|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Kindergarten The SAGA School offers a Kindergarten (5-6 years old) program. Kindergarten meets Monday through Friday 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. In coordination with Washington State Public School policy, Kindergarten students must be 5 years old on or before August 31st of the year they enter Kindergarten. If you are interested in testing early into Kindergarten, please check your local public school system for information. Kindergarteners spend part of their day doing combined activities with the Preschoolers. We provide a multi-age classroom experience with a balance of ages and developmental levels that aims to serve the individual needs of all our students. The multi-age classroom encourages a strong community where older children serve as models for their younger classmates. Younger children tend to develop independence more quickly because of the assistance of an older "buddy" in the group. While being exposed to models of positive social, emotional, physical and intellectual behavior, our younger students also benefit from the stimulation of a wider range of interests, personalities and abilities. Preschoolers often stretch themselves to imitate their older peers. Older children, on the other hand, benefit by taking on the role of mentors and practicing leadership skills while boosting their self-esteem and confidence. Cognitive skills are equally improved through the opportunity to reinforce, consolidate, and expand upon knowledge shared with younger children. To complement the mixed-age learning environment in the Seattle classroom, the children are divided into three groups based on age: Kindergarteners, 4-5 year olds and 3-4 year olds. The groups are separated approximately two hours per day for pre-academic and academic skill building, social skill building and peer group cooperative projects. All the children come together for snacks and lunch, outdoor play, music and other enrichment activities, and large group projects. The SAGA School's classroom model strives to provide each of our students the opportunity to learn at his or her own unique pace. Curriculum At the SAGA School we believe children learn best through playing, exploring and engaging in hands-on activities while forming positive relationships with children and adults in the world around them. We create an environment that invites children to try new things hand-on, express themselves, and take on responsibility. Our curriculum includes group activities and exploratory projects, circle and story times, arts and crafts, music appreciation, numeracy, letter recognition, reading, writing and science introduction, physical activities, and provides opportunities for individualized learning and social interaction. Since the children in our school come from a variety of different language and cultural backgrounds, we provide individualized support for the children and their families in our school by forming collaborative relationships between the school, teachers and the families. Interested parents receive additional German-language materials and advice to foster ongoing language development at home. The teachers and parents work as a team to provide the best learning support to your child. The Kindergarten program is built on research-based theory and proven best practices, while providing room for the teachers AND children respectively to discover what type of teaching and learning styles are most successful for them. Our teachers approach learning as an exploration, an individual journey and an amazing adventure for all those involved! We lay the foundation for future success in school, providing our students with language and subject content skills transferable to other international or mainstream American public or private school programs. How much English is spoken and/or taught as part of the curriculum? Our teachers strive for 100% total German immersion, and only speak English in the rare case that a child who does not speak much German is in distress. The Kindergarten curriculum is primarily German in focus. We have found that kindergarten children are particularly savvy in pointing out the differences between English letter sounds and German letter sounds. This happens frequently when the children are learning the letter sounds as well as learning to read in German. Often a child pronounces the letter "E" or "J" for example with the English pronunciation. Our teacher uses these instances as "teachable moments" where knowledge of both English and German language skills is reinforced. The Kindergarten daily schedule runs for a total of 4 hours. Below is the schedule of a typical day at SAGA. There is a built-in flexibility to the program from day to day to allow for special projects and activities.
The Kindergartners participate with the preschoolers for approximately half of the daily routine and gather twice a day for separate "Kindergarten Time" activities for 1.5-2 hours. What are the materials used for instruction in our program? Most of the teaching materials are all brought from Germany especially for the Kindergarten (new each year) and include:
And of course all the other materials for sensory exploration, gross and small motor skill development, dramatic and imaginative play, etc. that are available to our preschool class are also used by the Kindergarten class. How the needs are met of children with different abilities?
How is the transition from the SAGA School to public school? SAGA School graduates arrive at public school first grade having had an excellent language immersion experience. The biggest adjustment they will likely face in starting public school first grade is learning to "do school". Most public school first graders have attended public school Kindergarten. They had that Kindergarten year to learn the ropes of public school. SAGA School graduates must adjust to a much larger class in a very much larger school with a longer day that has a greater amount of academic time. It is a big change, but one that they do adapt to relatively quickly. |
