Additional Information X

By continuing to use our site, you consent to using cookies. We use cookies to improve your experience on our site and to show you content that is relevant and helpful. To find out more, read our updated privacy policy.

Academics

Lower School

Junior Kindergarten (Four-Year-Olds)

Who am I? Who are you? Who are we? These seemingly simple questions are at the heart of what is investigated and celebrated in JK. Students are encouraged to ask, imagine, and connect in a full-day child-centered program that is as wonderful as it is wonder-filled.

Each section of JK is led by two teachers certified in early education, supplemented by specialists in music, library, Spanish, religion, and PE. Wherever children go—from their home base in the early ed wing to the natural outdoor classroom, around the Lower School campus or the local area on field trips—they are immersed in experiential learning.

So who are our JKers? They are storytellers in words and pictures. Mathematicians beginning a beautiful friendship with numbers and shapes, patterns and problem-solving. Social studiers, stewards of the environment, tinkerers, and bug patrollers. They are “buddies” with second graders and friends with each other, community members and confident individuals. Most of all, they are explorers, discovering the world around them as they discover themselves.

Our daughter had a fantastic JK year. She developed a passion for art and design, enjoyed participating in the many field trips and community outreach programs, and was fully engaged, thanks to the amazing JK teachers, who also kept us well informed. We could not recommend the program more highly.

~ JK Parents Rick Beckner & Erika Robinson

Our junior kindergarten program is designed for children turning four years old by September 1.

Applying to Junior Kindergarten
Admission Information for Four-Year-Olds

The JK program is guided by educational wisdom…

Reggio Emilia

Children have a strong potential for development, learning through the “hundred languages” belonging to all human beings and growing in relations with others.

Responsive Classroom

Students develop their academic, social, and emotional skills in a learning environment that is developmentally responsive to their strengths and needs.

A Mindset for Learning

Students build a foundation for a lifetime of growth through empathy, optimism, resilience, persistence, and flexibility.

Reading and Writing Workshop

Each child is a working author in our workshop-based model, developed by Lucy Calkins and Columbia Teachers College.

Experienced, Innovative Teachers

Like the Magic School Bus’s Ms. Frizzle, they encourage children to “take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

Our School Philosophy

“Our mission is to pursue goodness as well as knowledge and to honor the unique value of each of our members as a child of God in a caring community.”

And designed to realize the potential of each child.

Saints in our program become...

Explorers

Life is their classroom. In this safe environment, Early Saints develop the confidence to probe the unknown.
Math Lovers

Our students get excited about numbers, not in worksheets, but through mathematical play - building, drawing, counting, exploring and singing.
Design Thinkers

In our experiential curriculum, children plan, design, tinker, create and revise to express themselves in a variety of ways.
Problem Solvers

Early Saints have frequent opportunities to think critically and work through problems, both independently and in groups.
Caring Citizens

Friends become positive, contributing members of varied communities - class, school, and beyond - by learning to take care of themselves, each other, and the environment.
Communicators

Students are encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings with each other through active listening, public speaking, and developing thoughtful comments and questions.
Scientists

Employing their own pint-size method, our Saint-scientists wonder, observe, question, investigate, uncover answers, and ask more questions.