“With Eva in grade school now, we’re really seeing the breadth of the positive impact that her COS Montessori education has had on both her learning and her personhood. Her Kindergarten year at COS was the keystone. It’s a culmination of everything she had been building on in her first two years in Children’s House: independence, a sense of purpose and community, strong, tangible foundations in math and literacy, and of course, kindness.”
– Natalie
Kindergarten is the final year in the primary classroom and a capstone experience at Children’s Own School. These older children are confident in who they are; they are the role models and leaders of our community. Driven by their curiosity, they apply the skills and knowledge gleaned in prior years and extend their work into more advanced language and mathematics activities. With greater autonomy for each child to lead their learning, children explore at their own pace with time for in-depth investigation of areas that interest them. With more flexibility for individualized lessons, there is no limit to where they can take their learning. The benefit: curious, focused, self-directed learners.
Small group instruction with our Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist helps support each child on their journey to become proficient readers. With a specific focus on building accuracy in phonemic awareness, students learn to decode words and gain the foundational skills that lead to reading proficiency. They leave with strong foundational skills in reading, writing, and spoken language that set them up for lifelong success, foster a love of reading, and ensure a smooth transition to their next school.
Small group music instruction focuses on developing pitch and rhythm skills, introduces note and note values, composition, instruments, as well as reading, writing, and playing music from notation. Elements of small group instruction in both music and art are woven together in a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach as Kindergarteners research a region’s geography, wildlife, music and culture to write, compose, sing and perform a play—completing their COS journey with a performance on the last day