the KINDERGARTEN program the KINDERGARTEN program

Reading/Language Arts

The reading program used in kindergarten is comprehensive and includes listening and oral language skills, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency at the sound, word, and sentence level, handwriting, vocabulary, and comprehension.

The kindergarten child practices phonemic awareness and phonics skills daily. Phonemic awareness activities include: rhyming words, phonemic segmentation, initial consonant identification and high-frequency words. As your child develops into an early reader, they are taught strategies to decode words fluently and make meaning of the text. Comprehension is built by studying and discussing topics from a collection of fiction and nonfiction texts, poetry, and artwork.

Writing is encouraged and developed throughout the kindergarten year. Early in the school year, the kindergarten child is provided opportunities to put ideas onto paper. In the beginning, ideas are expressed through drawing, with words dictated to an adult. As the school year progresses and the child is more comfortable with letters and sounds and has writing and the writing process modeled frequently, they begin to compose labels, sentences, personal journal entries and/or stories using knowledge of letters and sounds. This “temporary spelling,” also known as invented spelling, occurs often with a mix of conventionally spelled words and continues into the first grade school year.

Math Program

Your kindergarten child will develop number sense with hands-on experiences, utilizing a Math Workshop model. Through the use of manipulatives, your child will work on mastery of activities involving patterning, sorting, measuring, counting, comparing and problem solving. Your child will be taught numeral formation, graphing and basic math concepts. Your child will be taught to recognize simple shapes and will begin addition and subtraction.

Social Studies Program

Science Program

The kindergarten child will explore several areas of science during the school year, including life science, physical science, Earth science and the human body. Throughout the year, your child will be involved in completing simple experiments and recording data.

Social studies is taught in an integrated manner throughout the kindergarten program. Children discuss and have activities related to concepts of respect for others, caring for the school environment, similarities and differences of others and other cultures (holidays), basic map and globe skills and the economic concept of goods and services. It Is through literature, maps and globes, Weekly Reader, arts and crafts projects, daily school living and class discussions that these concepts are presented.