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 The
KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM encompasses a curriculum with themes and
activities chosen and designed to develop positive feelings
toward learning, high self-esteem and great expectations of
oneself.
At this age, play continues to provide children with a strong
path to learning and the mastery of important skills. Children
learn from self-directed problem solving and experimentation.
Therefore, the Kindergarten environment is filled with exciting
hands-on experiences and opportunities for active exploration,
allowing for investigation and creativity. Different levels
of ability, development and learning styles are expected, appreciated
and taken into consideration when designing activities.
Learning about math, science, social studies, health, and other
content areas are all integrated through meaningful activities
such as those when children are building; measuring sand, water,
or ingredients for cooking; observing changes in the environment;
working with wood and tools, sorting objects for a purpose and
exploring nature, animals, plants and water.
 Children
have daily opportunities for aesthetic expression and appreciation
through the "Language" of art and music. A Music and Movement
class occurs on a daily basis where our children experiment
and enjoy various forms of music and dance styles. Children
are exposed to a multi-cultural realm of music to broaden their
perspective. A variety of art media is used for creative expressions
encouraging our children to understand the many varied art forms
and ways to express themselves as individuals, where art has
its true meaning.
Outdoor activity is planned daily so children can steadily develop large muscle skills, learn about outdoor environments, and express themselves freely without the need for using their "indoor voices."
There is ample time to use the classroom computer where children can work independently as well as in pairs. This hands-on experience lays the foundation for comfort and familiarity in using computers as an educational tool, so necessary in today's world.
The Kindergarten program provides a variety of opportunities
to experience the enjoyment and usefulness of reading and writing,
thus preparing for reading readiness, the cornerstone of all
future learning. An abundance of activities is provided to develop
language and literacy. Reading is encouraged and occurs as children
investigate and experience print and enjoy many forms of literature.
Small and large group discussions occur to foster children in
formalizing and verbalizing their own thoughts, expand their
thinking, develop imagery and promote oral problem solving.
Children are guided to express themselves through dictation
or in written form using inventive spelling. In this way, writing
is fostered at each child's individual pace. We instruct children
in the proper formation of upper and lower case manuscript letters,
word spacing and legibility. The D'Nealian handwriting method
(the basis for cursive writing) is used. Teachers are careful
to follow each child's level of development as reading and writing
readiness skills emerge.
Character development is a key component of the curriculum as
the children focus on one concept each month. Concepts such
as patience, trustworthiness, honesty, respect, generosity,
fairness, caring, courtesy, citizenship, gratitude, optimism,
determination, freedom and love are put into practice daily
within our School Family.
Children are provided many opportunities to develop social skills such as cooperating, helping, sharing, negotiating, compromise, respect for other's rights and feelings and talking closely with their teachers and their peers to solve interpersonal problems.
In the Kindergarten Program, our goal is to lay the foundation for a lifelong interest in, and the enjoyment of, the learning process, and especially reading. Most importantly, our goal is to build each child's confidence, autonomy and sense of self.
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