Our Junior Kindergarten program is designed to stretch children, building confidence through challenges and presenting opportunities to take initiative and solve problems. Through play and social interaction, children learn and develop a positive self-concept in school.
Routines empower children to independently engage in self care practices that promote healthy living. Children also learn to act with greater responsibility for others and their environment through classroom roles. Children take ownership over their room. They create labels to mark where materials should be stored. When they organize their materials, they have a clear sense of the purpose and layout of their space, and they can better initiate both creative design projects and mundane tasks, like clean up. With guidance, children begin to develop internal motivation. Self talk sounds like: How can I help here? What needs to be done? What if I….? Self-directed kids have many opportunities to be creative - they initiate projects, sustain focus, stay curious, and see a project through.
To prepare for the multifaceted work of writing, children engage in increasingly complex fine motor activities such as cutting fabric into shapes and using paint and brush strokes to form letters, symbols, or patterns. Throughout the day, revitalizing time is spent engaging in physical activity and breathing fresh air outdoors! Our children strengthen large muscles while climbing, running, sliding, swinging and playing games outdoors.
All Pre-K and Junior Kindergarten classrooms use Second Step Early Learning curriculum to explicitly teach executive function skills, which research has proven to be the foundation for self-regulation and social-emotional competence.
In our Pre and Junior Kindergarten classrooms, we take a multi-sensory approach to introduce phonics and letter formation while building the attention regulation necessary for future learning. Our approach includes:
Learning Without Tears: The Pre-K Readiness program was designed by an occupational therapist to help pre-kindergarteners develop the physical skills and conceptual knowledge they need to print letters and match letters to sounds. Through activities such as building with wooden pieces, stamping, and rolling dough, children gain experience with hands on letter play and prepare for success with capital letters.
Jolly Phonics: Aligned with the science of reading, Jolly Phonics lays the groundwork for strong phonemic awareness and decoding skills. Using a multi-sensory approach, each sound is introduced with fun actions, stories, and songs. Letter formation is taught alongside the introduction of each letter sound.
All Jr K classrooms engage in STEAM projects that are open-ended and require problem solving. Children become our "Young Architects” and “Making and Tinkering Engineers.” Design challenges are inspired by a story, require children to solve an open-ended problem, test and share their project, and make revisions as necessary. Children use loose parts and hands-on exploration, guided through this process with open-ended questions and collaboration with peers. Science and math related learning experiences are also inspired by what we learn in Let’s Find Out Scholastic and Science Spin magazines!
Initiative and Independence
Routines empower children to independently engage in self care practices that promote healthy living. Children also learn to act with greater responsibility for others and their environment through classroom roles. Children take ownership over their room. They collaborate with friends to store classroom materials on low, open, labeled shelves. They create labels to mark where materials should be stored. When they organize their materials, they have a clear sense of the purpose and layout of their space, and they can better initiate both creative design projects and mundane tasks, like clean up. With guidance, children begin to develop internal motivation. Self talk sounds like: How can I help here? What needs to be done? What if I….? Self-directed kids have many opportunities to be creative – they initiate projects, sustain focus, stay curious, and see a project through.
Strong, Confident Bodies
To prepare for the multifaceted work of writing, children engage in increasingly complex fine motor activities such as cutting fabric into shapes and using paint and brush strokes to form letters, symbols, or patterns. Throughout the day, revitalizing time is spent engaging in physical activity and breathing fresh air outdoors! Our children strengthen large muscles while climbing, running, sliding, swinging and playing games outdoors.
Social Emotional Growth
All Pre-K and Junior Kindergarten classrooms use Second Step Early Learning curriculum to explicitly teach executive function skills, which research has proven to be the foundation for self-regulation and social-emotional competence.
Literacy Skill Development
In our Pre and Junior Kindergarten classrooms, we take a multi-sensory approach to introduce phonics and letter formation while building the attention regulation necessary for future learning. Our approach includes:
Learning Without Tears: The Pre-K Readiness program was designed by an occupational therapist to help pre-kindergarteners develop the physical skills and conceptual knowledge they need to print letters and match letters to sounds. Through activities such as building with wooden pieces, stamping, and rolling dough, children gain experience with hands on letter play and prepare for success with capital letters.
Jolly Phonics: Aligned with the science of reading, Jolly Phonics lays the groundwork for strong phonemic awareness and decoding skills. Using a multi-sensory approach, each sound is introduced with fun actions, stories, and songs. Letter formation is taught alongside the introduction of each letter sound.
Curiosity and STEAM Exploration
All Jr K classrooms engage in STEAM projects that are open-ended and require problem solving. Children become our “Young Architects” and “Making and Tinkering Engineers.” Design challenges are inspired by a story, require children to solve an open-ended problem, test and share their project, and make revisions as necessary. Children use loose parts and hands-on exploration, guided through this process with open-ended questions and collaboration with peers. Science and math related learning experiences are also inspired by what we learn in Let’s Find Out Scholastic and Science Spin magazines!
