Early Childhood
Learning in Early Childhood
At King, curiosity leads to exploration, and exploration leads to a mastery of foundational skills in all areas of our curriculum. Our youngest students see education as a way to experiment, create, construct, and connect. In the process, they develop a more expansive mindset. They experience education as a path of discovery, understanding, wonder, and joy.
These ideas are grounded in the Reggio Emilia-inspired, project-based teaching and learning practiced at King School. Starting at age 3, we encourage our Prekindergarten and Kindergarten learners to collaboratively explore their environment within intentionally created classroom spaces that allow children to actively engage in their learning.
Reggio-Inspired Early Childhood Program
Project Learning and the Foundations for Self-Discovery
King uses project-based teaching and learning in our Prekindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms, this supports the developmental range of our students as part of our private Early Childhood Education program.
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.
Academic emphasis areas include language, early literacy development, math, and science. Our teaching teams carefully curate the materials used in our classrooms. Children are encouraged to express their understanding of the world through a multitude of resources, including art supplies, building blocks, pencils and paper, and the tools of a scientist.
An Organic and Natural Way for Children to Learn
Prekindergarten
When our youngest learners enter King classrooms at age 3 or 4, they arrive naturally curious and full of wonder and joy.
As they set out to learn about topics that interest them, and solve problems uncovered by their discoveries, they rely on primary sources and share the knowledge they gather in projects and demonstrations. In the process, they develop a deeper understanding of the value of learning, the importance of asking questions, and the role of research and inquiry in informing them about the world and about themselves.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students and their teachers take project research to new heights, as they look across the King campus to understand more about themselves and their school community.
Project studies are focused on topics of interest to students, and solving problems encountered along the way; students interact with primary sources and share their knowledge through projects and demonstration.
Through project work, children are encouraged to be academic risk takers in a safe, secure environment. Within the context of a familiar, accepting classroom, they also try new activities such as acting in a play or standing in front of a group to perform a song. They learn that making a mistake is acceptable and part of the learning process. Children gain an awareness and appreciation of other people, both within our classroom and in the larger school community.
Opening Fall 2025: Early Childhood Center
At King, wonder meets intentional education. King School's new Early Childhood Center elevates the school’s longstanding student-centered, creativity-focused approach to education with a state-of-the-art facility designed to further enhance children's learning experiences.
The reimagined space supports the school’s Reggio-Emilia-inspired program by seamlessly blending indoor and outdoor learning and by allowing King’s youngest learners to imagine and explore their surroundings.
Purposefully designed zones encourage collaborative learning, supporting children's natural curiosity through intentionally crafted environments and teachers’ expertise and guidance.
King’s early childhood program welcomes children starting at 3 years old, offering a nurturing environment where young minds grow and thrive.
Early Childhood in Action
Big day for our little Vikings! More than 100 King School community members gathered on April 5 to celebrate the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for King's new Early Childhood Center and Sullivan Family Playground. The event marked the completion of the first phase of the school's Master Plan, creating state-of-the-art spaces specifically designed for Prekindergarten and Kindergarten students.
A crew of curious PreK students, decked out in hard hats and safety vests, took a big step into the world of construction at King School's Lower School renovation site. The little builders asked big questions, from "Why is there a fence?" to the all-important, "Will there be a new playground?" With construction superintendent Chris Chila on hand to answer, the students were thrilled to explore the space and hear plans for the new Early Childhood Center.
Embracing students' passion for superheros, teachers Jen Agro and Jessica Vigliotti produced numerous experiences, which they call provocations, that yielded academic skills alongside social-emotional development in fun and engaging ways. Over the course of several weeks, students studied geometry to create a city for their alter-egos, used science to free heroes frozen in ice, collaborated on costumes, and more.
It was a chilly October morning when Prekindergarten teacher Jen Agro saw horses at King for the first time. Her students were way ahead of her, galloping around the schoolyard on cushions, bucking and neighing to each other. Over the next several days, stables sprouted up in the PreK classroom and horses were present throughout the school day. Within the week, Agro could see a course of study come into focus.
During the lower school faculty meeting on Wednesday, October 12, lower school teachers discussed how they challenge students' mathematics skills in fun and engaging ways.
A new place of play and learning, the Prekindergarten "Backyard" features blocks, tree stumps, ladders, buckets, and movable slides and bridges. The space offers King School's youngest learners a dedicated place to express their interests and imaginations.
Armed with a jug of water, a few wooden boards, notepads, and a plan, a unit of PreK detectives worked to uncover what types of creatures are inhabiting the nature trail on the King campus.

Prekindergarten students are budding entrepreneurs at King School. As part of imagining and creating a restaurant, they researched their questions: "What kinds of restaurants are there?, Where do they get their food?, and Who works at a restaurant?"

King School's Reggio inspired Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten program employs an emergent curriculum where the children's own discoveries, questions, accomplishments, and challenges become the fodder for the classes' curricular scope and sequence. This fall, King Pre-Kindergarten students viewed a cardboard box as a castle, which propelled the class on a medieval learning quest, exploring architecture, dragons, armor, horses, tapestries, and more.
The students began by pooling their existing knowledge about castles and brainstorming questions to research. Jack shared that castles "have a gate to open at the entrance," Griffin added that castles "have water around them," and Savannah knew "we can make them out of cardboard." Then students posed their initial questions, including: "What are castles made of?", "How would enemies get in?", "Where are castles?," and "Do castles have magic?"