Kindergarten Program Curriculum Highlights

Daily Activities – To facilitate the curriculum goals listed below, daily activities are selected to include calendar math activities, news, weather, stories, songs, teacher and self-directed discovery centers, problem-solving, social skills growth and communication opportunities, skill building, snack, lunch, and recess.

Weekly Activities – Weekly opportunities are alphabet bags and books, targeted math concepts and estimation jar, science discovery center, and social studies awareness activities.

Social/Emotional Development – 5 year old children are quite self-sufficient and eager to explore. Their behavior is more predictable and consistent. They are increasingly social, polite and responsible. Our Kindergarten activities continue to encourage the expression of appropriate feelings and emotions, taking responsibility for one’s own actions and belongings, respecting oneself and others, caring for classroom materials, following rules and routines, playing well with other children and strengthening skills to problem solve and resolve conflicts. Children also learn more about themselves through activities focusing on self, family, friends, home, school, community, cultures, and holidays.

The goal for your child’s social/emotional development is to achieve a sense of self, take responsibility for self and others while behaving in a pro-social way. 

Language Development – A 5 year old’s language is quite mature and similar to speaking with an adult. They are using expressive words and are able to give great detail and length to their story or information. A variety of reading and writing activities are used to further children’s language development such as identifying and forming upper and lower case letters, phonics, comprehension skills, oral language skills, journals, stories, interactive charts, poetry, rhymes, finger plays, songs, and guided reading. The Scott Foresman Reading Program is introduced for lessons with this class.

The goal for your child’s language development is to be able to listen, speak, and begin to make sense of written language. 

Physical Development –   5 year old children have greater fine and gross motor control than ever before. You will likely see them writing their letters with ease and riding bikes with control. This class continues to develop their fine motor skills through writing, drawing, coloring, tracing, cutting, weaving, lacing, play-dough, manipulating small learning materials such as puzzle pieces, pegboards, Unifix cubes, Legos, and Geoboards. Gross motor skills are enhanced through creative movement, bouncing, catching and throwing balls and beanbags, running, skipping, hopping, jumping, climbing, balancing, riding tricycles and crawling through tunnels.

The goal for your child’s physical development is to be able to achieve both fine and gross motor control of their bodies. 

Cognitive Development – Cognitive development at this age is much more complex. Children are able to categorize objects with two or more characteristics. They are curious and eager to learn about the world around them. Therefore, this class encourages exploration of math and science through counting, number recognition and formation, one-to-one correspondence, ordering, patterning, sequencing, graphing, estimating, weighing, measuring, identifying shapes, sorting, classifying, comparing, and calendar activities. Children’s science knowledge and skills are developed through the study of life cycles, seasons, animals, weather, magnets, dinosaurs, environments and health.

The goal for your child’s cognitive development is to learn to problem solve, think logically and to use imagination while representing and exploring abstract ideas. 

Enrichment Activities – Enrichment activities round out our program. They include  creative movement led by specialists and a variety of visiting programs from the Nashua Fire Department, a Dental Hygienist, the Audubon “Wings of the Night” program, Beaver Brook’s Dinosaur Program, and a musical performance from the Nashua Senior Center. Field Trips feature visits to the Nashua Public Library for Story Time and Puppet Show and Wilson Farm for hayrides and pumpkin picking. The SEE Science Center and Animal Adventures pay a visit to our school for science enrichment. All of these support classroom areas of study. Pre K students also enjoy participating in the annual Holiday Concert Show.

Based on the Scott Foresman Reading Street Program, elements from AIMS Math and Math Their Way and The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, Trister-Dodge, D., Colker, L. & Heroman, C., Fourth Edition.