Lower School
The Power of Curiosity
Powered by Students’ Questions and Perspectives
At King, curiosity leads to exploration and exploration leads to mastery of foundational skills in all areas of the curriculum. We create an environment that elevates wonder, curiosity, and joy. Our youngest students’ curiosity is maximized because we honor their questions and consider their perspectives as we build strong educational foundations. As a result, they develop the confidence and accountability to discover and explore.
Young children are encouraged to ask questions and make their own discoveries. They become good listeners and critical thinkers who gain the confidence to take on challenges and seize unlimited possibilities. King School’s program is an interactive, hands-on experience that nurtures a love of learning and working with others.
King’s teachers create learning opportunities that incorporate students’ ideas and interests; our program encourages students to ask questions, gather data, learn research skills, make models, and share their learning with their peers.
Lower School Inspires Curiosity in Young Children
Project-based learning in the Lower School integrates all disciplines.
Students formulate their own essential questions and use them to guide their exploration and learning. Inquiry drives every stage of learning as students cultivate skills from investigation, analysis, writing, geometry, and arithmetic to public speaking and presentations. Their questions drive every step of the process, and it is through this process that self-discovery and deeper learning emerge.
We believe that curiosity is a natural ability that children bring to their learning – we encourage students to ask questions, make discoveries, think critically, analyze and solve problems, be good listeners, and have fun being involved in the dynamic process of learning. We value every child and build strong, safe classroom communities where exploration and discovery lead to mastery.
Dr. Sandy Lizaire-Duff, Head of Lower School
Early Childhood
Prekindergarten and Kindergarten
Starting at age 3, students in our early childhood program explore the world around them through an approach to teaching and learning known as the Reggio Emilia-inspired methodology. This child-centered and self-guided method allows students to explore, make connections, and learn from their environment.
Elementary School
Grades 1-5
Students are encouraged to ask questions and make their own discoveries. Our lower school program is an interactive, hands-on experience that nurtures a love of learning and working with others. As they build mastery of skills, students continue to apply their natural curiosity; they learn and express their understanding of the world through discovery, project-based learning, and play.
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Lower School in Action
Students in Grade 5 revived Ancient Egypt, bringing the mystique of the civilization on the Nile to their classroom and transforming the space into a veritable museum. To the delight of their peers, the students shared what they learned during their weeks immersed in the subject through presentations that reflected their research and discoveries.
The fifth grade Advocacy Café returned for a second year, showcasing students’ passions for social issues through presentations detailing student-driven research. Building upon the success of last year's event, this year's Advocacy Café encouraged students to delve into a broader range of topics. The work culminated on Friday, February 22, in fifth grade classrooms transformed into hip cafes where friends and families were invited to hear the final presentations.
Last Friday, fifth-grade students delighted a packed Performing Arts Center with the adventures of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The musical “Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka JR.” challenged the actors with its fantastic tale and charming songs, and they delivered.
Inspired by Chris Van Dusen's imaginative story, "If I Built a Car,” students in Grade 1 explored the engineering design process and created models of their dream vehicles. Over the course of several classes, students built, tested, and refined their designs, working through problems together. The lesson culminated with races in the lower school hallway before students discussed their design process, highlighting the power of perseverance and collaborative problem-solving.
Upper and lower school students immersed themselves in the Francophile world this past week, gathering to share their knowledge of the language and culture in a cross-divisional experience that served as nostalgic for the upper school students and aspirational for the lower school counterparts. The get-together featured French fairy tales and highlighted the significance of literature in preserving cultural heritage.
Grade 4 families and members of the King community were invited into the classroom on Friday, December 4, to see the culmination of the students’ U.S. Region unit. The unit covered the geography, climate, landscapes, and states within each region. Studying various types of maps taught students essential skills such as cardinal directions and scale.
Grade 5 students have been immersed in the dawn of civilization, studying Mesopotamia and exploring the ancient world guided by the driving question, “How did we get here?” The unit recently culminated with students presenting models highlighting individual interests to their lower school peers.
As King School continues to develop community partnerships, lower school students recently engaged in discussions and lessons with community leaders, authors, artists, researchers, and scientists from King and beyond. Grade 1 students met Mayor Caroline Simmons, artist Muffy Pendergast visited the lower school art studio, Grant Dietz ’24 presented research on global warming to Grade 5, and PreK visited the upper school frog project, among other activities aimed at deepening the community relationships.
Stemming from a Kindergarten lesson on seed growth, Grade 4 students were recently tasked with creating a non-fiction book highlighting seed germination. Their work was shared in person during a meeting with their Kindergarten buddies, reinforcing academic skills and growing communal connections.