According to David Elkind, the early grades pose special challenges because that's
when children's attitudes toward school and learning are shaped. The main goal of
our Kindergarten program is to foster a lifelong love of learning. Everything should
be done to ensure that children go on developing their love of learning, expanding
their general knowledge base, their ability to get along, and their interest in
reaching out to the world all through the Kindergarten year. We have a true
commitment to integration across the curriculum, to meeting the Core curriculum
Standards and to infusing technology wherever possible.

As Kindergarten educators, we believe that the ultimate purpose of kindergarten is to promote children's
development and learning. Kindergarten children are unique in the way that they see the world, act, and have different skills than children of other ages. In no way is it helpful to push or ruch a Kindergarten child through the process of maturing. In order to provide the child with a reasonable expectation for success,
instructional content and methods must be based on the characteristics of five year olds. The primary goal of the kindergarten program must be that every child should experience success. SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS.

Kindergarteners are eager to master. They are curious, have a growing command of language, learn best by actively figuring things out for themselves, are becoming increasingly in control of their own behavior, and use their large and small muscles with greater skill then they used to. They believe that grown-ups know best and are motivated to please us. They are noisy, silly, and ssensitive.

GOALS FOR CHILDREN IN KINDERGARTEN:
1. Children will grow in their self-esteem, cultural identity, curiosity, independence, and individual strengths.

2. Children will continue to develop a love of learning.
3. Children will gain increasing control of their large and small muscles.
4. Children will engage in interesting, appropriate experiences that integrate their social, emotional,
intellectual, and physical development.
5. Children will use written and spoken language in concrete, meaningful ways.
6. Children will use mathematical concepts and mathematical symbols in concrete, meaningful ways.
7. Children will continue to develop control of their own behavior through positive adult guidance.
8. Children will become increasingly self-motivated, cooperative, and able to resolve problems among
themselves with minimal adult direction.

When formulating a developmentally appropriate curriculum, the characteristics of the five year old child
must be taken into consideration. Following is a developmental profile of a five year old child that gives a
reference on the RANGE of abilities expected.

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL
* Chooses friends
* Prefers friends own age and same sex
* Uses props for role-playing
* Enjoys pretending in play
* Directs other children in play
* Understands rules of simple, competitive games
* Plays cooperatively with peers without adult supervision
* Expresses emotions in acceptable ways
* Shows awareness of concern for others' feelings
* Uses appropriate social responses

SELF-HELP
* Knows street adress, city and phone number
* Laces and ties shoes
* Zips
* Selects own clothing
* Bathes and brushes teeth independently
* Answers telephone appropriately and delivers messages

COGNITIVE
* Discriminates and names letters
* Identifies own name in print
* Understands: more, less and same
* Can name the correct number of objects in a set from one to ten
* Copies shapes, writes letters (with some errors)
* Matches and identifies shapes
* Sorts by more than one characteristic (size, color, or shape) at a time
* Identifies left and right
* Uses time concepts: yesterday and tomorrow
* Understands: first, middle and last
* Relates clock time to daily schedule
* Attention span has increased so that distractions can be ignored
* Understands opposites
* Knows spatial relations (far, near, on top, below, etc.)
* Compares objects using "er" and "est" endings
* Recognizes and continues simple patterns
* Draws a person with head and eight features
* Understands one-to-one correspondence
* Counts ten objects
* Knows and names colors

COMMUNICATIONS/LANGUAGE
* Retells story from a picture book
* Speaks in a sentence of five to seven words
* Repeats longer sentences with accuracy
* Takes turns talking in a conversation
* Asks for definitions of words
* Communicates well with family and friends
* Can tell a make-believe story in own words

SPEECH MILESTONES
* Has a vocabulary of over 2,000 words
* Has 100% intelligible speech, although speech is not error-free
* Uses pronouns
* Can consistently produce m, n, ng, p, b, f, h, w, k, g, t, d, y, th, v, wh; as well as most vowel sounds
* Uses the following grammar forms:
-ing endings
plurals
possessives
articles (a, the)

GROSS MOTOR
* Jumps rope
* Hops on one foot
* Runs with arms swinging in opposition to feet
* Catches a ball
* Skips
* Gallops
* Walks backward
* Aware of right and left sides

FINE MOTOR
* Holds pencil correctly
* Traces letters
* Copies or writes own name
* Holds scissors correctly
* Cuts out simple shapes
* Uses eating utensils correctly
* Pastes and glues

The educational goal of the Byram Kindergarten program is to ensure the development of the whole child -
physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively - and to provide the experiences necessary for each child to reach his/her maximum potential in these arease of personal growth. Our curriculum has been designed to stimulate the child's interest and to encourage him/her to be an active participant in the learning process
with as many hands-on activities as possible. We strongly believe that the child, family, teacher and
principal should be actively involved in the learning process in order for the child to meet with success. We
encourage and welcome parent participation in classroom activities.

This Philosophy of Education is from the Byram Township Schools Kindergarten Curriculum - Lentine and Mc
Hugh - February 1999.

Rev-6/16/2004