Kindergarten
Kindergarten is all about nurturing a child’s natural curiosity - five and six year-olds love to learn about the larger world and share their discoveries. Meridian’s program balances social and emotional learning with a challenging and developmentally appropriate curriculum. Students explore self, family, community, and Global Studies using meaningful essential questions. Creating a vibrant, safe, and emotionally secure classroom encourages students to share their feelings and solve problems together.
Goals
- to master school routines
- to balance learning with socializing
- to expand perspective from self to the broader community
- to develop confidence as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and citizens
Highlights
- field trips to Seattle Tilth Children’s Garden as part of the life cycle study
- nonfiction animal report involving everything from research to illustrations
- family celebration day at end of the family unit
Literacy is integrated into routines and good practices throughout the school day. Teachers focus on developing each child’s skills and confidence in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. As readers, kindergartners focus on letter sounds and mouth placement, sight words, context and picture clues. As writers, students learn to use basic conventions, “best-guess” spelling, and efficient letter formation. Listening involves stories read aloud, verbal instructions, and group meetings. Speaking ranges from everyday conversation to class discussions, from small-group explanations to all-school presentations.
Math introduces the five strands of mathematics through daily routines and hands-on activities. Through the Bridges in Mathematics curriculum, kindergartners concentrate on organized and accurate counting, creating and extending patterns, identifying shapes, collecting and analyzing survey data, and explaining their mathematical thinking. Songs, movement, games, and independent exploration engage student interest and build confidence in mathematics
Social studies begins with the personal: students learning about themselves and their families. Children find connections between themselves and others, identifying similarities and differences. The perspective is broadened through the school-wide Global Studies program, encompassing basic world geography as well as environments and families in the specific region being studied that year.
Science concentrates on the five senses and life cycles. Students first focus on themselves as scientific information-gatherers, learning to make careful and detailed observations through their own senses. These skills of observation are used throughout the year during life cycle studies ranging from fall harvest to butterflies. Kindergartners practice wondering, comparing, hypothesizing, and recording.
Character education emphasizes individual responsibility, from contributing to a functional classroom environment to demonstrating thoughtfulness. Kindergartners are learning to work independently, collaborate successfully, identify feelings, and solve problems. Responsive Classroom provides a framework for classroom routines and community-building. Kindergartners learn to impact the wider world through Service Learning Day and participation in community events like collection drives for local causes. Students build connections beyond the classroom by sharing experiences with their third grade “buddy class.”