Junior Kindergarten(JK) Program
Welcome to Junior Kindergarten!
The JK Program is designed to prepare students, who are at least four years old, developmentally for success in Kindergarten. This is especially important for students who have not been in a school environment prior. Students enrolled in our JK Program may stay 1-2 years to ensure they are ready for kindergarten, but must be four years old by our deadline to begin the program.
Our program balances literacy and numerical skills with comparable attention to social and emotional development of all children. The majority of their learning is through play but they also learn from one on one instruction and small and whole group instruction. The teacher to student ratio is 1:7 with two teachers for 14-15 children.
A Typical Morning for JK Students
As students arrive, they are greeted by their teacher who is waiting for them outside the classroom. She gives them a choice for what greeting they would like, asks them to identify their emotion for the day, and evaluates academic skills before entering the room. Then students are greeted inside the classroom by their assistant teacher who is ready to help them write their name before grabbing a stem bin. JK students are at school from 7:30 to 3:00 with an hour of rest time if needed. See the full schedule below.
JK Schedule
7:30 - 8:00 Arrival, fine motor table toys, practice writing name
8:00 - 8:25 Morning Pledges, Devotion/Bible, shape, letter, color review,
8:30 - 9:15 Outside/Bathroom (preschool playground)
9:15 - 9:25 Snack
9:30 - 10:00 Large Group Circle– topic of the day
10:00 - 11:30 Choice time/Small group
11:30 - 12:00 Literacy/Orton Gillingham, Nursery Rhymes, Story, Music 12:00 - 12:30 Lunch
12:30 - 1:15 Outside/bathroom
1:15 - 2:15 Rest/Meet one on one with students
2:15-2:45 End of day round up/good byes
Entrance Guidelines to JK
All students new to Brookstone go through a standard preschool admissions assessment. We use the Preschool Language Assessment which is designed to evaluate language skills in children and specifically assesses comprehension skills, expression of basic language concepts, and phonemic awareness skills. We also look at fine and gross motor skills and attention span. To be eligible for our JK program students must be at least four years old by our deadline.
Please email kelly.sheffield@brookstoneschools.org with any questions.