Programs·Kindergarten & ElementaryAges 5 – 6, currently through 1st grade
Children are ready for greater independence, deeper investigations and more complex challenges. Our Kindergarten and elementary experience combines strong academic foundations with real chances to research, design, create, collaborate, communicate and apply what they know. They are not just learning answers. They are learning how to think.
Strong academics. Real problems. A community that becomes part of the classroom.
Reading & math with purpose
Direct, sequential instruction builds strong foundations in reading, writing, and mathematics every day. Children then use those skills inside projects—to research, measure, calculate, write, document, and communicate.
Projects that go deep
Investigations can extend for several weeks. Children ask questions, research, plan, build, test, document, revise, and reflect—using the CAPE™ process to move an idea from challenge to solution.
Teams with real roles
Researcher. Builder. Recorder. Presenter. Children rotate responsibilities, learning how to contribute, listen, lead, collaborate, and be accountable to a team.
The community is our classroom
Learning extends beyond the school walls. Field trips, neighborhood walks, local businesses, cultural institutions, experts, and community organizations give children firsthand experiences connected to what they are studying.
Field experiences with a purpose
A field trip isn’t a break from learning—it is part of the investigation. Children prepare questions before they go, observe and gather information while there, and bring what they discover back into their projects.
Learning through service
Children participate in age-appropriate volunteer experiences that help them understand that their time, ideas, and actions can make a difference. Service becomes an opportunity to practice responsibility, empathy, teamwork, and leadership.
Philanthropy & giving
Children learn that contributing isn’t only about money. They identify needs, explore ways to help, organize giving projects, and experience what it means to contribute to something larger than themselves.
Public presentations
Projects culminate in authentic opportunities to share. Children present their thinking, explain their process, answer questions, demonstrate what they created, and learn to speak confidently to audiences beyond their classroom.
Read more on our blog: When the Community Becomes the Classroom →
The Winter Park School · Kindergarten
Florida standards set what we learn. A PISA lens shapes how children use it in real situations.
learn it ⭐ use it
By year's end, children work toward being able to:
Where learning gets used.
Adapted from PISA's focus on applying knowledge to real-life challenges and on generating, evaluating and improving ideas. PISA assesses 15-year-olds; these are habits, not kindergarten tests.
How we think · The CAPE Method™
C Challenge → A Analyze → P Produce → E Evaluate
Curiosity leads the way.
These are year-end learning goals to guide teaching and observation. Supports and pacing adjust to each child's development. Florida benchmarks: CPALMS standards reports.
The Winter Park School · Kindergarten
8:00 AM–3:10 PM · Core subjects in the morning; hands-on projects and community learning in the afternoon
i figured it out.
8:00–9:00
Arrival, classroom routines and morning learning choices.
9:00–9:30
The class comes together to greet each other and plan the day.
9:30–10:15
Phonics, reading, writing and language.
10:15–10:30
A movement break and a snack to recharge.
10:30–11:15
Number sense, operations, shapes, patterns and measurement.
11:15–11:45
Make, test ideas and explore materials.
11:45–12:00
Bathroom and handwashing break.
12:00–12:30
Movement, play and exploring outside.
12:30–12:45
Bathroom and handwashing before lunch.
12:45–1:15
Wash hands, eat lunch and talk with teachers seated alongside.
1:15–1:45
Child-led play and choice time.
1:45–2:15
Hands-on experiments and learning about people and community.
2:15–3:00
Project-based learning — children plan, create and share their work.
3:00–3:10
Pack up, reflect on the day and head home.
Reading, writing and math come first in the day, with a snack break, then the Big Atelier and outdoor learning.
Free play, science and social arts, and project-based learning. Field trip permission forms must be signed before children take part.
Wash hands before meals and after outdoor play. No food from home after 8:00 a.m. Teachers sit with children at lunch.
Kindergarten & elementary · 2026–2027
Orange County Public Schools student holidays and key dates, for family planning.
These are OCPS dates, not a confirmation of The Winter Park School’s closure days. Please check our school calendar for school-specific closures.
The community is our classroom
Children learn differently when they can connect an idea from a book or classroom discussion to something they can see, touch, investigate, and experience in the real world.
Explore
Field trips & community experiences
Museums, parks, businesses, cultural organizations, nature, community institutions, and neighborhood experiences connect classroom learning with the real world.
Meet
Experts & community partners
Artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, tradespeople, public servants, business owners, and other community members can help children discover how knowledge is used outside school.
Serve
Volunteer opportunities
Age-appropriate service experiences allow children to contribute their time and talents while developing empathy, responsibility, and an understanding of community.
Give
Philanthropy projects
Children identify a cause or community need, explore possible solutions, organize a project, and see how collective action can create an impact.
Create
Projects with real purpose
Whenever possible, projects address authentic questions and culminate in something meaningful—a solution, presentation, exhibition, campaign, product, performance, or contribution to the community.
Share
Public speaking & exhibitions
Children communicate what they learned to classmates, families, community partners, and invited audiences. Their work has a purpose because someone beyond the teacher will see it.
Connect
Build community relationships
Children learn what it means to belong to a community. Through relationships with local organizations, neighbors, businesses, and community leaders, they discover how people work together to make a place stronger.
Reflect
See the impact
After an experience or project, children look back at what they learned, what changed, and how their contribution mattered. Reflection helps turn an experience into understanding—and prepares them for what comes next.
Under the play
Small school, small classes, and a curriculum written in this building — which means it changes when a child needs it to.
Independence
The child sets the plan, notices the problem, and asks for the adult when the adult is genuinely needed.
Documentation
Notebooks, measurements, sketches, dated attempts. A year of thinking you can hold in your hands at pickup in May.
Transfer
The real test: using the cycle on a problem nobody set them. It shows up at home first, usually inconveniently.
Who runs the project
The teacher still sets the challenge. Almost everything after that has moved across the table. Open each notebook tab.
They plan it
Scope, materials, who does what, and a deadline they set themselves and then have to live with.
They document it
They present it
They revise it
A lesson from this room
The Water Question ran six weeks and started with a leaking outdoor tap. It ended with a measured comparison of three collection methods, a written recommendation to the director, and a change to how the courtyard is watered.
"I have a theory about that."
Enrollment is capped by classroom, and elementary places are the tightest we have. Currently serving through 1st grade, growing a year at a time.
Programs & ages
Every age, one method. Pick a room.
Twenty minutes in this room on an ordinary weekday morning will tell you more than this page can.
Before you ask
Scholarships, what we stand for in writing, and the dates. All of it here, none of it behind a form.
Paying for it
We take Step Up For Students and Florida VPK. Send us your Award ID and we handle the EMA enrollment and the quarterly invoicing from our side.
How the funding works →What we stand for
Nine things owed to every child, five owed to each other, and exactly how to report an adult who breaks them. Training on it is a condition of employment.
Read it — or print it →The dates
We follow the Orange County Public Schools calendar, so siblings' dates line up. Every closure is on one page — and one button puts the whole year in your phone.
See the year, add to your calendar →