WPSN: Junior Kindergarten

Full of questions and often answers, four year olds need teachers with equally curious minds.

5 Day AM class meets Monday through Friday, 9 - 11:15
4 Day PM class meets Monday through Thursday, 12:45 - 3:45
All classes have 18-20 children and two co-teachers

By age four, most children have or are very ready to make friends. Working out the intricacies of friendship, as in what to do when "my friend wants to play with someone else!" becomes a focus of the JK year. With sensitive, professional teachers to support this growing understanding, children try on new roles and learn how to assert feelings and desires in positive ways. Life-long interpersonal skills are begun in the preschool community.

Curriculum in the JK program is wonderfully varied, as children come with so many ideas about how to approach a problem or a subject. By four they are able to make and articulate their theories, to challenge another's ideas, even to modify their own ideas. Emphasis on small and large group process leads to rich and wide-ranging project work. Examples of recent JK projects include:

A nature museum
An office "addition" for the classroom
Building a working robot
Creating a giant "garden" mural
A study of narrative and illustration, with personal picture books and shared story acting.
Designing a school flag

Long and short term projects are but one part of the curriculum which also includes opportunities for children to sing, move, write, draw, build, paint, experiment with science, mathematic and sensory materials... to create and express ideas in any of the "100 Languages of children."

By focusing on what educator Lillian Katz calls "dispositions.habits of mind" such as persistence, collaboration, curiosity, theory building and testing, we know that WPSN children are truly ready for the next phase of their educational journey.