Kindergarten Curriculum













Kindergarten is an exciting year filled with opportunities for learning, growing, and gaining self-confidence. Play, exploration, social development, and academic readiness skills are important aspects of our program. Though we cover many areas, our teaching is holistic. Math, art, literacy, Torah – all may be integrated within a particular lesson.

Our program respects the learning styles of each child and helps all students move along a learning curve that is developmentally appropriate so they can:

  • learn to trust themselves and others
  • learn self-discipline
  • gain an awareness of others and the ability to feel for and with them
  • become self-reliant and self-starting
  • become increasingly responsible for their own behavior and safety
  • form creative ideas
  • extend basic moving, manipulating, and communicating skills
  • listen with heightened and prolonged attentiveness
  • acquire factual information
  • develop the capacity to conceptualize and represent ideas
  • derive pleasure from the process as well as the product
  • show the desire to try, the courage to fail, and the persistence to continue their effort

Language and Literacy

Stories lie at the heart of our literacy program. As we hear and discuss stories, we focus on the skills of listening and speaking. Students “read” words in the kindergarten classroom every day, and achieve some success unlocking the written word, even if they are not ready to read independently.

The kindergarten program focuses on developing phonemic and sight word pre-reading skills. Responsive to the needs of each individual student, teachers instruct in letter formation and some of the conventions of written communication. Small motor skills are refined and developed as students draw pictures that tell stories and practice writing.

Math

Activities focus on mathematical thinking, the development of whole-number concepts, and the use of patterns and sorting to explore number, data, and shape.

Math activities are often tied to concrete tasks: What do our sneakers have in common? How many children in the class have the same number of letters in their names?

As they represent solutions to questions, students see that math helps them record observations about their world. We know they are learning about quantity, shape, patterns and relationships, number concepts and operations, geometry and special relations, measurement, probability, and statistics.

Science

Through hands-on activities, students hone the skills of observation, investigation, questioning and predicting, explaining what they have seen, and forming conclusions. Activities include looking through magnifying glasses, pouring food coloring into solutions and watching the solution color change, using the five senses to describe objects, indicating the relative position of objects by using one reference point (above or below), and comparing and sorting by physical attributes. Children communicate their observations orally and through drawing.

Thematic Studies

Thematic studies begin with our students’ awareness of themselves as individuals and then as members of a family and a school community. In each context, activities are designed to build an understanding that we are interdependent with many groups, and that we have rights and responsibilities within these groups. Students practice the skills of asking questions, measuring, sorting, classifying, and communicating information.

Hebrew

The primary goal of the kindergarten Hebrew program is the development of listening and speaking skills through concrete experiences. Lessons are conducted entirely in Hebrew, and students are given time to sort out the language that they hear and understand until they are ready to use it for their own expressive purposes. A Hebrew teacher comes into each classroom four days per week. Hebrew vocabulary is reinforced throughout the day as well.

The topics of each Hebrew unit are drawn from children’s own life experiences, as well as from the themes of the kindergarten curriculum. The objectives support the skills the students are working on throughout their day, such as sorting, matching, and sequencing.

Throughout the lessons, students interact with a wide variety of age appropriate and authentic Israeli materials from literature, art, and music. Instructional strategies include Total Physical Response (TPR), Language Experience Approach, dramatic and role play, and the use of visuals, songs, games, and rhymes. By the end of the year, students are able to use four hundred Hebrew words actively and have passive comprehension of many more.

Torah

Children begin their exposure to Torah narrative by listening to the stories of the Torah from Creation through entering the Promised Land. Teachers help children identify lessons and mitzvot from the stories, and develop an understanding that the Torah is meaningful to the Jewish people.

Tefillot (Prayer)

Morning routine begins with tefillot. Children experience tefillot as an opportunity for personal expression and for asking questions about God. Tefillot also functions as a tool to build self-esteem and self-discipline and to facilitate a positive social environment. Students develop competence in learning the words and basic meanings of prayers. They become familiar with the main genres of prayer: hodayah (giving thanks) and shevah (giving praise). Prayers taught in kindergarten include: Modeh Ani, Mah Tovu, Shema, Oseh Shalom, and Adon Olam.

Holidays and Shabbat

Children are introduced to the basic themes, symbols, and traditions of each holiday. Holiday units are interwoven with art, literacy, and math. Children learn Hebrew words associated with the holidays and develop skills in reciting certain blessings. Songs, craft projects, and school-wide celebrations help bring the holidays to life.

Shabbat is celebrated every week in the classroom with candle-lighting, tzedakah (giving money to charity), Kiddush, and motzi (prayers over grape juice and challah). Children learn the connection between Shabbat and the Creation story, and begin to understand the concept of a day of rest. All the kindergarten classes join together on Friday afternoons for gatherings filled with stories, singing, and dancing, providing closure for the week that has passed.

Arts

Visual Arts

Students express their ideas through the visual arts through experimentation with various media and techniques. Student art is proudly displayed throughout the classroom, and in the kindergarten rotunda. Students learn that everyone is an artist. They look at book illustrations, discuss what is conveyed by these images, and illustrate their own books. Projects include: Asian brush painting on rice paper, Matisse inspired cut-out collages, and paper frog puppets.

Music

Kindergarten rooms are constantly filled with music as students sing and listen to music every day. They explore pitch matching, learn to recognize musical patterns, and respond to changes in tempo, dynamics, and timbre. They also recite prayers as part of tefillot, learn about Bible stories through song, and chant as they practice letter and number concepts. They are exposed to different musical styles and forms, and they connect music with visual art and literature.

Dance

Dance begins in kindergarten with a repertoire of Israeli dances, exposing children to Israeli music and culture while building kinesthetic awareness. Students develop their creativity through movement and refine their gross motor skills as they hop, skip and jump. The dances – which culminate in a performance for parents in the spring – help children follow directions, learn about patterns and rhythm, and build a connection to Israel.

Social Competency

Telling children to be thoughtful and kind isn’t enough; we need to help them understand what these attributes sound and look like. Students learn and practice such skills as learning to take risks, sharing a marker, and trying again after making a mistake. Instilling a view of oneself as a student for whom learning and being a school friend is powerful, fun, and fulfilling is an essential element of every kindergarten activity.

Physical Education

Our program carefully addresses the physical, emotional, and social needs of Lower School students. We seek to develop a lifelong interest in physical fitness.

Activities provide a vast arena for assessing and improving motor skills. Students grow in experience and competence as athletes, and they increase their confidence in their ability to perform and to set realistic goals for themselves.

Kindergarten students practice large motor skills such as running, hopping, skipping and galloping, both as exercises and in game situations. Games are chosen that provide a forum for enhancing interpersonal skills. Students play, share space and equipment, and offer support while learning to work within a team.

Library

Kindergarten students are introduced to all aspects of the library. They develop the responsibility of being book borrowers, independence in their book choices, and the skill of sharing favorite passages and illustrations. Through weekly read-alouds, they learn the habit of good listening. Through exploration of multiple genres, conversation and questions, children create a community as they share reading journeys and form a connection with the librarian.

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