Early Childhood Curriculum
​(PK-3 through Kindergarten)
​

• Program Overview
• Math
• Physical Education
• Music
• Art
• Science
• Language Arts
• ​Social Studies
• Religion & SEL
• Spanish (K only)

Our Early Childhood Program incorporates play, social emotional learning, basic math and reading, hands-on science projects, outdoor learning, and fine art classes to help students develop their skills and interests during their first few years of school.

We believe that play is an essential part of a child's growth, so we have playtime built into our Early Childhood daily schedules. Along with play, we make sure that students have a chance to rest, and our PK classes have a designated quiet time so that students can recharge for the rest of the day. PK families also have the option of choosing between multiple schedule options. 

PK-3 & 4 Schedule Options:
Five full days (8:15am-3:15pm)
Five half-days (8:15am-11:30am)
Three full days (M, W, TH)
Three half-days (M, W, TH) - PK3 only 

By the time students leave Kindergarten, we hope that they have developed a love of learning and a deeper understanding of God's love for them. 

The Early Childhood math curriculum begins with patterns, calendar activities, sorting, and counting in PK-3. 

In PK-4, students begin learning about number recognition, graphing, sorting, math vocabulary, and the exploration of math materials.

By the end of Kindergarten, students have had experiences with telling time and solving addition and subtraction word problems. Students are expected to be able to identify, read, and write numbers up to 30 and to count to 100 or higher.

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Learning to recognize patterns in PreK-4. 

​Fine and gross motor skills are the main focus points in the PK-3 and PK-4 physical education courses. Working on these skills takes place during recess and gym class.

As students enter Kindergarten, they have the opportunity to practice throwing, catching, kicking, and dribbling through simple games. Safety habits, good sportsmanship, as well as caring for their bodies are also stressed in Kindergarten.

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PreK students participate in St. John's annual jump-a-thon.

In addition to music activities in the classroom, Early Childhood students also develop an appreciation for music during weekly music class. In music class, students experiment with various instruments, participate in dance and movement exercises, and also learn to sing a number of songs. Our goal is that students will learn to appreciate the gift of music and use this gift to glorify God. 

Music class is taught by Mrs. Jurica in PreK-3 through 8th grade. Learn more about Mrs. Jurica on our Teachers & Staff page!

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PreK-3 students have a blast with various instruments during music class!

St. John’s young artists begin their artistic exploration through a variety of media including, painting, coloring, drawing, as well as making collages & crafts. As with music, students gain an understanding that art is a gift from God, and they learn to praise God through their artistic endeavors.

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PreK-4 students love drawing!

Early Childhood students are encouraged to develop their sense of wonder through observations and predictions while exploring different materials. 

When students enter Kindergarten, they begin to study plants and animals, weather and seasons, matter, heat and light, day and night and how things move. They further advance by developing and refining their observation skills, making inferences and predictions through investigation and experimentation.

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PreK-4 students learned all about cicadas and created their own out of paper!

​Stories, pre-writing skills, as well as listening and speaking skills are used in PK-3 and PK-4 to begin formal language development. 

​In Kindergarten, Language Arts skills are expanded to include reading and writing letters, phonemic awareness, beginning and ending word sounds, blending sounds, developing a sight word vocabulary, enhanced writing activities, and listening and following directions.

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PreK-3 students love reading time!

Early Childhood students learn about holidays and celebrations, cooperation, citizenship, community workers, safety,  self-esteem as a part of the social studies curriculum. 

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PreK students were visited by a Chicago firefighter as a part of their unit on community workers.

Religion:
Through the use of a variety of Bible stories, St. John’s Early Childhood students learn about God’s love for them. They learn that their sins are forgiven through God’s Son, Jesus, and participate in weekly Early Childhood chapel services where they worship and praise God.

Social Emotional Learning:
​We believe that one of the most important aspects of Early Childhood Education is social emotional learning (SEL), and we work to foster the emotional and social health of our students as a part of our whole child approach to education. 

Our PrK-3 & 4 teachers focus on SEL during the school day by helping students process their emotions and  develop their interpersonal skills.

Beginning in Kindergarten, we implement the Friendzy Program curriculum that continues through Grade 8. This program focuses on self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision making, social awareness, and relationship skills.

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PreK-4 students learned about Moses and the Red Sea.

Spanish is taught by Mr. Bryant in Kindergarten through grade 4. In Spanish class, students learn about Spanish culture and study vocabulary and grammar rules as they advance through the grades.

​Learn more about Mr. Bryant on our Teachers & Staff page!

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Spanish music in Kindergarten with Mr. Bryant!

"The small class sizes allow our kids to get specialized attention from their teachers and to build strong bonds with their classmates. They feel loved and cared for by their teachers who remind them to pray when they are worried or anxious."​
-Jonn, Parent

What does a typical day look like in Early Childhood?

Sample PreK-4 Schedule