Kindergarten
Kindergarten is THE transition year, which prepares children for an academic curriculum and evolving relationships with their peers and adults. At CEE, Kindergarten is a full-day program beginning at 8:30 am and ending at 3:10 pm. Extended Daycare is available as are fee-based afterschool classes. Kindergartners are considered part of the elementary school, participating in most of the assemblies, events and activities appropriate for grades K through three.
Kindergarten is also CEE’s third major point of entry into the school after Toddlers and Early Childhood 1. Go to Admissions for more information about applying to CEE’s Kindergarten.
CEE groups Kindergartners into two classrooms of thirty children each with two credentialed master teachers in each classroom plus an associate teacher. Specialist teachers for this grade level offer art, music, science and physical education. The classroom student to teacher ratio is ten to one.
Kindergarten classrooms are dynamic learning environments. Each classroom is equipped with a SMART™ board and numerous computers in addition to traditional blocks and activity centers. Children sit at tables or on the floor, forming a variety of learning configurations that engage the active as well as the quiet child. Kindergarten classrooms, like Early Childhood classrooms, have one-way windows for observation by parents.
The Program
Mathematics | Reading and Language Arts | Science and Social Studies | Social and Emotional Development
Social and Emotional Development
Developing a sense of personal competence is each child’s major developmental task during this year. Likewise, developing a sense of social competence evolves through creating positive peer relationships. The child’s success at self-control, at meeting challenges, at demonstrating and accepting responsibility, at respecting rights of others, at resolving conflicts and following school routines and rules are among the crucial outcomes of Kindergarten. At this age, children begin to internalize moral rules and make more appropriate choices about what is acceptable and not acceptable, fair and not fair. School experiences and activities provide opportunities to enhance the development of these skills with the understanding that children mature at varying rates.
The Center subscribes to the philosophy that language skills are best learned by young children within a holistic and natural context. So our curriculum is based in literature and introduces the recognition and the writing of letters as sound symbols. The curriculum incorporates the reading and writing of whole words and sentences, as well as the reading and discussion of fiction and nonfiction. CEE uses the Handwriting Without Tears program, which employs invented spelling and printed upper and lower case letters. Reading and language arts are imbedded in curricular units, such as the study of the Rain Forest or the study of countries represented by Kindergarten in the CEE Olympics. Especially during this transition year, teachers are sensitive to the fact that children mature and learn in different ways and demonstrate various levels of readiness to read and write.
The Center currently uses the Everyday Mathematics program developed by the University of Chicago through grade five. A Kindergartner’s math goals are to apply math skills and mathematical thinking by means of exploration, discovery, and the solving of meaningful problems. For example, Fantastic Equations is a great introduction to basic arithmetic functions using manipulatives that are much like Legos™. Children love to string together longer and longer equations, writing down their additions and subtractions, and adding paper strips to hold their mammoth problems! Everyday Math uses games, real-life situations and home links to establish the foundation for higher, elementary school math. Children develop basic number concepts, counting, patterning, sorting, classifying, computation, measurement and problem solving skills, as well as understanding of basic geometric shapes, graphing, money and time. Whew!
What. Where. When. How. CEE’s Kindergartners call tell you all that and more because everything they do in science and social studies goes together. So when students study the Rain Forest, they learn about animals and plants, countries and geography, climate, and native peoples. With their new knowledge base, students’ can make predictions about what our planet could be like without this important resource, the Rain Forest.
Kindergartners take field trips, write and talk about ideas and observations, and touch the world around them. Cooperative learning supports their developing interpersonal skills. In the science lab up to fifteen children work with partners or in small groups to experiment in ways that are up close and personal.
For more information about art, music and physical education click here.
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