Early Childhood

Kindergarten at Burgundy

The Burgundy Kindergarten program reflects the belief that children move through predictable stages of physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, but that their rates and patterns of growth are different. The program is based on a balance between exploration and guided learning. Social-emotional growth is given as much attention as academic or cognitive development. Healthy self-esteem, curiosity and initiative, increasing responsibility for managing daily tasks and resolving conflicts independently receive emphasis throughout the year. Play is at the center of the program and skills and concepts are explored through games, songs, and body motions that help children practice, apply, and extend their understanding.

LANGUAGE ARTS

In Kindergarten, the language arts program is taught through whole and small group instruction, as well as on an individual basis and includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Teachers understand the students have a wide range of literacy skills at this age and provide multi-sensory instruction that is appropriate for each child. Children are provided daily experiences to explore and strengthen all facets of expressive and receptive language, including rhyming, identifying beginning and ending sounds, manipulating sounds to make new words, and stretching words to identify their individual sounds. Students build phonological awareness, establish letter-sound knowledge, and build as well as strengthen letter recognition. As students’ skills progress, early reading continues to develop through building sight word knowledge and applying decoding and blending strategies to read developmentally appropriate text. Daily read-alouds and audio books serve to foster a love of literature, promote comprehension skills, encourage open-ended questioning, and allow students to make meaningful connections. Weekly journal entries and daily creative writing experiences provide opportunities to enhance and explore a variety of written communication skills. Students are encouraged to communicate their messages and stories through pictures and invented spelling. Students build their beginning handwriting skills using the Handwriting Without Tears program.

MATHEMATICS

Numeracy is the focus for building a strong foundation of mathematical concepts in Kindergarten. The TERC Investigations program is used to promote this foundation. As part of the daily routine children look for calendar patterns, keep track of how many days of school, count the number of children (e.g., attendance or milk orders), graph and analyze data, and make predictions. Kindergarten mathematicians also use numeracy to explore a variety of manipulatives and collections. Children engage in organizing, sorting, patterning, and counting myriad items such as buttons, keys, Unifix cubes, and stones. There is a focus on counting up and back, identifying numerals, comparing numeric values using terms such as more and less, and combining or separating groups using basic addition and subtraction skills. Students are also introduced to mathematical organizational tools such as ten frames and number lines. Children participate in discussions about their mathematical thinking process to promote metacognition and a community of shared strategies.

SCIENCE

Driven by children’s natural curiosity of the world around them, our science program cultivates exploration, discovery, scientific investigation, and inquiry. Students observe, ask questions, make connections, solve problems, and discuss as well as present findings to others. Burgundy’s unique campus offers many opportunities for investigating the natural world. Students engage in experiments and research through project-based learning surrounding topics of their choice. Past topics have included physics and architecture, weather and meteorology, geology, construction, airplanes, mammals, insects, birds, life cycles, and the human body. Each week, students participate in a session in our Early Childhood STEAM space, known as the Wonderlab and spend time with our caretaker as part of our Farm Studies Program.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Social studies in Kindergarten emphasizes the unique contribution each person makes to the world. Students are encouraged to develop positive feelings about their individuality and to respect the diversity of the world. They begin to build a sense of self and learn how one becomes a contributing member to their family and school community. The year starts with a study of self, branches into the family, focusing on a variety of structures and roles, and expands to our school community. Throughout the year, students are exposed to geography while learning about their families and a variety of American and world holidays, with a focus on Santa Lucia in Burgundy’s “Festival of Lights” celebration.

WORLD LANGUAGE

Kindergarteners continue their studies of the language and cultures of Spanish- and French-speaking people. Instruction is varied and includes songs, poems, craft projects, dialogues and games. Our world language program is designed to develop good pronunciation, listening, comprehension and speaking skills, provide vocabulary and introduce basic sentence patterns. World language meets twice per week; students receive one semester of Spanish and one of French in preparation for 1st grade where the family will choose one language for their child to pursue.

ARTS

The visual arts program offers an opportunity for students to explore, assimilate and develop art and experiences in an atmosphere that is supportive and encouraging. Kindergarten students go to art once a week and create nonrepresentational and representational works using various art forms, media and techniques including markers, crayons, paints, simple printing materials, clay, yarn, wood scraps and an unlimited variety of recycled items. Students attend visual art twice a week for 30 minutes.

In music, the emphasis is on appreciating music and students have the opportunity to sing, move to music, play instruments to enhance songs and add sound effects to stories, and learn basic music theory including musical notes and their value. Kindergarten students attend music classes twice a week for 30 minutes.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Healthy bodies and relationships are central to a healthy life. Kindergarten students continue to build self care skills, learn how to navigate relationships with peers, and practice managing their personal space. They begin learning about parts of the body, how living things grow and mature and that all living things reproduce. Burgundy’s heated, salt-water pool provides swimming opportunities in early fall and late spring, and our full-size Gymnasium, wooded campus and athletic field offer spaces for myriad indoor and outdoor physical education activities. Group games as well as more independent exploration encourage each child to develop and strengthen large motor skills. These activities reinforce and help integrate cognitive functioning. They also provide a needed social and physical outlet. Students have unstructured outdoor playtime for at least an hour per day in addition to PE class twice each week.