We seek to provide a rich and stimulating curriculum that will facilitate curiosity, creativity and excitement in learning, as well as build a foundation for success in school in later years. We want children to learn to respond to classroom peers in helpful ways, to make choices and become independent in their work, and to maintain a strong and positive sense of themselves while adapting to the routines and demands a group setting like school requires. We hope to model non-sexist behaviors and encourage nurturing and active play in both boys and girls. We value the great diversity in our community in terms of cultures and needs and the learning opportunities this brings to us all.

Using a theme-based approach, we teach academic skills in activities that emerge from children’s interests and day-to-day life. In our classrooms, we teach readiness skills including classification, visual and auditory discrimination, basic concepts such as shapes and colors, language and listening skills, fine and gross motor development, and self-help skills. We emphasize math and language literacy. Children learn by doing and we create opportunities for them to construct their own knowledge and represent it, through art and words. The focus is on process rather than product. By approaching content through a variety of modalities, we can address children with different learning styles.

At Jowonio we also believe strongly that play is an important means of learning for young children: learning of language, concepts, social roles, and mastery of the environment. Because some of our students use alternative modes of communication, our teachers try to incorporate these in the day. We may use signing, and we also have available letter and other communication boards and keyboards, as a number of our students are spelling to express themselves.

The daily schedules, which are sent home each week, can serve as information about the content of the child's day, as a way to prepare each child for what's happening and to talk about it afterwards. The day is planned in 15-60 minute blocks, varying active times with some focused sitting activities. Each classroom has a class meeting or circle time, to aid children in attending to each other, developing an identity as a group, talking about what will be happening during the day, as well as highlighting individual children and discussing content and feelings. Much of the rest of the day is spent in independent exploration, skill times, or creative art activities. Each day also includes gross motor times in the gym and outside, and indoor adult-structured movement activities.

Assessment of skills and progress is generally carried out informally through observations, checklists and portfolios of student work. More formal assessments (such as school district levels tests) may be administered to facilitate each child's placement into their next school environment.

Click on the links below for more articles about Jowonio's approach to curriculum.

Enhancing Literacy Skills at Home

Children and Literature

Science and Young Children

Talking With Children About Art

Every Child Should Have Mudpies