JK Students Build a Model Community
Most afternoons in Junior Kindergarten, the students are engaged in ExploreMore. This is an opportunity for them to have dedicated time in Spanish lessons, math games, exploring science concepts, or learning about their community in social studies. An indepth look at the social studies time reveals a Collegiate Town that has come to life. Two of the JK teachers, Kim Turner and Wendy Wilson, have guided the children during a semester-long study of communities. The children have learned about community jobs and workers, and they have been building a community with roads, signs, trees, parks, cars, and of course a large football field. The children suggested town names and voted on Collegiate Town as the name for this place in miniature.
As the students completed the center fo their town, they added a neighborhood. They added many different streets and apsects of their neighborhoods before moving on to the fields and farmlands outside the neighborhood. Developing a sense of the musltiple parts and unique functions that collectively make a community is an essential foundation to bringing civic engagement into the curriculum and into the lives of students at Collegiate.