Kindergarten Classes

Art K

Art in kindergarten is designed to foster the developing creativity and abilities of young learners. In an atmosphere of support, we encourage students to explore various media and techniques including drawing, painting, sculpture, assemblage, and printmaking. We consider, discuss, and value representation and expression of both the real and the imagined. Students engage in the safe and thoughtful use of materials and tools.

Language Arts – K

Our language arts curriculum focuses on five areas of literacy development: speaking, listening, phonological awareness, reading, and writing. The students enter kindergarten with different skill levels and are appropriately supported and challenged throughout the year.
 

The students have many opportunities to speak and to listen. Verbal communication is encouraged in whole group and small group settings to develop vocabulary and clarity. Many activities foster good listening skills including read alouds, listening center projects, whole class meetings, and following directions.
 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to play with and manipulate sounds in words. This facility with language is an important precursor to early literacy skills. Students rhyme, syllabicate, alliterate, and learn to stretch words in order to hear all of their discrete sounds. The students then move into phonics, which involves matching sounds with letters and creating word families. The Sounds in Motion program supports skill acquisition. Phonetic spelling allows the students to practice their letter-sound knowledge in order to compose the words they wish to write. We teach the students how to form each lower case letter correctly using a variety of materials including white boards, iPads, and large markers on paper.
 

The studentslearn to read in a variety of ways. They are immersed in a print rich environment that includes charts, labels, literature, and big books. Children learn to read daily information such as schedules, morning messages, and job charts. Reading workshop is a time for the students to choose books, practice their skills, and to confer with teachers. Small language arts groups meet regularly so the students can receive individualized instruction in word work, fluency, and comprehension. 

The studentslearn to communicate through writing by following the writing workshop process. We begin the year with a focus on how to tell a story, starting with detailed illustrations and labels, and gradually incorporating more writing into our storytelling. The students are encouraged to structure stories with a beginning, middle, and end. As the year unfolds, we follow the writing workshop process through a number of genre studies including an all about me piece, family writing projects, three little pigs storytelling using the Puppet Pal app, and Donald Crews inspired books. The students listen to a variety of mentor texts and then rehearse by writing and drawing in that style. They then draft their own pieces. They have many opportunities for shared writing experiences and confer with the teachers regularly. 

Library – K

The goals of the library program are to instill a love of reading, to inspire critical thinking, and to help the students become effective users of ideas and information. Students have one scheduled library class per week where stories are read aloud, books are selected, and research skills are taught in conjunction with the classroom curriculum. 

Mathematics – K

We use Investigations in Number, Data and Space, a complete K-5 mathematics curriculum developed under a grant from the National Science Foundation at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a framework for our program. It is designed to help all children understand the fundamental ideas of number and operations, geometry, data, measurement, and early algebra. Investigations includes activity-based mathematics that encourage students to think creatively, develop and articulate problem-solving strategies, and work cooperatively with their classmates. Many Investigations activities involve engaging games that reinforce students’ understanding of important mathematical concepts and skills. We regularly supplement the program with our own materials. In kindergarten, students engage in mathematical thinking through experimentation, investigation, questioning, and problem solving. Math manipulates provide concrete and visual reinforcement of math concepts. The students are encouraged to be active problem solvers and to use multiple strategies to arrive at solutions. The students learn to express their thinking both verbally and on paper and to create representations to organize, record, and communicate their ideas. The math activities foster increasing competence in one-to-one correspondence, counting, number sense (equality, more, less, odd, even), simple computation, patterns, measurement, graphs, and geometry.

Music- K 

In kindergarten, the students will develop a foundation for music making and appreciation. Through the use of Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze pedagogies, the students will engage in a variety of games, activities, and songs that are experiential in nature. They will also learn basic xylophone and percussion techniques. These activities help the students find their singing voices, match pitch, and develop healthy posture and breathing. They also foster improvisation, rhythmic acquisition, tempo, dynamics, and an understanding of other musical elements. The students will become familiar with solfège hand signs, major and minor tonalities, and the instruments of the orchestra. Music from around the world will be introduced through sound-stories. 

Physical Education – K

The kindergarten physical education program provides students with activities that are challenging, imaginative, and age-appropriate. Tapping into the students’ high energy level and need for motion, the students are introduced to basic movement patterns. They learn about the relationship among body movement activities, body parts, and the manipulation of objects. Much of the class structure is characterized by problem solving techniques, exploration, choice, and creativity. 

Respect and Responsibility – K 

Our respect and responsibility program guides our students with activities and discussions that help them to develop emotionally and socially and become positive members of a group. The curriculum begins with community building and then moves into emotional literacy, conflict resolution, decision making, and stress and anxiety management. 

Students also participate in anti-bias education through which they explore their own identities, learn to appreciate and value diversity, and develop critical thinking skills as they consider a range of concepts relating to equity and justice. 

Related to this work is a gender and sexuality curriculum. Topics explored in the kindergarten classrooms include: human beings have many different qualities and difference is a good thing, there is no right or wrong way to be a boy or a girl, each family is unique and there are many different family structures. In science class the students learn the correct terminology for external body parts and are introduced to internal body systems. In the fall they learn about plant seeds; in the spring they observe duck eggs and learn about the parts of an egg, embryos, and fertilization. 

Science- K

In kindergarten, students are engaged in hands-on, inquiry based science activities which encourage them to view the world scientifically as they make observations, pose questions, collect data, form conclusions, and communicate their findings. Their explorations will take place both inside the classroom and on trips in the surrounding city environment. Group investigations provide opportunities to strengthen social skills, while the use of science-based literature develops the students’ scientific vocabulary. The topics investigated this year include the human body, building and construction, fabric, and transportation. The topics investigated this year include the human body, building and construction, plants, and transportation. 

Social Studies – K

Cultural essentials form the backbone of the kindergarten social studies curriculum. The students investigate the importance of family, shelter, clothing, and transportation to all people. Field trips, guest speakers, neighborhood walks, nonfiction books, literature, primary sources, and technology are among the many resources we use to teach the students about their world and themselves. Weekly classroom projects generate excitement during each social studies unit. For example, during the study of shelter the studentsmight begin by studying their own home and then move to the neighborhood and around the world. After observing and reading about shelters, the students build and draw different shelters using various materials. 

In April the whole Lower School takes part in a collaborative and interdisciplinary unit that provides an opportunity for the students to learn more about other countries in the world. 

Technology – K

Technology in kindergarten is used thoughtfully and purposefully. The students experience a selection of iPad apps that support and reinforce the classroom curriculum. During technology classes, the students are introduced to making and coding. They will build with cardboard and invent using their imaginations. They will then use robots (Beebots and Botleys) which they program to navigate mazes and maps while learning foundational language. Good digital habits will also be discussed.