Kindergarten

List of 9 items.

• + Thematic Study

  Social interactions among children are central to the Kindergarten curriculum. Our goal is to enable children to work and play together in a respectful and cooperative way. Through discussions, activities, meetings, and, most importantly, through play, children build social skills and develop an understanding of what it means to be a member of a community. Throughout the year, kindergarteners will be involved in the thematic study, “All About Us.”  We begin the year by focusing on our own identities and the ways in which we are the same and different from those around us. As the year progresses, we widen our lens and reflect on what it means to be contributing, ethical members of our classroom, the Shady Hill community, and the world at large. 

  
  

  Our throughlines for the year are:

  • Be kind to yourself, others and the environment.
  • We are all alike and we are all different.
  • What does it mean to be an “Upstander”?

• + Language Arts

  Speaking, listening, reading, and writing are inseparable parts of language development. Our program incorporates all of these elements. Mastery of language is a continuum, which extends over a number of years and happens for all children at different ages depending on their maturation, experience, and learning style. The goal of the language arts program is to nourish a love for words and books, build specific skills, and help children gain confidence in their own abilities. Teachers offer a range of opportunities for children to explore language. Children listen to stories and poetry, sing songs, write, and play phonetic games. Aspects of the language arts curriculum are also reinforced through the Fundations, Heggerty, and Lexia programs. 

  
  

  A set of B- Grade VIII standards provides the framework for our work in language arts. Our program is also supported by the kindergarten literacy specialist, Marya Outterson. Below are some of the goals we have for kindergarteners over the course of the year. These are by no means exhaustive, but rather an overview of some of the skills we expect children to master by the spring. 

  
  

  • recognizes and names upper and lower case letters 
  • identifies consonant sounds
  • identifies vowel sounds 
  • hears and manipulates sounds in words 
  • uses beginning reading strategies 
  • recognizes approximately 20 high frequency words 
  • independently uses invented spelling, phonemic awareness, and letter knowledge in writing 
  • responds to questions about texts that have been read aloud
  • generates topics for writing

• + Mathematics

  In Kindergarten students develop the idea of number. They learn to represent numbers, compare quantities of things, and begin to build an understanding of how numbers are organized in our base 10 system. They engage in problem solving using addition and subtraction; developing useful strategies built on their own thinking and grounded in physical and visual models. Kindergarteners also explore Geometry, analyzing both two and three dimensional shapes. We use the Illustrative Math curriculum in grades K-IV as our primary resource. Students are asked to think of themselves as mathematicians, reasoning to solve problems, and expressing their thinking clearly.  Throughout the year, there is an emphasis on connection, whether it is learning to learn math together or connecting math to their lives and the world around them.

• + Science

  (One 45 minute class per week)

  
  

  Kindergartners are natural scientists and engineers. Their days are filled with opportunities to build, take apart, sort, observe, compare, question, and experiment. The students travel to the Lower School science lab in The Hub once per week for 45 minutes. The science specialist works with the gradeheads to integrate science into the curriculum. In keeping with their Thematic Study, "All About Us," the science theme consists of a study of how we use our five senses to learn about the world, as well as an exploration of the organ systems within the human body. Science activities are hands-on explorations, and include: making nerve cells, using prisms to create rainbows, building noisemakers, designing ears, and constructing models of the heart and lungs.

• + Library

  (One 30-minute class per week)

  
  

  Kindergartners visit the library in half groups. The librarian reads aloud a variety of stories on a single theme with an eye to diversity of content, characters, and style. Students build upon their visual literacy and story-telling skills by beginning the year with a six-week study of wordless books. Other multi-week themes might include: books you might find funny, animal friends and foes, and food and family stories. Discussions focus on making connections between the books we read and students’ own lives, other books, and the Kindergarten curriculum. Near the end of class, students “browse”books they find interesting.

• + Music

   (Two 30-minute classes per week)

  
  Kindergarten students continue cultivating community and understanding through a wide variety of musical experiences including singing, dancing, listening, and playing age-appropriate rhythm instruments. Students continue their journey toward becoming “tuneful, beatful, and artful” musicians and continue learning about the cultural diversity in music, singing more songs in various languages and listening to selections from different cultures. In the winter, students take a deep dive studying The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens in music and across other subjects. By spring, Kindergarteners are ready to demonstrate their findings through movement, poetry, dance, and song . As in other grades, students gain familiarity with a variety of songs for weekly Lower School assemblies as well as holidays and special events including the Gratitude Assembly, the Black History Assembly, May Day, and Closing Day.

• + Art

  Children are offered various art projects in their classroom and use a wide variety of media, such as tempera paints, watercolors, clay, wood, paper mache, and collage/recycled materials. Art areas are set up in classrooms to provide students with opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and self-expression. Students learn and practice different artistic techniques.  Our curriculum, as well as children’s experiences, provide the subject matter for much of their work. Through hands-on activities, classroom teachers help children build skills and develop a passion and respect for art.

• + Movement Education

  (Two 30-minute classes per week)

  
  The Kindergarten Movement curriculum provides students with developmentally appropriate activities that promote movement competence and understanding, foster healthy habits and social and emotional development, and instill in students a sense of confidence and joy in participating in physical activity. Students explore and practice various locomotor, non-locomotor, and manipulative skills, and are introduced to movement concepts that incorporate spatial awareness, effort, and relationships. Mindfulness exercises, yoga sequences, and dance and fitness activities are common threads throughout the year, as are cooperative group activities that help students build the skills of sharing, compromising, and encouraging others while practicing moving safely in personal and general space.

• + School Community

  The entire Lower School (B- Grade IV) meets together in the Assembly Hall for a half hour each Friday morning. The music component of assemblies includes community singing, performances by Shady Hill students, and performances by visiting artists. Outside presenters come from the arts, sciences, and humanities and make connections to the wider world. Music at the assembly extends the music curriculum and deepens students’ understanding of music as cultural expression. Classroom sharing is also an important focus of assemblies. The emphasis is on sharing works-in-progress from all areas of the Lower School. Preparation for sharing is part of the learning process, and sharing in front of a larger group in a safe, supportive environment helps children develop confidence in public speaking and effectively presenting their work.