The Kindergarten Program

Structure

The Kindergarten year is considered to be the completion of the third year program.  It is a full day program Monday-Friday.

In the morning portion, five-year-old children are part of a multi-age classroom with three and four year olds in an 8 to 1 child/teacher ratio. 

In the afternoon portion, five-year-old children are in a 10 to 1 child/teacher ratio classroom consisting of just five year olds.

Philosophy

The philosophy of a three-year program is so that children are exposed to a family style environment where young children learn from the example of older children, and older children gain the experience of leadership and guidance by mentoring the younger children.  The opportunity for a five-year-old child to teach younger children the skills they have mastered completes the learning cycle. 

In the afternoon, children are invited to participate in higher academics.  They have acquired strong concentration and coordination skills from their work as a three and four year old, and are now able to attend to the lengthened work cycles of the Math, Language, Geography and Science Areas.

Educational Opportunities

Open Circle:  A comprehensive social competency program that supports elementary school children in developing the social and emotional skills needed to be good learners and to form healthy, positive relationships with people throughout their lives.

March Science Fair:  An opportunity for children to work collaboratively with parents at home to research a hypothesis at home, experiment and then present their findings to the school community.

Research and Writing Projects:  With the addition of a new set of encyclopedias, the Kindergarten children have been researching different topics of interest and creating impressive research books.  They also participate in Writing Workshops each week where they are presented the beginning of a sentence and then complete it, while journaling their thoughts.