted.
Testimonials
I went looking for something more worthy of the 21st century; I wanted something more effective and real.
Their project-based learning approach is implemented with an enormous amount of planning and thought, and it shows in the high quality of the children's work.
I really feel this way of teaching provides as equal an opportunity as possible for every student to succeed in life, whatever that is.
Reading about The Pear Tree Method™ is one thing.
Watching your child's face when they get it — that's something else. Come see a class in action.
Main Campus (West Broadway)
Suite 215 (and Suite 201)
2678 West Broadway
Vancouver, B.C. V6K 2G3
Yaletown Campus
1035 Cambie St
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 2E2
