Young Kindergarten

Gordon’s Young Kindergarten is a child-centered program for students graduating from preschool who would benefit from the gift of time. The Young Kindergarten classroom recognizes the difference that four to six months can have on a child’s identity development and school readiness as significant. In Young Kindergarten, students who would otherwise be among the youngest in their Kindergarten classes have a year to hone pre-academic skills and build strong social emotional foundations, allowing them to enter Kindergarten as confident, empathic leaders.

Young Kindergarten offers these children a classroom space with age-appropriate curriculum that responds to their unique developmental needs.

Young Kindergarten represents a shift from Nursery and Preschool; there's one teacher in the classroom, and the classroom opens onto a shared space that, formally and informally, serves as a meeting place and collaborative classroom for all of the five-year-olds.

At five years old, the students in Young Kindergarten are very much among the senior members of the Early Childhood division, and they face new expectations to serve as leaders in the halls.

In Young Kindergarten, students take on new, more formal roles in the school community, and they have their first taste of responsibility, as well, taking on the work of helping maintain the Larry Miller Nature Trail that encircles the campus.

Young Kindergarten uses cooking projects to explore a wide range of academic topics, from the math of measurement and the chemistry of baking to the cultural topics introduced by planning, and sharing, a meal. The class then hosts guests from Gordon's professional community for lunches where they practice being thoughtful hosts and gracious conversationalists.

Language arts

Gordon’s Young Kindergarten language arts program is a literature-based approach designed to foster a love of reading and writing and to develop a strong foundation in phonemic awareness and phonics to support emergent reading and writing skills. Four areas of activity and instruction that directly support the reading and writing process are reading aloud to children, guided contextual reading, letter sound study using the Telian Lively Letters, and writing. A variety of structured activities, materials and games are used for skill acquisition and reinforcement. Children learn that writing has a purpose and print can convey meaning. They are encouraged to explore their emergent writing skills to capture their ideas and thoughts throughout the school year.

Math

Young Kindergarten students develop and reinforce their number sense and awareness through counting, ordering and sorting. They learn how to approach real life problems mathematically, and practice counting and measuring through a number of cooking and baking activities selected by the class. Students participate in weekly math talks where they have opportunities to share their understanding of numbers, shapes, patterns, and their relationships. By hearing each other’s thinking students become more invested in their learning and expand their number sense.

Science

The main objective of science in Early Childhood is to nurture a young person’s innate sense of curiosity and wonder about the world around them. The science curriculum in Early Childhood uses materials to engage students in activities which build foundational skills of the scientific process and methods like observing, exploring, using the senses, and asking questions.

In Young Kindergarten, children gain experience, confidence, and understanding of the natural and built environments. They explore the physics of force and motion, chemistry and measurement. Young Kindergarten students are introduced to the foundations of programming through the use of LEGO Coding Express train sets. They also engage in the engineering design process as they design wrecking balls and other inventions to tackle a number of challenges. Young Kindergarteners spend much of their time learning outdoors, exploring the campus to its fullest as they build habitats for our local wildlife, learn to identify tracks in the snow, plant their own garden spaces and much more.

Social studies

Social studies in Early Childhood focuses on interpersonal relationships through the themes of family and the community. From morning circle and read-alouds to individual choice time and collaborative play, children develop a deeper awareness of themselves and their relationship to others in their families, their classrooms and broader community outside of Gordon’s walls.

The curriculum aligns with the national social studies standards and addresses questions such as What makes a family? What makes a friend? What is a community of care? What does fairness mean? Embedded in the daily life of Gordon's youngest students, these questions ensure that social studies work is a part of every day in Early Childhood, sparking relevant conversations in a variety of classroom and playground contexts.

Teachers and students work together to identify and explain expectations for classroom behavior. Playing in the classroom and exploring outdoors, students actively work on learning how to cooperate and collaborate with others, how to share about themselves, and how to listen to their classmates.

Teachers engage students in one-on-one and small-group conversations about individual similarities and differences and guide students in thinking about how to build a classroom community where everyone belongs. Teachers use books and other resources that illustrate diverse races, ethnicities, cultures, ages, abilities, genders, family structures, and non-stereotypical gender roles so that every student can feel valued and represented.

Morning circle is an important routine where students gain practice speaking, listening and asking questions and children have an opportunity to learn more about each other as an important aspect of empathy and building community.

Spanish

Spanish at Gordon begins by getting young learners excited to engage, play and learn through speaking and listening. The Spanish teacher collaborates with classroom teachers on unit topics, vocabulary and activities. Playing interactive games, singing, and reading allows for a natural integration of Spanish into the rhythm of a child’s day. As children build vocabulary like the numbers from one to ten, basic colors, family members, fruits and emotions through songs, games, and familiar stories, they begin to acquire an ear for the language.

Physical education

The Young Kindergarten physical education curriculum focuses on body awareness, body part identification, spatial awareness, locomotor skills as well as classroom expectations, listening skills and following directions. The primary objectives of physical education for Early Childhood are to introduce and expand developmentally appropriate movement and health goals. Each class includes a warm-up activity, an instructional piece and a cool down period. By including elements of student choice, individual differentiation and problem solving, teachers strive to provide a balance of opportunities to learn through movement exploration and locomotor and manipulative skills.

Library

Children in Early Childhood are introduced to the library beginning in Nursery, with weekly visits to meet with the school librarian for read-alouds and book selection. The library houses a vast collection of multicultural and bilingual books; all children can reach for a library book which reflects their background and experience and also find books that expose them to the experiences and perspectives of others. Gordon's youngest students learn to appreciate what access to a library means for their growing curiosity and awareness of themselves as learners and library patrons. Working closely with classroom teachers, Gordon's librarian supports children’s inquiry and discovery of the world of books.

Creative arts

The creative arts curriculum is designed to instill a love of creative expression and introduce children to the process of conceiving, creating and sharing their own ideas.

Music in Young Kindergarten is full of exploration and discovery, finding joy in all aspects of music. Classes always begin with "Hello" and "Greeting" songs from around the world. Lessons then progress from songs with small movements to dances or large movement activities to playing various percussion instruments in imitative and improvisational songs. Concepts like fast-slow, high-low, and loud-soft are woven throughout the curriculum. Pitch matching and steady beat work are continually emphasized and reinforced throughout the year.

Through experimentation, repetition, and play, Young Kindergarten students explore music and become more comfortable as musicians. Every lesson is filled with rich song selections in various meters and modalities. Young Kindergartener’s fine motor skills are developed through the use of small percussion instruments like triangles, hand drums, castanets, and rhythm sticks. Large movement games, folk dances, and group drumming require cooperation, concentration, and coordination. They learn to sing, dance, and play instruments in various tempos and with various timbres.

During every activity and dance, children sing continuously, which helps interconnect all aspects of music making. Each song is carefully selected for the appropriate range and thematic content. Materials are also linked to classroom topics throughout the seasons.

The multicultural, interdisciplinary, play-based music curriculum explores beat, rhythm, pitch, timbre, and dynamics through world folk songs. Simple songs from various countries are woven throughout the lessons, introducing children to the diversity of the world's music.

The Young Kindergarten visual arts program presents students with a series of experiences that gradually develop their abilities in a range of media, skills, techniques, and concepts in art. In an environment that fosters creativity and independence, children explore the ways that art can help them share their ideas about the world and themselves. Respect for materials and their unique qualities are taught. Care for one's work and the work of others is stressed as children work independently and in groups.

Concepts of line, pattern, shape, color, and form are addressed in a series of lessons that introduce a variety of materials including craypas, paper, collage, paint, and clay. Children draw shapes and learn to create secondary colors by mixing primary colors of paint. Clay slabs turn into trivets as children emboss shapes and designs into the surface. Once they become more familiar with the medium, students use hand-building methods to create small clay animals that they then glaze. Every student has their artwork presented in the annual art show.

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