Welcome to Kindergarten
WHAT IS A ST. THERESA KINDERGARTEN?The Kindergarten classroom at St. Theresa School is a place where you will find children practicing how to become active learners. They are learning how to be part of a school community, both socially and academically. Through a variety of individual and group activities the Kindergarteners are well on their way to becoming readers, counters, builders, painters, explorers, and social butterflies!
What might look like "just play" is actually serious learning in our Kindergarten. Children are allowed to explore their learning environment and stretch their imaginations while having the security of a structured, well-planned, and predictable daily schedule of activities. We dance our way through the alphabet each morning with our "Letter Aerobics", investigate nature through science activities inside and outside the classroom, illustrate and track our class-made books, pray, and learn how to be good friends in our Kindergarten family. And those are just a few things you'll see in any given week.
The Kindergarteners learn the social and academic skills necessary for their transition into the higher grades at a pace that is supportive of their developmental stage. The year they spend with me serves to give them a "taste" of the school student learning expectations: becoming a young person of faith, an active and creative learner, a well-rounded individual, and a contributing citizen both inside and outside of our school. The classroom is "center-based", which allows children to work at their own comfort level in a variety of subject areas. Whereas one child may feel like spending 30 minutes building a city out of wooden blocks for our Social Studies unit on neighborhoods, another child may prefer to move around from one center to the next every 15 minutes. By the end of the week, however, each child has had an opportunity to enjoy every center activity and work with a variety of modalities and individuals.
We use a staggered schedule with each class attending school for 5 hours. There is a 3 hour overlap of both classes in the middle of the day. We generally accept 34 children. The first session (Blue Birds) of the staggered program will run from
8:10 - 1:20, the second session (Red Robins) will run from 10:15-3:15. The 34 children will all be together for the "overlap" from 10:15-1:15. On Minimum Days there is no overlap. The Blue Birds attend school from 8:10-10:10 and the Red Robins attend school from 10:10-12:10. There is a slightly altered Wednesday schedule with the children dismissing one hour earlier than usual. There will always be at least one teacher with the class at all times. Occasionally the two groups are split during their overlap session for small group instruction.
We model Christian behavior through our actions and words while bringing the joy of God's love into the hearts and minds of our school's newest members. Their presence, and the presence and involvement of their family, is our greatest joy.
St. Theresa School is committed to embracing each of you through such outreach programs as "Buddy Families", Open House, as well as Parish picnics and events.
Come and take a look during our Open House on Sunday, January 29th. I think you'll like what you see!
Mrs. Clarke
Kindergarten teacher
Kindergarten Teacher