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About Johnson Park Elementary

Daily, our staff members and parents, acting as partners on behalf of our students, seek to implement our school pledge. Within a nurturing setting, we seek to educate the whole student, teaching them to be literate readers and writers; competent mathematicians and scientists; artists, musicians, singers, and movers who perform with skill and appreciate grace, beauty, and style; critical and creative thinkers; knowledgeable and effective citizens; and positive, affirming agents in their local community and the larger world. We accomplish this through direct instruction and discovery learning, in our classrooms and on our environmental trail, in cooperative groups and in one-on-one settings. Our students participate in unique experiences, such as drama residencies, extensive field trip opportunities, environmental-education investigations, and a range of service-learning projects. We invite community members and visitors to join us in our education enterprise; we welcome questions and suggestions.

Our staff and parents, in a positive ongoing partnership, offer Johnson Park’s diverse student population educational experiences that are broad, deep, and integrated. In fact, our integrated approach to education, where we teach our students a range of subjects through their connections rather than in isolation from one another, is a hallmark of our school and the means by which we meet the Core Curriculum State Standards. For example, several of our classes engage in arts residencies that are funded through our strong PTO. 

JP Kindergartners begin the JP experience with a brief orientation prior to the start of the school year. Throughout the year, they participate in classroom and field-trip experiences that help them become more independent while gaining greater social and interpersonal competencies. They also learn beginning literacy and numeracy skills, typically taught from a multi-sensory perspective, and ponder scientific concepts that include a study of life cycles and changes in states of matter. 

First Graders develop into readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists. They publish their own work, use numbers and symbols to represent patterns and statements, and begin to learn about the wider world. Second Graders extend their literacy and mathematical skills and go into depth with topics as varied as transportation, fairy tales, and insects. Third Graders develop a deeper sense of comprehension and read to learn. They study Princeton History via extensive field-trip programs; as well as studying astronomy and ocean habitats. Fourth Graders learn about New Jersey History through traditional classroom activities and visits to the Howell Living History Farm and the NJ State House. Fifth Graders study an array of subjects which includes journalism and culminates in a professional journalist residency. Our fifth graders also assume leadership responsibilities such as taking part in our student council and taking the lead in organizing our “Penny Wars” which raises money for our Koko Fund. (Our Koko Fund assists families with financial needs so their children can participate in after-school clubs and summer camps.) 

All children participate in environmental-education activities that take place in our school garden, turtle garden, nature trail and at the Stony Brook that runs adjacent to our property. Throughout the year, our STEAM teacher guides our students’ ecological learning wherein they examine real-life science questions. 
 
JP values literacy. In our media center and classrooms, we have collections of quality children’s literature reflecting our school’s commitment to multicultural values that celebrate people of all races, religions, and ethnicities, and individuals with disabilities. 
 
We provide instruction in world languages beginning in kindergarten through fifth grade. As the NJ Department of Education has designated our district’s world-languages program as a model program throughout NJ, it’s not unusual to have guests visiting our Spanish-language classes. We integrate children with special needs into our regular-education programs. 
 
Finally, we continue implementation of the Positive Behavior Support in Schools (PBSIS) program, in school-wide projects to affirm a school culture that overtly teaches and systematically fosters appropriate behavioral expectations among pupils and adults. Our JP pledge articulates those expectations. We even have a song we regularly sing together to remind us of our behavioral goals! 
 
Please come to JP, where we care to learn and learn to care. 
 

JP Pledge

Be Responsible,
Be Respectful,
Safe and Kind, and Be Successful.
Our Pledge Makes Things Better! 
 

MISSION

Johnson Park School provides a learning environment that nurtures all students’ social-emotional well-being, physical health and safety, their intellect, their appreciation of the arts, nature, and the environment. Students gain a deeper understanding of their responsibility to self and others while responding to the diverse needs of our school and larger community. Within that environment, we offer a coherent, child-centered curriculum, and instruction that respects a range of teaching and learning styles. 

We’re connected by our commitment to each child as a capable learner, to each parent as a significant partner, and to each colleague as a vital resource as we all grow and develop as individuals and as a learning community. That commitment fosters and requires mutual respect, caring, and support among students, parents, and staff members. 

Fast Facts

Curriculum: Art, STEAM, Health, Language Arts, Library/Media Skills, Mathematics, Music (vocal and instrumental), Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, World Languages (Spanish); Behavioral Expectations, Career Education, Conflict Resolution, Service Learning 

Curriculum Enhancements: English as a Second Language, Accelerated-Intervention-Services Program, Special Education, Speech-and-Language Support, Occupational Therapy 

Enrollment:357
 

School Information

Johnson Park Elementary School
285 Rosedale Road
Princeton, NJ 08540

Phone: 609.806.4240

Principal

Christopher Sheridan