Kindergarten

 

A comprehensive overview of our kindergarten program can be found on this page - Kindergarten Overview.

 

The State College Area Kindergarten program is a year to celebrate growth.  Kindergarten is truly a “garden” of children. As plants and flowers in a garden grow stronger and more full as the season unfurls, so does each kindergarten student show growth in their confidence levels, social, emotional, and academic successes as their kindergarten year progresses. Each child in the classroom will begin at a very different social, emotional, and academic place and find some common ground in each of these areas as the school year unfolds. There is a strong focus on cooperation and community building throughout the year as the students learn how to be social, emotional, and academic participants in a classroom setting. For our youngest learners, a balance between play and developmental learning is the key to success. As the students’ stamina grows, so do our expectations and daily routines.

Kindergarten students explore and learn about their world through cooperative experiences, individual learning experiences and small and large group instruction. All students quickly discover that they are readers and writers, mathematicians and scientists, and that they have many options with which to share their learning with others. Our reading units include “We Are Readers and Writers,” “Growing as Readers and Writers,” and “Celebrating Ourselves as Readers and Writers.” Through reader’s and writer’s workshop, our kindergarten students are immersed in meaningful literacy experiences that reflect the developmental nature of kindergarten and that capture their inherent sense of curiosity about how the world works. Our use of Kid Writing supports students as they make connections between sound and print in their daily writing. In math, kindergarten students use visual models, manipulatives, and games to learn about math concepts that will support their conceptual understanding of numbers and build the background needed for more complex math in future grades.

Kindergarten students naturally curiosity continues to be nurtured in our science and social studies topics which include the seasons, body growth and hygiene, animals and habitats, and transportation. Kindergarten students will participate in music, art, gym, STEM and library classes on a weekly basis and take enriching field trips throughout the year.

Kindergarten cannot help but be a magical place and experience.  The excitement in their eyes when they accomplish something new - whether it’s tying their shoe for the first time, crossing the monkey bars at recess unassisted, sharing a prized possession or story with the class, navigating a new friendship, conquering their courage to be away from parents/guardians for the first time, or an accomplishment with reading or writing, a realization with a math problem - there is always a magical moment. No reason is too small to celebrate!

- Ms. Jen Conklin, Kindergarten Teacher at Lemont Elementary School

 

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