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Early Childhood

Every month or so, my husband and I say to one another, “I’m sure glad we chose Burgundy.” In the time that our son has been at Burgundy, our very shy and reserved little boy has blossomed. He’s been exposed to a range of experiences both within and outside of his comfort zone, and has persevered! In just a handful of months, he has gained tremendous self-confidence and an even stronger sense of self-worth. We are truly looking forward to seeing him continue to branch out and grow in the coming years. We feel that Burgundy will provide our son with a strong foundation that he will carry with him for many years to come. – Kristen N., current parent

Junior Kindergarten at Burgundy

Our Junior Kindergarten program is thoughtfully structured to encourage flexible learning, open-ended discovery, creativity, independence, decision-making, and problem solving. Learning and play are intertwined to create an intellectually stimulating yet relaxed program. Skills for social interaction, negotiation, turn-taking, friendship building, and self care are modeled and practiced throughout each day. Children investigate and interact at their own speed and developmental level. As they work in the classroom with blocks or with puzzles, they are exploring important mathematical skills such as spatial relations, measurement, or symmetry. During story time and literacy time, they develop strong vocabulary and pre-reading skills. Outside, students explore our campus, visit with our animals, build and create structures from found materials, and work on their gross motor skills through running, jumping, lifting and climbing.

LANGUAGE ARTS

The Junior Kindergarten classroom provides a language-rich environment to stimulate and support emerging literacy. Children use descriptive language to explain and explore their experiences. Children listen to, discuss, and dramatize literature as well as make up their own stories. They develop comprehension skills as they recall story elements, sequence events, predict outcomes and analyze characters. Language experience charts, dictation in journals, the daily morning message, a classroom mailbox, labels and signs extend the concept of the printed word. Children are exposed to print conventions including directionality and the concept of a word, a sentence and punctuation. Transitional (approximate) spelling is encouraged when the children write. Many activities build phonological awareness in the classroom. Rhyming songs and games, poetry, books using alliteration, and syllable clapping are used to draw children’s attention to the sounds of speech. Activity centers provide finger-strengthening activities that help promote hand-eye coordination needed for writing.

MATHEMATICS

Children learn math skills within a meaningful context in Junior Kindergarten. Hands-on, concrete experiences give children opportunities to experiment with and internalize new concepts. Math materials include manipulatives such as Unifix cubes, pattern blocks, measuring materials, dice, Magnatiles, and Smartmax and also building blocks, the calendar, and puzzles. The curriculum covers sorting and classifying sets, counting with one-to-one correspondence, quantifying groups of objects, simple addition and subtraction, patterns, geometry, measurement, comparison (more and less), symmetry, ordering, graphing, and number symbols.

SCIENCE

Inside and outside, our youngest students are inquisitive scientists. Children learn to use science process skills such as observing, comparing, classifying, and measuring to construct answers to questions about objects, organisms, and events in the environment. They plan and conduct simple experiments and use equipment such as balance scales and magnifiers. Observations are communicated through verbal explanation, drawings, graphs, or journals. Possible topics of study include: the five senses, plants, life cycles, animal habitats, simple machines, animals, people, food, culture and music around the world, and properties of water, air and light. Each week the children spend time with our caretaker as part of our Farm Studies Program.

SOCIAL STUDIES

In Social Studies, we focus on self-concept, family, community, and growth and change in the world around us. We learn about different kinds of families and explore the cultural traditions important to each member of the class as we “journey around the world.”

WORLD LANGUAGE

Junior Kindergarteners are introduced to the language and cultures of Spanish- and French-speaking people through songs, poems, dialogues and games in a program that is designed to develop good pronunciation, listening, comprehension and speaking skills, provide vocabulary and introduce basic sentence patterns. World Language meets twice per week.

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. Junior Kindergarten students 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. They attend visual art once 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. Junior Kindergarten students attend music classes once a week for 30 minutes.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Healthy bodies and relationships are central to a healthy life. Students gain self care skills, learn how to navigate relationships with peers, and practice managing their personal space. 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 70-90 minutes per day in addition to a 30 minute PE class twice each week.

 

 

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.

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Burgundy is a one-of-a-kind independent school for Junior Kindergarten through 8th Grade. We believe children learn best in an inclusive, creative, and nurturing environment that engages the whole child.

3700 Burgundy Road
Alexandria, VA 22303
703.960.3431

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