Junior Kindergarten is a magical “bridge” for young five-year-olds who have already completed PreK and are going to Kindergarten the following year. This gift of time is not to replace Kindergarten, but to hone in on mastering the skills learned in PreK and to allow for social and emotional growth. This program is offered full-time: Monday through Friday for the hours of 9:00am-2:00pm; all students will bring a lunch from home, which needs to adhere to the nut-free policy.

These students have already completed PreK and the skills for Kindergarten readiness have already been introduced. In this class, students dive deeper into mastering these foundational skills and abilities which will add to their success. Socially and emotionally, teachers will encourage resilience and problem-solving among peers; at recess they often play competitive sports and games, encouraging good sportsmanship and cooperation. Language skills focus on literacy, as children are now mastering phonological concepts, decoding strategies, close reading and imaginative writing. Through writer’s workshop, they practice expressing their ideas on paper and encouraged to write on their own without pressure to spell words correctly; this method has been found to improve confidence and awareness of environmental print. The groundwork for mathematical understanding has been laid; reasoning and logic progress, quantity concepts lead to addition and subtraction, and real-life skills such as measurement of time and money are introduced. After this enchanting year, these children who would have been the youngest in their class and will now be the oldest, have gained confidence, time and maturity that will prove priceless throughout their educational careers!