Welcome to the King Lower School
Powered by Students’ Questions and Perspectives
In the constant focus on “what comes next” in life, it’s easy to forget how brief and precious childhood is. King School sets a better standard by creating an environment that elevates wonder, creativity, and joy.
Our youngest students’ curiosity is maximized because we honor their questions and consider their perspectives as we build strong educational foundations. Students get more from their education because they feel inspired and delighted every day. As a result they develop the confidence and accountability to discover and explore.
Lower School Inspires Curiosity in Young Children
A Better Standard for Lower School
When 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. As one of Stamford’s top-rate private elementary schools, King School’s program is an interactive, hands-on experience that nurtures a love of learning and working with others.
Learn more about the Lower School
Early Childhood
PreKindergarten and Kindergarten
King's young learners, starting at age 3, experience education as a path of discovery, understanding, wonder, and joy. These ideas are grounded in our project-based teaching and learning program.
Elementary School
Grades 1-5
King's young children are encouraged to ask questions and make their own discoveries. King School’s Grade 1–5 program is an interactive, hands-on experience that nurtures a love of learning and working with others.
Lower School Global Studies Program
The Global Studies program was an eight-day adventure across Central and South America. The three phases of the program allowed students to conduct research on a select country and choose where they wanted to dive deeply into their learning. In the final phase, students built conceptual understanding through art, media, 3D models, and writing.
Learn more about Lower School: PreK-Grade 5
Gracie LS quote
We created the Grade 4 probability carnival for the younger students. Even though they were having fun, we were actually teaching them math!
Gracie H., Lower School student
Varun LS quote
King encourages me to follow my passions. I like STEM activities. We get to make our own objects that solve the problem that needs to be solved.
Varun B., Lower School student
Tim d ls quote
In Science, we were real inventors, creating our own inventions to help us solve a problem. In Math, we learned about economics by creating a marketplace and selling a product to our classmates.
Tim D., Lower School student
Meet our Community
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.