Kindergarten Program

The Kindergarten Program is for children who have had their 5^th birthday by October 1 of the school year.

· Kindergarten children participate in the integrated Preschool Program and activities at the beginning and end of each day.

· In order to accommodate their special needs to prepare them for 1^st Grade they have extended hours. All children in the Kindergarten Program are expected to arrive by 8:15 AM in order to start school at 8:30 AM. The morning program ends at 12 noon; they may then eat lunch or go home. All morning children must leave by 12:30.

· Full day students eat lunch at 12:00 PM and rest from 1:00 - 1:30 PM while listening to a story.

The Language Arts Curriculum includes a combination of Phonics and Whole Language Methods designed to help children develop interdependent skills using semantics, syntactic and graphophonic cues in order that they will become effective readers for life. The children will participate in the following activities:

· Create a daily class journal and keep a personal journal in order to use reading/writing as part of their developing communication skills.

· Share Big Books and enjoy in other guided reading activities (semantic cueing.)

· Sort words using first letter sounds, blends and digraphs (graphophonic cueing.)

· Participate in individual reading activities and read small graded reading and picture books from a variety of sources.

· Develop and extend oral skills through story, poetry, drama and word games. (syntactic cueing.)

The Mathematics Curriculum is based on the University of Chicago School Math Project’s Everyday Mathematics. This program is grounded in the belief that mathematical knowledge grows from life experiences and needs repeated exposure for concepts and skills to be mastered. It includes developmentally appropriate activities in the 6 main areas of mathematics.

• The Everyday Mathematics kindergarten program includes developmentally appropriate activities in the 6 main areas of mathematics:

o Numeration

o Operations and computation

o Patterns

o Geometry

o Measurement

o Data Collection and Chance

• Everyday Mathematics involves active participation, exploration, discussion and practice in fine motor coordination.
• Mathematics is integrated into our other multi-aged subject areas, play activities, and classroom routines.
• Science, Social Studies, Spanish, Music, Creative Arts & Crafts, and Physical Education are all part of the integrated Preschool Program.