Kindergarten
Philosophy
In our kindergarten, we strongly believe that every child is innately motivated to learn. We strive to create a curriculum that is meaningful and appealing to students. As a result, lessons are designed based on a combination of our students’ interests, learning needs, and standard outcomes with teachers encouraged to incorporate opportunities for hands-on authentic learning. Our teachers incorporate Vygotsgy’s Zone of Proximal Development theory into our practices, as we know the importance of peer interactions and encourage students to learn from and with each other. We support children’s learning by providing scaffolding, which aims to help every child grow in all developmental areas.
Program Goals
- We aim to equip our students in HCAS Kindergarten with the skills as follows:
- ● Socio-emotional Skills
- Research has indicated that prosocial behaviors and emotional stability positively correlate to students’ future academic achievement. As kindergarten is the first environment where young children acquire social skills, children in HCAS Kindergarten will spend time learning and practicing social behaviors through a mixture of cooperative play and collaborative learning.
- ● Life Skills
- Teaching children to gain independence and begin to take more responsibility in their daily life is an important aspect in Early Childhood Education. In the HCAS Kindergarten, teachers help students to develop and practice different problem-solving life skills that are appropriate in the development of their ability to manage their own personal affairs.
- ● Cognitive Skills
- Teachers help students develop cognitive skills that are critical in children’s early ages, including executive functions (problem-solving, self-control, reasoning, attentional skills, self-monitoring, etc.) and academic concepts.
Curriculum
Our curriculum centers on eight different themes that change every 4-5 weeks. These themes develop student understanding of big ideas such as Staying Healthy, How Things Work and Taking Care of the Earth. Within these themes, students develop Math, English, Science and Social Studies skills following the American standards mapped to our curriculum. Learning is often directed by the questions and interests of the children with the goal of encouraging project-based discovery of big ideas within the themes we are learning about. In a project-based classroom, children are considered as active learners and are directly involved in the process of learning to encourage curiosity and develop thinking skills. Teachers act as guides who facilitate the process of learning together. The use of learning center stations in the classroom builds upon these ideas by providing the students with opportunities to explore and develop content knowledge related to their own interests, skills, and in their unique proximal zone of development. Learning center stations change regularly and are targeted to the curriculum standards tied to specific themes to ensure that students are developing subject skills and thinking skills simultaneously.
In addition to the curriculum goals that children explore together with their homeroom teachers, our students keep their education well-rounded by engaging in Chinese, music, art, drama, dance, and physical education classes with teachers within our school community.
