General Overview

The Kindergarten program offers a vital bridge between the early childhood education experiences and the challenges of elementary school. The aim of the kindergarten program is to further the development of reading, writing, speaking, science, and mathematics skills through concrete, hands-on, and literature-based activities. Lessons are centered around thematic units which tie together knowledge throughout the curriculum. In order to support self-esteem, understanding, and cooperation, differences in ability are not only expected, but accepted, and the contributions of each student are valued.

Students listen to stories, and throughout the year write and illustrate their own books, stories, and journals. Author studies, "big books", reading charts with "magic wands", choral reading and singing poems and songs all contribute to a well-rounded and complete language arts program.

The reading program includes whole group and individual activities. A solid introduction to phonics is combined with a strong emphasis on literature.

Special topics in Language Arts include: comparing and contrasting stories, learning letter, letter names, sight words, vocabulary development, rhymes, sequencing, retelling stories, real vs. make-believe, writing skills, sentence structure, story details, and cause and effect.

In Mathematics children study the overarching mathematical concepts of number/numeration, operations, patterns and functions, geometry, measurement, estimation and data analysis, mathematical reasoning and problem solving. Some concepts that fall under the umbrella of above concepts include: positions, locations, and path; sorting and classifying; counting readiness; 2 and 3 dimensional shapes; numbers to 30; measurement of length, weight, and capacity; geometry; time and money.

Throughout the course of the school year, children continue to grow and develop in their thinking and awareness of themselves and others. Keeping this in mind, the Social Studies themes include: All about me, homes around the world, cultural holidays and traditions, and fairy tales.

Throughout the course of the school year, children continue to develop their understanding of the scientific process as they make observations, ask questions, plan simple experiments, use simple tools, investigate and develop explanations. Some concepts that are taught in Science include, but are not limited to trees, wood, paper, animals two by two.

The children also have classes taught by specialists, including physical education, music, art, Hebrew, computers and swimming.