Welcome to Kindergarten!
The Kindergarten curriculum helps students learn how to interact with others successfully as well as the world around them. Students learn to take responsibility for themselves, develop good work habits, and complete tasks, helping them to grow personally and academically. Kindergartners become readers, writers, authors, illustrators, presenters, artists, architects, mathematicians, problem-solvers, leaders, partners, teachers, and friends.
Willowwind’s focus on project-based learning allows students to deeply explore topics and engage in authentic dialogue about the world around them. A two year curriculum cycle allows students to continue working on new projects and learning new material while benefiting from the same classroom setting. Projects link to a curricular theme often spanning several months and may include plant life cycle study, weather and seasonal observation and recording, and Kindness projects.
Curricular Areas
Literacy
Literacy workshop is comprised of a variety of both independent and teacher-led activities. Students are offered opportunities to explore their interests within the areas of reading, spelling, and writing. This encourages students to take ownership of their learning while developing their literacy skills. Working in small groups with the teacher ensures that each student’s individual needs are being met. Kindergarteners are also engaged in literacy activities throughout the day as lessons overlap with science and social studies activities. Students use these opportunities to practice applying skills and strategies learned in group lessons.
Science
In Kindergarten the year-long science curriculum focuses on our connections to the natural world. Each science unit exposes students to hands-on lessons that correspond to what they are already observing in their world. Students learn to find answers to questions stemming from their everyday environmental experiences. Observation is key as kindergarteners explore concepts like growth cycles, plant and fruit structures, and weather. They explore questions like “What are seasons?” and “Why do they change?” Hands-on STEM exploration engages students’ minds as they work to complete both individual and group challenges. Freedom to experiment encourages the development of creative and spatial thinking that the 21st century demands.
Featured Project
Kindness Project
Each year during their Kindness Unit, kindergartners lead discussions with both preschool and elementary students on the importance of kindness and what it looks like to them. They challenged the community to fill the school, their homes, and the broader community with acts of kindness.
The Concept
Each member of the community was encouraged to perform acts of kindness for the duration of the project, anything from helping a friend clean up to offering a compliment or telling a joke to make someone smile. Each completed act was written on a strip of paper, and the strips were joined into a chain.
The Result
These acts of kindness hung in our Gathering Space as a reminder of how easy it is to be kind. This project beautifully demonstrates Willowwind's passion to empower students to take a leadership role in their educational experiences. While the Kindergarteners may be some of our youngest students, their voices were heard, and their idea made a difference in our community.
Mathematics
Willowwind School uses Math in Focus, a Singapore-based approach which engages students and allows them to gain a deep understanding of math concepts. Lessons interlock concepts and skills by teaching both "the why" and "the how". Drawing on students' prior and recently acquired knowledge lessons combine problem solving strategies with critical thinking when teaching complex skills. Kindergarten students receive math instruction at their level to establish a solid foundation on which to grow. It is the goal of Math in Focus to ensure that students master content, not repeat it. Math in Focus ensures students are engaged in mastery level experiences, improving computational and problem-solving skills, and are prepared for algebraic thinking.
Social Studies
The Kindergarten classroom spends the Fall semester defining words that make Willowwind students proud including: kind, helpful, peace, respect, responsible, stewards. During the second semester of the year, the kindergarteners lead a school wide kindness initiative each year where they ask our Willowwind community, “What can we do to be kind?” This unit empowers some of our youngest students to take a leadership role in our school community, and instills the importance of compassion and empathy for others.
Character Education
Willowwind’s kindergarten year focuses on ways students can be the best versions of themselves. This helps students develop a keen sense of personal and civic responsibility. Willowwind has a strong commitment to creating purposeful opportunities for students to act upon their desire to grow as respectful citizens. Practicing respect, responsibility, kindness, creativity, stewardship, helpfulness, and peacefulness promotes excellence in living, as well as learning. Willowwind provides a social curriculum emphasizing students’ respect and appreciation in themselves, others, and the natural world. Students are encouraged to think like global citizens. This instills a sense of belonging, a climate of trust, and a joyful merging of social, emotional, and intellectual development.
READY TO VISIT?
We encourage families to stop by to investigate, explore, and discover why Willowwind students Love Every Day!