Kindergarten

From the first meeting we focus on your child as an individual: listening, observing, adjusting, and motivating.

With two lead teachers in each classroom, we build a fun and engaging year for our earliest learners.

The program is designed to foster independence, connection, and academic growth, and we team with families to make the year work for everyone.

As members of the Youngers cluster, which spans kindergarten and first grade, kindergarten students develop their identities as individuals, students, and community members. That foundation empowers children to seek out ever-greater challenges throughout their years at PS1 and beyond.

To be eligible for kindergarten, your child must be 5 years old by September 1 of the year they enter.

Kindergarten students at work at PS1

Hallmarks of kindergarten here

The program is

  • Open-ended and child-centered. The work follows the children.
  • Differentiated with no ceilings. We use the workshop model for readers' and writers' workshop so learners stay active and engaged at their own level of understanding.
  • Interdisciplinary. Science, art, and writing are woven together rather than timetabled apart.
  • Creative and innovative. Students spend time each week with all six specialists: Spanish, Art, Music, The Studio, Library, and PE.

The students are

  • Listened to and trusted as individuals and as members of the PS1 community.
  • Consistently expected to explain their thinking, not just produce an answer.
  • Learning alongside first graders, which gives them models to watch this year and a role to grow into next year.

Themes and projects in Youngers

A sample of the units a kindergarten and first grade class works through together.

  • Seed exploration
  • Taking care of our community
  • Our family, our identity
  • Change-makers
  • Mapping PS1
  • Balance in nature
  • Designing food trucks, menus included
  • Small-moment story writing
  • We are scientists
  • Insect investigations