Kindergarten Cirruculum

English Language Arts (ELA) means the study and improvement of the arts of language. The foundations for learning in the ELA are critical to all other curriculum areas as well as to the child’s social and emotional development. The skills learned through language arts are not only important independently, but they are also necessary for success in other areas of study, and life beyond school. In our school, we constantly look for different ways to connect oral and written language in ways that are meaningful to the children. We want to foster a love for literacy that will remain in them for years to come, and to support their understanding of its purpose in their daily lives.

Students start by learning how to write each sound in the alphabet. Understanding the pen well, using the page from top to bottom, from left to right, and these concepts will help students write properly.
In the second term, our students can read short sentences. They begin to understand the “good sentence” by starting the sentence with a capital letter and determining the use of finger space between words

Phonics instruction helps the reader to map sounds onto spelling. The ability enables readers to decode words. Decoding words aids in the development of an improvement in word recognition. It’s important for children to learn letter-sound relationships, because English uses letters in the alphabet to represent sounds. Learning certain phonetic rules help children generalize from words they know how to read to new words. Children learn the sounds that each letter makes, and how a change in the order of letters changes a word’s meaning.

Children need to encounter math experiences that incorporate their senses and require them to experiment, make observations, and that allow them time to investigate a topic further. Numbers are constantly present in a kindergartener’s life and learning process. This is why our environment is enhanced with tools and materials that support the natural development of math skills. Calendars, digital and analog clocks, calculators, counting tools such as beads, rocks, and straws are some of the tools that support addition, subtraction and counting. Number sense is very important for success in math. It describes a child’s understanding that numbers represent quantity. In Kindergarten, children see the relationships that numbers have to one another; they understand how numbers are put together and taken apart, and they have an intuitive sense about the number system. They will be working with patterns by sorting and grouping objects into sets and by explaining and extending simple patterns. Kindergarteners explore simple measurements using non-standard units. They analyze how to classify objects based on weight (heavy/light); capacity (holds more/less); and length (long/short). Through their analysis, they begin manipulating rulers and other measuring tools that expose them to standard units of measurement. They will have a basic understanding of time concepts, and use graphs in more dynamic ways, using them to collect, analyze, and represent data.

In Kindergarten, children are introduced to the process of scientific inquiry. Our Kindergarten learning environment is filled with opportunities for children to investigate, ask questions and research. It includes a wide variety of materials that allow them to find out how the natural world works, with observable physical evidence. They are also able to record their observations and elaborate theories about their surroundings. We believe that kindergarteners are natural explorers who learn by taking part in meaningful life experiences, by inquiring, asking questions, inventing and through social interaction. Our classroom is filled with provocations that give children opportunities to experiment, giving them the tools to become confident creative thinkers and problem solvers.

Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) is the time in school where virtually everyone, including the principal, teachers, students and staff pick up their books and begin to read or look at the pictures of the book for a designated amount of time. It’s a monthly project that everyone focuses on reading and quitting whatever they are doing. D.E.A.R. Activities aim is to increase the habit of reading books. It reminds students to make reading a priority activity in their lives.
You can read the English & Turkish, French story books written by our school founder by clicking on them.

Field trips are a type of experiential learning that gets children away from the traditional classroom setting and into a new mode of learning. They not only expand children’s learning and experiences by providing them with hands-on experiences, they also increase children’s knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live. Field trips can lead to greater achievement in all subject by seeing authentic things of the lessons that parents or teachers teach them, children may. It is considered as an effective method for kids who need to touch, children might be more likely to understand and appreciate the importance and relevance of what they are learning. Concept development is optimized through active, explorative experiences.

Our school is a member of Round Square School. Round Square is a worldwide association of schools which share a commitment to personal development and responsibility through the six pillars of Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service as part of a fundamental objective – the full and individual development of every student into a whole person. Our children are raised with these values embedded in our curriculum between the age of 3 and 18.

Garden time is an important component of KIS curriculum, children play or make activities at least 2 times a day in the garden. Garden time engages all sorts of senses and helps children to develop and recognize them without even realizing. Children have the chance to connect with the natural world and have first hand experiences of life and growth. Outside is a natural environment for children and there is a freedom associated with the space which cannot be replicated inside. Children playing and learning in an outdoor environment appear more active, absorbed, motivated and purposeful, and develop a more positive attitude to learning. When children are young, their social skills are constantly evolving; when they play in a group they learn to negotiate plans with their friends, extend and elaborate ideas and to cooperate, share and take turns. The role of practitioners is to support children in developing relationships as well as to ensure inclusion. Nature is full of open-ended resources that stimulate children’s imaginations. Leaves, berries and twigs also provide a wide range of exploratory opportunities for young children and can be transformed into and used for many different things. The fundamental part of outdoor play is using what we find for imaginative and exploratory pay as well as or building and creating. Children are naturally more engaged in self-chosen activities. Given time to extend their play and learning in their own direction, they will enjoy the benefits of staying with a task or an activity for an extended period
The environment where they play affects their emotions. Children will often be less inhibited outside, and more willing to join in with activities, talk and come out of their shells. In a school setting, activities suitable for young children include running, jumping, climbing, digging, crawling through and under things, using tricycles and bicycles as well as playing ball.
Children can learn about the weather, the seasons, growth, habitats, life cycles; the list is endless. We are in nature’s classroom and should always aim to make the most of it.