Kindergarten Overview

Kindergarten is a preparation for our Lower School program. Phonetically oriented reading instruction, mathematics, spelling, and manuscript, as well as instruction in Christian doctrine through a study of the Chapel service and Bible stories, form the core of the kindergarten curriculum. The class begins each day with a worship service. The children work hard to learn the Morning Prayer service and after a few weeks are able to recite much of it from memory. They enjoy singing the hymns of praise and learn to be attentive, reverent, and enthusiastic in their response.

Phonics—the key to independence in reading—is employed to teach our children to read and spell. Included in this instruction is a study throughout the kindergarten year of all letters of the alphabet as well as certain blends, digraphs, and diphthongs.

The reading program is designed to give the students an early comprehension of the essence of reading; thus, after mastering a few key consonants and vowels the children learn to blend those sounds and, then, to read and write simple words.

This process builds throughout the year until the child has learned the various sounds of the letters as well as the sounds represented by the letter combinations—a solid foundation upon which to perfect skills of reading and writing. Material for reading exercises throughout the year includes word lists, various class readers, and home-reading material suitable to each student’s advancing reading skills.

Writing instruction naturally correlates with the spelling and phonics program. Visual, auditory, manual, and oral skills develop simultaneously for each sound. The teacher writes the letter representing that sound on the board; the child sees the letter, hears its sound, speaks the sound aloud, and then writes the letter.

Eventually this and a variety of similar techniques lead to weekly spelling tests and to the writing of short, simple sentences from dictation. Neatness and form are stressed, so that by the end of the kindergarten year the manuscript is well done.

Number work is taught with the aid of the abacus. Each child learns to count to one hundred by ones and tens and learns the relative positions of numbers. He also learns how to find pages by numbers, simple addition and subtraction using numbers through nine, place value, using money, recogni