K4 Program

As children made in God’s image, learning how to live in community is foundational to human flourishing. K4 students are trained in scriptures that promote Christian love, charity, and behavior. They are introduced to 10 character virtues and their vices and are expected to gradually demonstrate these traits as they mature. These include honor, obedience, diligence, wisdom, kindness, self-control, orderliness, service, attentiveness, cooperation, initiative, honesty, forgiveness, and responsibility. Our teachers create a gentle and nurturing environment that includes emotional coaching and modeling how to share and put others first, how to forgive and make amends, and how to encourage and show kindness in words and actions. Our teachers pray with and for our students, modeling dependence upon Jesus and living in obedience and faith. Ultimately, the goal for K4 students is to guide them towards developing a deep love for all God created, including one another. Instruction in character and virtue at this level lays a strong foundation for the not only becoming a diligent student but lover of Christ and His creation.

K4 students have time set aside everyday to play both inside the classroom and outside on the playground. During the two outdoor play times, students may choose to swing, use the balls or sidewalk chalk, chase their friends, use their imaginations to play superheroes or family, and more. Play also takes place indoors where language, fine motor skills, and social interaction are developed more fully while building cities with wooden blocks, creating with Play Doh, pretending to make a dinner and taking care of the babies, or conquering puzzles and tangrams to name a few. They learn to play group games in class, play instruments in music class, and play with colors and textures in art class. Play provides the space for their imaginations and wonder to take flight and bring them on amazing adventures.

In the classical tradition, the early years of learning are characterized by multi-sensory discovery and delight. Wonder is the foundation of all future study, and wonder is evoked through hands-on discovery. For instance, when learning poetry, Providence K4 students use hand motions that correlate with the verse. When learning scripture, stories in the Bible, or Latin vocabulary students sing it to a tune, often times using resources like Rain for Roots and Sing Song Latin. When learning to count or create patterns in math, students play with cubes and bears to practice making patterns or showing groups of numbers. During the day, they play in centers that include practice for cutting, sorting, making patterns, or manipulating letters and words. Not only do our K4 students attend a class devoted to formally teaching the visual arts, but they also create two crafts weekly alongside the teacher, one that follows a piece of beautiful literature and the other the letter of the week. This hands-on learning engages their senses throughout the day allowing the children to enter into delightful discoveries and rich learning thus sowing the seeds of wonder, imagination, and a love of learning.

s cultivate wonder and imagination, so does discovering and exploring God's creation, an expression of His love. The primary resource, From Mudpies to Magnets, is used to plan and guide these lessons on a weekly basis. Students are encouraged to engage their five senses while observing the qualities of light, maneuvering pulleys, experimenting with static electricity, melting crayons on a hot, sunny day, building volcanoes, interacting with rocks and fossils, making mud and more. Furthermore, they are guided through the process of making educated guesses while performing investigations such as, when they decide on which objects brought from home have the ability to freeze. All of their discovered observations are discussed and recorded using pictures and words. Discovery and exploration lay the foundation for all future scientific study as they engage with creation using all their senses.

Beautiful books play a key role in the life of a classical student. Well written and beautifully illustrated books are the food to a child’s developing imagination. Our k4 students enjoy a feast of great books throughout their day beginning with listening to a prayer and devotion using, Prayers for Children,  and Big Thoughts for Little People. The children also delight in listening to the rhyme and wordplay of poetry using the text, Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever. Although the teacher reads several books during a week's time, one read aloud is explored more deeply and richly, driving the instructional direction for the week. It becomes the theme for the week's art lessons, music, games, enrichment, & even poetry choices. These quality books encourage the students to interact with rich language, beautiful illustrations, and masterful story lines. Furthermore, their sense of wonder and their growing imaginations are encouraged and guided through daily interactions with beautiful books.