An Exciting Transition
Moving from preschool into kindergarten is an exciting moment, as children transition from a preschool that offers multiple options into a more traditional and uniform schedule. Here at Rockwern, our full-day kindergarten offers a healthy combination of age-appropriate academics in a hands-on, play-oriented environment. As a Responsive Classroom school, we recognize that the social-emotional curriculum is fundamental to a child’s education, and a crucial component of kindergarten is focused on establishing foundational social-emotional as well as academic skills. Responsive Classroom encourages us to provide a morning meeting, where children learn to greet each other, participate in a group game and an academic activity, listen to each other, ask questions, and cooperate. Responsive Classroom also encourages academic choice, where children gain a sense of agency and control over their own education, and logical consequences, through which children understand that the choices they make affect both themselves and others. In kindergarten, we begin a process of creating a responsible, caring community of learners, and that process is carried all the way through their Rockwern journey and beyond.
Language Arts & Writing
Academically, kindergarten children are introduced to Language Arts through Fountas and Pinnell Classroom for Reading and Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study for Writing. Both of these successful, popular programs utilize a workshop approach; this highly differentiated approach to teaching allows each child to work at his or her own level in learning first to recognize letters and sounds, and then begin to blend letter sounds into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs. A typical group of kindergarten students will range in ability from children who are just learning to recognize letters to children who are natural readers, and our workshop approach allows the teacher to meet each child where he or she is and help each one progress forward. In kindergarten writing, we ease into the work with oral storytelling and illustrations, and we see children progress at their own pace into writing stories, how-to books, and opinion pieces.
Mathematics
Research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have concluded that mathematics education in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country. The Common Core mathematics standards were designed to deliver on this promise. Rockwern’s kindergarten math program incorporates the standards of Common Core Math through creative, hands-on activities that often feel like play, and students record their learning in personal math journals that reveal their growing understanding. This unique, individualized program leads directly into the challenging math series utilized in grades 1-6.
Hebrew & Judaic Studies
Kindergarten students are exposed to Hebrew and Judaic Studies through a daily class that joyfully incorporates songs, dance, conversation, and activities as they learn to write their Hebrew names, greet each other in Hebrew, and celebrate Shabbat and holidays. Kindergarten students also have twice-weekly Art, Music, and Physical Education classes, as well as weekly yoga and time in the school library. Every day includes time to read, discuss, grow, and play, both indoors and outside on our new state-of-the-art playground (weather permitting). In addition, Rockwern’s kindergarten includes special programs such as Bigs & Littles, through which our older students mentor kindergarten students, and our All School Read, which offers kindergarten students an opportunity to teach younger preschool children what they have been learning. Kindergarten students are a vital part of the Rockwern community!
Kindergarten Lifecycle Event: Shema Program
The Shema is one of the central prayers in the Jewish liturgy. Traditionally, the Shema is included in morning and evening services, and it is also customary to say the Shema before going to sleep at night.
At Rockwern, the Shema is the first prayer that our class learns in kindergarten. During the annual Shema Program for kindergarten students and their families, our students perform songs and then everyone recites the Shema together. Teachers and students decorate the room for bedtime, and teachers even make personalized pillowcases to commemorate the event. Each child had their own bed with their favorite stuffed animal, blanket, and bedtime story. In preparation for the event, the children create art including a mezzuzah, a picture of their house during the day and at night, and other related projects.
Homemade headboards for the beds feature book reports the students write about their bedtime routines, including all their favorite bedtime stories and other things they do at bedtime (and favorite ways to avoid going to bed!). It is always a wonderful and meaningful evening.
Specials
TBD
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