Kindergarten is all about nurturing a child’s natural curiosity; our youngest learners love to explore the 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.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) 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. The Responsive Classroom approach and Social Thinking Curriculum provide 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.”
Literacy is integrated into routines and good practices throughout the school day. Through Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop, Handwriting Without Tears, and Wired for Reading, 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, picture clues, and genres. As writers, students learn to use basic conventions, “best-guess” spelling, efficient letter formation, and writing specific genres. 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. Students in kindergarten also begin to learn about leadership skills by examining inspirational leaders from around the world both past and present. Social Studies is also a time of day where students engage in rich discussions around Equity and Inclusion. Their 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.
Life Science: Kindergarteners begin the year with the question, “What is a scientist?” They learn to explore the world around them through observations, wonderings, and hands-on experiences. Visit the Science Lab to learn more>
Physical Science: Students are introduced to engineering and problem solving through their Simple Machines unit. They experiment with the concepts of motion, force, push, and pull during their Forces and Motion unit. Visit the Science Lab to learn more>
