Primary Group

Children in the Primary Group (ages 4-6, Pre-K and Kindergarten) at Cobblestone spend much of their time exploring the natural world around them. Through books, experiments, visits from experts and field trips, students answer the questions they generate at the onset of each new topic. As much as possible, teachers use Cobblestone's park-like three acre campus for hands-on investigation and instruction.

Outside, children may plant a garden in spring or harvest in the fall, tap maple trees to make syrup, make kites and fly them, study birds and insects, or release butterflies whose life cycle they have observed. Inside, students learn to read and write through listening to stories, singing songs, reading the morning message and reading books with their classmates and older reading buddies. The students draw or paint pictures of what they have learned and write captions beneath.

In math, they play games and learn to count and use numbers by measuring familiar objects: graphing what kinds of faces are most often carved on pumpkins at Halloween, charting the growth of an amaryllis plant, or calculating how many students and teachers make up the weight of one leatherback turtle. Students undertake science discoveries by graphing their senses of taste, making scientific drawings of animals or the solar system, looking closely at natural objects with jeweler’s loupes or studying the habits of turtles.

Students in the Primary Group also enjoy music, Spanish, games, art, and physical education classes. Art includes the exploration of a variety of materials, including conventional and found objects, as well as studying the work of influential artists. The daily schedule for students in the Primary Group alternates between long blocks of active and quiet periods, minimizing the number of transitions these students make while they begin their formal journey as learners.

View a sample Early Primary Group Schedule and Primary Group Schedule here.