Our Curriculum   

Junior Kindergarten Program
             

OUR JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN IS AN ENRICHED CURRICULUM DESIGNED TO MEET 
THE INDIVIDUAL LEARNING NEEDS OF EVERY CHILD.

This kindergarten readiness program includes all the components of our pre-kindergarten, but have added an innovative and exciting social competency program with lessons targeted to help students grow emotionally, socially, and intellectually. We focus on the development of the child’s literacy and math skills. Social skills and independence are fostered through daily play in the classroom’s library, housekeeping, art, blocks, writing, science, and computer centers.

Our degreed teachers use research-based curriculum and teaching methods in the classroom. Children are surrounded with stories, books, letters, music, and rhymes throughStory Stretchers, our primary literacy curriculum source. Through dictation, students see the power of their own words as the basis of learning to read and write. Math concepts are integrated into the child’s activities throughout the day in the Math Their Way Program,  where children learn math skills with a variety of  manipulative learning tools.

SOCIAL COMPETENCY CURRICULUM

Minnieland Academy’s innovative Social Competency component is facilitated through active learning experiences in language and literacy, math, and science.  The research-based SECOND STEP curriculum received an “exemplary” rating from the U.S. Department of Education.  The curriculum provides engaging lessons and activities that teach essential social skills, such as problem solving, emotion management, impulse control, and empathy.

Research-based and demonstrated effective, these experiences reinforce ideas from the curriculum. Our program is committed to the Virginia Alignment Program, and exceeds Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Learning, which helps to establish a range of skills and knowledge that are essential in assisting preschoolers have a smooth transition to kindergarten, and Virginia’s Milestones of Child Development, developed by the Virginia Department of Education.


QUALITY COMPONENTS OF OUR JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM 

 
  • Degreed Teachers
  • Literacy Enrichment
  • Math and Science
  • Social Competency Program
  • Art, Music, Computers
  • Foreign Language
  
  • Educational Field Trips
  • Weekly Parent Communication
  • Parent/Teacher Conferences
  • Progress Reports
  • Online Assessment Tools
 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN SCHEDULE

As a follow-up to our children’s holiday celebrations, the Junior Kindergarten and PREP programs completed a unit on the Life Cycle of a Toy. Many children received toys as gifts, but they had never studied how that toy was made, how did the toy arrive at the store, and what happens to the toy after it is used?

 

Aquia LCT board dictation

What we learned:

  • How to collect information to answer questions and collect data to make decisions.
  • How to work cooperatively to recognize that some objects can be reused and how materials can
    be conserved.
  • How to identify and use tools and simple machines to fix and repair the toys.
  • Studying the manufacturing process, children were able to differentiate between natural and
    human made materials.
  • By exploring their toys, the children began to ask questions that led to new discoveries. Many times, new information leads to new questions and a deeper understanding of what is learned.

Check back next month for more updates on the educational curriculum at Junior Kindergarten


Aquia LCT comparing toys2pics

The Process


At Minnieland at Aquia, the students brought in a toy from home and researched where the toy was made. The class then mapped the information on a world map. That exploration led to the question, “How did it get here?” which led to a discussion of how toys were shipped to one place and then ‘distributed’ to many store locations. The children learned how the toy was manufactured, what materials were used to make the toy and then how to fix and ‘repair’ the toys. Children worked together to formulate different approaches to fix the toys. Our teachers support this learning process by creating an environment where children are excited about asking questions, researching, reading books, collecting information, practicing new skills, and finding their own answers.


 Aquia LCT boys and tools



  

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