Prekindergarten & Kindergarten at St. Stephen’s Academy

We offer a unique setting where young learners become part of a smaller, close-knit group within the broader school community. This environment is ideal for teaching them how to interact and function in social settings outside of their family.

Our program incorporates school-wide Bible memory and character training. This approach not only instills a strong spiritual foundation, but also promotes the development of moral and ethical values from an early age.

Balancing guided and free play within a structured setting is pivotal in our program. It fosters decision-making, social interaction, and developmentally appropriate academic learning, allowing children to explore and grow at their own pace.

Through a diverse array of activities, including guided play, games, movement, and exercises, we focus on the advancement of both large and small motor skills, crucial for the overall physical development of young children.

Our curriculum is rich in classic and contemporary English literature, including timeless works such as Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh as well as an array of poetry, rhymes, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales. Literature is carefully chosen with the aim of fostering a love for language and storytelling.

We progressively introduce phonics, pre-reading skills, and basic mathematics concepts throughout the school year. This structured academic exposure ensures that our students are well-prepared and confident as they transition to kindergarten.

• Students are introduced to foundational math skills such as identifying patterns, matching and sorting, making comparisons, adding, subtracting, measuring, telling time, and counting money.
• The Singapore math approach fosters a developed number sense and a deeper conceptual understanding of these fundamental skills. Students are led to think critically and draw conclusions after exploring the concepts in a concrete, pictorial, and abstract sense. 

• The language curriculum is built around a phonics-based program, emphasizing compound words, vowels, consonants, and rhyming words to foster early reading skills.
• Our multisensory phonogram instruction is based on the Logic of English curriculum, which draws heavily from the Orton-Gillingham method.
• Starting in the second term, we introduce spelling tests, beginning with five words a week and gradually increasing to ten, alongside the initiation of reading groups to encourage collaborative and individual reading skills.

• The Logic of English curriculum is used to teach both cursive and print formation. Students begin with learning lower case letters and then progress to uppercase. 
• Penmanship instruction is intended to develop fine motor skills, writing proficiency, attention to detail, and an appreciation for beauty.

• Kindergarten is a foundational point in which students begin to understand the Bible and the Christian faith.
• Students engage in a summary reading of the old testament using The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories and they internalize theological truths by memorizing catechisms from First Catechism: Teaching Children Biblical Truths.

• Memorization is a key component of all kindergarten curriculum given students’ natural ability to retain information at this age. 
• Kindergarten students memorize a new poem each month, a total of 37 catechisms, the books of the Old and New Testament, and more than half of the 75 phonograms taught in the Logic of English curriculum.

• The kindergarten science curriculum introduces students to God’s perfect design for creation through discovery and exploration.
• Students participate in field trips and hands-on investigations that lead them to identify patterns and characteristics of living organisms and explore forces and motion.

• History lessons offer a comprehensive view of the past and its impact on the present.
• Kindergarten students explore their own family histories as well as significant historical figures and events such as Christopher Columbus, the Reformation, Separatists, the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail.

• Students are introduced to geography through the study of the globe, maps, directions, landforms, and bodies of water, fostering an early understanding of God’s world.

• Character development is a critical part of the kindergarten curriculum, as it supports our mission of cultivating wisdom and godly character.
• Kindergarten character development mirrors the school-wide monthly focus on traits such as honor, integrity, and kindness.