MKA’s earliest learners find themselves a step ahead as a result of a thoughtful program that encourages them to ask why and wonder. On their own dedicated campus, they practice reflection, build curiosity, and develop their capacity for decision-making. From the beginning of their MKA experience, students are recognized as individuals who each have a part to play in the campus community.
Jr-K - Grade 3
Growing in Leaps and Bounds
Our Primary School curriculum ignites a lifelong love of learning. We cultivate curious, confident, and capable students by fostering a joyful, inquiry-based environment. Our teachers design engaging lessons that challenge students academically while nurturing their social and emotional growth. By emphasizing critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, we empower students to become independent learners and responsible citizens.
LEARNING AT THE GROWING EDGE
Curiosity, confidence, and connection take root in the earliest years of learning. The following Jr-K through third-grade examples, representative of MKA’s dynamic academic program, illustrate hallmarks of MKA’s Jr-K–12 student experience.
Through age-appropriate programming rooted in integrity, empathy, and service, Primary School students learn that they can lead in many different ways. In all-school Community Meetings, grade-level Community Wellness classes, classroom Morning Meetings, and our Jr-K/Third-Grade Buddy Program, students examine their individual identities and benefit from multiple leadership opportunities.
Beginning in Jr-K and in keeping with the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, students engage in wonder and learn how to ask questions that inspire further exploration. More formal research opportunities include the first grade’s exploration of Montclair, the second grade’s study of animals, and the third grade’s study of the U.S. states.
Primary School students use STEM+ thinking to imagine creative solutions to real-world problems in and out of the classroom. For example, in the Outdoor Explore Classroom, students notice and wonder, problem solve, design, and collaborate, nurturing their STEM+ mindsets.
The MyMachine project in first grade also reinforces that innovation is both creative and collaborative.
Students are empowered to see themselves as authentic writers through instruction grounded in inquiry, collaboration, and creativity. For example, students in Kindergarten engage in civic-minded writing to solve school-wide challenges, while third-grade students engage in Capstone projects that blend research and design into persuasive, impactful narratives.
Students in grades Jr-K through three explore dance, music, theatre, and visual arts in a program that builds creativity, confidence, and community. Integrated with classroom learning, these experiences culminate in performances and exhibitions that lay the foundation for a lifelong love of the arts.
Exploring and engaging with the world beyond their classroom begins in the earliest years at the Primary School. Students’ curricular experiences serve as “windows” and “doors” into others' experiences and perspectives and teach students about the world and how they can become changemakers in it. Through field trips in every grade, students gain early insight into what it means to be curious, thoughtful, and contributing members of a broader community.
Prioritizing wellness and social-emotional learning is essential to the health and growth of our Primary School students and our school community. Morning Meeting, with its foundations in the Responsive Classroom approach, is held every day in every classroom and includes routines and teaching points that establish a strong classroom community grounded in mutual respect and care. Grade-level Community Wellness classes build on understanding personal needs and attributes to develop students’ empathy and confidence in and out of the classroom.
WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE
In a Reggio Emilia-inspired early childhood program, students’ ideas and questions shape their dynamic explorations, providing the foundation for their learning throughout the Primary School. Teachers in all grades confer with, support, and challenge students, not only to help them reach academic goals but also to stretch them as learners. Students develop their voices and explore their interests and passions through the choices they make in their home classrooms and their special subject classrooms (science, world language, physical education, library, dance/theatre arts, music, and visual arts).
Primary School classroom teachers are elementary education specialists who understand and celebrate the academic and social/emotional growth of young learners. Research shows that students who attend schools with strong social and emotional learning programs have higher academic achievement, better mental health, and fewer behavioral difficulties in school—benefits that continue into adulthood. At the Primary School, teachers help to set the stage for social and emotional learning by helping students develop five social and emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
The daily schedule of the Primary School comprises a broad range of enriching, developmentally appropriate experiences and intentionally reflects students’ developmental needs and attention spans. Students spend most of their day in their grade-level classroom, where the day begins with a Morning Meeting, rooted in the Responsive Classroom approach. Routines and teaching points included in Morning Meeting help to establish a strong classroom community built on mutual respect and care.
Students travel to special classes—taught by subject-area experts in science, world language, physical education, library, dance/theatre arts, music, and visual arts—that offer opportunities to move, experiment, and explore beyond their classrooms. Daily snacks, lunches, and recesses are scheduled at intervals to provide students with time to socialize and choose their activities.
Student-centered classrooms buzz with energy as small groups and pairs of students work together to share, collaborate, create, and solve problems. Each room invites students into a print-rich learning environment where student work is prominently displayed. Students’ individual workspaces are grouped to support collaboration, and a gathering area “on the rug” provides a defined community space.
Students use a variety of resources to support and expand their learning. They research and better explain their thinking with the aid of iPads, experiment and consolidate concepts with manipulatives, easily browse and access a wide variety of reading choices in their classroom book collections, and enhance their thinking and their friendships through imaginary play and conversations with peers.
At MKA’s Primary School, every day begins with curiosity—an idea, a question, a spark. We believe children are natural creators and meaning-makers, and our role is to nurture that creative edge from the very start. Through joyful exploration, deep connection, and purposeful learning, our students develop the confidence to wonder boldly and the courage to express who they are.Katie BanksHead of Primary School
Facility Feature
The Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom
In the Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom, students imagine, construct, create, uncover, and share. Applying research on the importance of play to students’ learning, all students have two recesses a day with limitless choices in how they move and explore, as part of a team, a group, or individually.