The St. Thomas preschool provides a high-quality mixed-age and Transitional Kindergarten classroom. The program will be ladderized to goals and objectives of our other three classrooms that cater to the younger ages namely: Dolphin, Parrot and Butterfly classrooms. The goal of our Rainforest classroom is to provide learning opportunities that will help our children ages 4 to 6 be Kindergarten ready. We will be focusing on honing children's academic skills in verbal communication, critical thinking, writing, numeracy, pre-reading, and reading. This is in addition to helping children be socio-emotional equipped to the demands of Kindergarten and formal schooling.
Traditional Kindergarten program Details:
The entry date change and the creation of TK address a longstanding need in California, as our children have historically started kindergarten at a younger age than kids in almost any other state – often without the maturity, social skills and early academic skills they need to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. At the same time, kindergarten standards and curriculum have changed over the years, and many of the skills children were once taught in first grade are now expected in kindergarten.
The youngest kids in a kindergarten class risk struggling academically, emotionally and/or socially. At their young age, some may not be practiced in socializing with their peers and teachers, while others may not yet know how to listen or follow a structured class schedule. Likewise, many 4 year olds in California still do not have access to high quality preschool that also provides these learning opportunities for our children. TK ensures that children have these pivotal skills, which are foundations to successful learning, when they begin kindergarten.
Transitional kindergarten bridges the path between preschool and kindergarten and gives students the gift of time that will help them build a strong foundation for future school success. It blends social and emotional experience with academic learning, so that students not only learn essential pre-literacy, pre-math, and other cognitive skills, but also develop social and self-regulation skills needed to succeed in school and life.
