Home Curriculum Transitional Kindergarten
Transitional kindergarteners are active, curious and adventurous! Our program builds on this readiness to take on the world to begin to foster a love for learning that flourishes throughout the grades at Park Day School. Transitional Kindergarten in the 2026-2027 school year is open to students turning 4 by Sept. 1, 2026 and those turning 5 during summer 2026. Watch a day in the life of TK video!
In a progressive school, play is the work of young children. Classrooms are busy places as students engage with their environment, and explore identity and peer relationships. In play, children process what they observe and incorporate prior knowledge to make meaning of their world. Play can provide challenges to sort through. How do we negotiate space, compromise, and include a friend’s ideas? Children learn that collaboration can lead to more fun as the creativity of others comes into consideration. The TK classroom is set up to invite play, with teachers helping ensure that students are meaningfully involved in all the social, emotional, and cognitive pieces that comprise joyful learning.
Project work guides children through in-depth studies of real world topics that integrate multiple curriculum strands into one, large topic of study (e.g. school, jobs, families). Teachers select topics of study based on the children’s emergent interests, the availability of local resources, and the topic’s ability to complement learning components. Children are expected to work cooperatively on complex and open-ended tasks as well as follow step-by-step instruction. This approach introduces a wide range of learning opportunities into the classroom.
At the core of our program, teachers understand four and five year old development and are ready to know each child deeply. This deep understanding of each child means that our transitional kindergarteners can get that “just right” nudge to the next developmental challenge, both socially and academically. Children are also encouraged to build skills in establishing positive relationships with their classmates and other members of the Park Day community as they navigate life at “big school.”
Taking responsibility for yourself, your belongings, your community, and your campus is a big step! Our Transitional Kindergarten program builds in these skills gradually, so that TK students’ confidence grows and they can tackle the range of challenges they’ll encounter as they continue into kindergarten and beyond.
In Transitional Kindergarten, students are just beginning to be able to show empathy and step into someone else’s shoes. Our teachers introduce new skills with conflict resolution or taking turns proactively to the whole group, so that when challenges come up during the course of the day, they can lean into what they’ve learned to find solutions to problems!