Two teachers and fifteen students per day- The small class size allows teachers and students to become quickly acquainted and form special bonds. These early relationships foster an environment where children are comfortable to learn, play, laugh and enjoy their daily experiences.

An evolving classroom curriculum- Never the same journey twice! The basics are always emphasized, but student interests influence much of the curriculum throughout the year. From tadpoles to dinosaurs, the food pyramid to animals, the interests of the children are continually addressed and the curriculum adapted to teach what the students want to learn about!

One class, so many levels of education- Children change so much over the course of a year. We understand the milestones that your child reaches emotionally and developmentally. This is why we have three very special programs to meet the individual needs of your child.

• Begindergarten, for the child who is not quite ready for Kindergarten. This may be a child who has a late fall birthday; a “young 5” who is ready for the academic challenges of Kindergarten, but needs more time to mature socially and emotionally.
• Kindergarten for the child who thrives in a small class environment.
• Kindergarten-Plus for the child who attends Kindergarten elsewhere, but desires more one-on-one attention to develop fine motor and reading skills.

Miss Veronica A. – Kindergarten lead teacher at Academic Gardens. Bachelor of Education, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. State of Michigan Certification in 2006. Has taught kindergarten in Sydney and worked with 3 year old preschoolers through kindergarten children in her experiences at Academic Gardens.

Miss Judy M. - Kindergarten assistant teacher at Academic Gardens. Bachelor of Science Degree, Curriculum: Early Education; Taught K through 3 for ten years. Reading Consultant for 5 years.

Responsibility: A strong emphasis is placed on personal responsibilities of the students in this class. The children no longer have to use markers or crayons from a large communal basket or wait for something to become available that they want to use. When each child has a box of their own supplies, this allows the children to feel pride and ownership. They learn the responsibility of putting the contents back into the box and placing it in a secure place when it is not in use.

Organization: Time organization is a very important skill for children to learn early on in their education. During the course of a week, students need to devote some time to center activities. The children quickly learn that when they focus and work quietly, there is often additional playtime and activities for them to enjoy!

Independence: The freedom to choose. To know that if you love books or puzzles, drawing or coloring, you can do as much of it as you like. Students are encouraged to be their own person; to discover what they love to do, do it, and take ownership in the finished product. Children love to be independent and they want to succeed. Trusting the students from the first day of school lays this important foundation.

1:00 Arrival / Arrival Activities

1:15 Circle Time (Attencance, Calendar, Weather, 100 DAy Count, Songs)

1:40 Language Arts / Writing

2:10 Math Activities

2:30 Snack, Use of Manners & Sharing

2:45 Recess, Large Motor, Games

3:10 Science, Art, Music

3:30 Show and Tell

3:45 Story Time and Stickers

4:00 Dismissal

Activities such as language, math and science do not take up the entire block of time scheduled. When children finish a given activity there is always ample time to play and socialize.

Choices that are always open for play are:

Language- The main focus is placed on one letter of the alphabet each week. Students learn each letters’ sound, what the upper and lower case letter looks like and what words begin with the letter. There is also time spent learning to properly write each letter, both upper and lower case. Students are encouraged to bring in something from home each week to share with the class that starts with the target letter.

Reading- In addition to regular letter work, we also make a book each week. Although students are not truly learning to read the words in these mini books, they are learning the location of the title, the location of the page numbers, and the left to right progression of the text. Learning basic reading skills such as looking at pictures for context clues and following words with a finger all help to guide their “reading.” Children who are ready to read are assessed and placed into a tiered reading program tailored to their level.

Math- Children use math activities that involve colors, shapes, sorting and patterning. Special attention is paid to the numerals and quantities 1-20 through activities that stress numeral recognition, numeral writing, and one-to-one correspondence skills. In addition to these basic skills, we also explore money, time and fractions, sequencing, and counting to 100 by twos, fives, and tens. The children have many opportunities to work with a variety of manipulatives that make the difficult concepts of math more concrete and easy to understand.

Science- Children love science, because it is all around us! We learn about topics in natural science such as animal habitats, animal camouflage and body coverings, plants, birds, reptiles, and mammals. We also devote time to discovering properties of matter with activities that involve mixing colors, sinking and floating, and magnetism. The class also spends several weeks studying big topics like the solar system, the food pyramid, and dinosaurs!

Art- There are many opportunities to work with a variety of media when the children do art projects. Many projects are created using paint, glue, colored paper, beads, sand, tissue paper, crepe paper, and just about anything else we can find that would be fun to work with!

Having a few very basic rules makes it easy for the children to remember.

1. Respect your classmates and teachers.
2. Clean up after you are finished doing an activity.
3. Use inside voices at all times when we are indoors.

The form of discipline used in the classroom is a positive one that encourages students to follow the rules. All students have a sticker chart and every child gets a sticker when they come to school, work hard and are kind to others. If a student exhibits unacceptable behavior, their first warning is issued. If the student reaches 3 warnings, they lose their sticker for the day. It is a very rare occasion that a student looses a sticker and we like to keep it that way! School needs to be a positive environment! By offering three chances, a child still feels control over the way their day progresses and can make conscious decisions to make better choices.