Kindergarten

Please remember to LABEL all items:

·      Water Bottle—LABLED and filled every morning

·      Notebook, coloring book, books for reading, coloring supplies

·      Sunscreen Lotion (no spray or dyes) 30 SPF or higher

·      Two sets of extra clothes and a couple of extra pairs of underwear

·      Sturdy shoes (sneakers) for outdoor play

·      Sweatshirt/jacket for inside—A/C can get a little cool

·      Backpack

·      A few family photos to display in the classroom

Classroom Cubbies: Your child will have their own shelf in our cabinet to place their backpack and items. Teacher assistance may be needed.

Welcome & Play Carpet: Our welcome carpet will be a meeting area to discuss our day, have group lessons, and play.

Calm Corner: This will be an area for students to use when feeling frustrated, sad, overwhelmed, or tired. It will have resources that support social, emotional, and developmental needs.

Art: This center is available for your child to show their creative side. Pencils, markers, glue, and other artistry materials will be supplied for creative imaginations.

Sensory Table: Sensory Bins filled with items & materials designed to coincide with the theme of the week.

Library: A quiet area for a child to curl up and read and explore age-appropriate books.

Lunch & Snack Table: Three tables will be used for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack. These tables may also be used for art and learning activities.

Play is not separate from learning; it is one of the primary ways young children learn.

Children naturally explore the world through play, so we meet them where they are and intentionally build learning into the experiences they are already motivated to pursue. Through play, children develop problem-solving skills, language, creativity, mathematical thinking, social skills, and an understanding of how the world works.

We also believe in the importance of process over product.

When a child creates a piece of art, the most important part is not whether the finished product looks a particular way. The learning happens as the child chooses materials, experiments with color and texture, makes decisions, changes direction, solves problems, and discovers something new.

Our classrooms provide children with opportunities to explore, build, imagine, create, experiment, and learn through the journey; not simply work toward a predetermined destination.

Language development happens throughout the entire day.

We encourage children to tell stories, ask questions, describe their experiences, listen to others, and engage in meaningful conversations. Every conversation is an opportunity to build vocabulary, strengthen communication skills, and develop confidence as a storyteller and communicator.

We also celebrate the many cultures, experiences, and perspectives represented in our classrooms. Children are encouraged to see their own stories and experiences reflected in their learning while also discovering the stories of others.

When children are encouraged to tell their own stories, they begin to understand that their voices matter. Those same skills lay an important foundation for becoming confident readers, writers, and communicators.

Mathematics is all around us. Children encounter mathematical concepts as they build with blocks, count objects, compare sizes, identify patterns, measure ingredients, organize materials, and make observations about their environment.

Our teachers intentionally ask questions that encourage children to think mathematically:

How many do we have? What do you notice? Which is bigger? What do you think will happen? How could we find out?

Through these everyday experiences, children begin to understand concepts such as quantity, number, measurement, patterns, shapes, spatial relationships, and problem-solving.

These experiences also provide a foundation for STEM learning. Children are encouraged to observe, predict, test ideas, and discover relationships between mathematical concepts and the world around them.

We touch, move, count, build, measure, draw, and explore together; and children begin to discover that mathematics is not simply something they do on a worksheet. Math is something they experience.

Children are natural scientists, and they are curious about the world  around them. We encourage them to ask questions: Why? How? What happens if...?

Our program encourages children to explore that curiosity through hands-on experiences. Children investigate natural materials, conduct experiments, make observations, test ideas, gather information, and develop explanations for what they discover.

Teachers support this process by asking intentional questions and encouraging children to form hypotheses, investigate, make observations, draw conclusions, and ask new questions.

We want children to understand that not knowing the answer is not a problem—it is an invitation to investigate.

Children thrive in environments where they feel safe, known, supported, and cared for. Clear routines, nurturing relationships, and consistent expectations help children develop the skills they need to navigate relationships and manage their emotions.

At The Children’s Garden, children are given frequent opportunities to practice:

• Communicating their needs and feelings with words.

• Solving problems with others.

• Negotiating social situations.

• Cooperating and collaborating.

• Making responsible choices.

• Recognizing and responding to the feelings of others.

• Developing independence and confidence.

Young children are still learning how to move beyond their own perspective and consider the needs of others. This is an important part of development, and we intentionally teach children how to listen, communicate, cooperate, and participate as members of a community.

Children are already members of a larger community, and they are constantly learning from the people and world around them. Our social studies experiences help children begin to understand their families, classrooms, neighborhoods, communities, country, and the wider world.

Even young children can begin exploring concepts such as leadership, rules, fairness, community responsibility, history, geography, and civic life. We introduce these ideas in developmentally appropriate ways through stories, conversations, dramatic play, classroom experiences, and exploration.

Children are watching, listening, and asking questions about the world. We believe they deserve a classroom where those questions are welcomed and where they can begin to understand what it means to be a caring and responsible member of a community.

Get up and move! Young children need opportunities to move their bodies, develop physical strength, and understand how their bodies work. Movement and outdoor play are important parts of our daily routine.

Children have opportunities throughout the day to engage in age-appropriate gross motor activities that build coordination, balance, strength, and body awareness.

We also intentionally support the continued development of fine motor skills. Activities such as cutting, drawing, coloring, grasping, building, manipulating small objects, transferring materials, and using classroom tools help children strengthen the muscles and coordination they will need for writing, dressing, using school materials, and completing everyday tasks independently.

Creativity is an essential part of how children understand and communicate their experiences. Children today are growing up in a world filled with digital media and technology. We believe children should learn to engage with these tools thoughtfully and appropriately while also experiencing the many other ways humans create and communicate.

At The Children’s Garden, children are given opportunities to explore music, movement, visual arts, dramatic play, storytelling, and other forms of creative expression.

We do not want every child’s artwork to look the same. Instead, we provide materials and experiences that allow children to interpret what they are learning and express it in their own way. A child may paint an idea, build it, act it out, sing about it, or tell a story about it.

Our goal is to nurture children who are not afraid to imagine, create, experiment, and express themselves.