The curriculum presented in the Junior Kindergarten program, in
keeping with the academic strands that run throughout the school, is both
complex to take advantage of the natural ability children have to learn at this
age, and fundamental to establish a firm foundation for reading, writing, and
math.
Working with children to equip them with the skills necessary to
succeed in Kindergarten, is critically important. Our literacy program
focuses on establishing phonemic awareness, blending and segmenting sounds into
words, as well as developing vocabulary and listening comprehension. Our
writing program focuses on establishing the correct motor movements to form all
of the upper and lower case letters as well as numbers 0-20, in addition to
practicing the act of putting one's thoughts on paper using pictures, single
words, and sentences. Our math program teaches skills such as numeration
and computation, while also addressing problem solving and logical
thinking. While our Bible program not only teaches stories from the Bible
and scriptures to memorize, but also strives to give the children opportunities
to put others before themselves and love others as they are loved by Jesus.
In addition, our program is designed to provide
opportunities for our students to learn using all of their senses and
modalities. We want children to have the opportunity to use critical
thinking by learning to evaluate, analyze, predict, and explain in a variety of
content areas. In Psalm chapter 86 verse 11 the psalmist writes,
"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an
undivided heart, that I may fear your name." We know that children
who are in this particular and unique developmental phase are wired to both
explore and discover. They are interested in taking information from
those discoveries and using it to build blocks to support their thinking
throughout their school years.
What is your favorite thing about junior kindergarten?
"I learned about germs in science. We put sparkly lotion on and pretended it was germs.
"I like reading books."
"I loved the Pumpkin Patch."