Kindergarteners enjoy busy days filled with active learning. Often they do not even realize they are learning new language or math skills – they just know they’re having fun.
Kindergarten teachers alternate large group/small group, active/passive, and teacher directed/child initiated activities to bring a balance into the school day. Individual workstations provide time for small group activities, with children rotating through planned lessons that reinforce concepts learned earlier. These small group activities provide opportunities for kindergarteners to gain independence and to take responsibility for their own learning, two basic tenets of a St. Andrew’s education.
Language acquisition covers the five essential components of a good reading program: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These concepts are reinforced through shared and guided reading, poetry, and journaling. This literature-rich program includes fairy tales and African folk tales.
The math program continues to build on concepts begun in pre-K, using games to discover more about temperature, money, time, graphing, and word problems. In social studies, kindergarteners learn “all about me,” expanding their circles of awareness from themselves to their families and their school. Handwriting development continues to focus on large and small motor skills, with added instruction on letter stroking and the correct way to grip a pencil.