Cheery Chimps (Kindergarten)

Curriculum:

Recognizing that each child’s learning journey is unique our curriculum is developmentally based and focuses on each individual child’s social, emotional and intellectual needs.  Each workgroup, therefore, is tailored just right for your child and they can perform at their own developmental rate enabling children to grow in confidence and thrive in future learning situations.

We have a very spacious kindergarten classroom that is bright and vibrant and provides a stimulating environment where children can explore, experiment and enjoy discovery and the empowerment of choice. It is our goal for every child that comes through our class to feel listened to, feel valued, be happy to become a creative thinker, a conscientious person, and a lifelong learner. 

 Our kindergarten has the perfect balance of structured lessons and free choice, creating the perfect equilibrium within the classroom.  Our highly regarded program comes with a high success rate and excellence as children move on to their next school.

STEM / Social Studies

We have a unique STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) room where children can explore, observe and investigate. Materials, props and sensory items are regularly refreshed to provide a stimulating environment. We use hands-on activities to foster an appreciation about nature and science, teaching your child about plants, animals and our amazing planet Earth.  We do exciting experiments, where we discuss and hypothesize creating inquisitive minds that want to learn more.  We learn about rules, working together, different cultures and community helpers. A natural curiosity, a sense of discovery and a joy in learning is integrated into each child’s day.

Mathematics

We provide quality experiences to foster mathematical development and understanding.  Our curriculum covers the following concepts: number and number recognition, patterns, shape recognition, graphing, comprehending concepts of time including seasons, months, days, demonstrating 1 to 1 correspondence, telling time to the hour, identifying money (penny, nickel, dime, & quarter) and age-appropriate mathematical and problem-solving skills.

Number Bonds:

Composing and decomposing numbers is a mathematical skill that we introduce in Kindergarten.  It involves helping children break numbers down into sub-parts.   We start with a hands-on approach with number bond mats and counting manipulatives.  A child who can compose and decompose numbers understands that 2 and 3 together make 5.  They learn how a number can be broken apart. Number bonds give the child a visual representation of each number, groupings, and patterning.  This hands-on approach lays the foundation for future math skills.

Language Arts

To strengthen the children’s early literacy skills, we cover concepts that promote development in reading and writing. Sound and letter recognition, blending skills, long and short vowels are introduced and emphasized throughout the year, as these are important stepping stones on the path towards reading.  Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness activities are structured around the word and sound wall. Focused writing is practiced daily to learn the correct letter formations and spacing between words. Encoding is used in the process of using letter/sound knowledge to learn writing skills, along with basic sentence structure and punctuation.

Technology

In kindergarten, the children have the option to use iPads/tablets to further enhance their technical abilities. The iPads are set-up with fun, educational interactive games. The children have a 20 to 30-minute window per day to enjoy this activity. This helps to prepare children and get them tech ready as they enter into first grade.

Arts and Crafts

Letting our imaginations run wild! We like to get messy and love to see such young creative minds at work. We like to explore all sorts of media: paint, paper, glue, chalk and yarn to name a few.  Different media is used to enable your child to explore color, shape and texture to express their ideas, creativity and feelings.

Directed Drawing:

This activity increases confidence, and teaches children to follow directions, increases directional and spatial vocabulary, and most of all having fun while drawing and creating a one of a kind work of art.

Kindergarten Reading Program

Toluca Crossroads is known for our famous Kindergarten reading program. We are exceptionally proud to offer one on one, individualized reading sessions with your child that provide that extra boost of confidence and instill a sincere love of reading. Our specialized reading program is for those children developmentally ready and of kinder age, which is determined by the state as turning 5 years old by September 1st. However, if a child is younger and is ready for our reading program, we will of course use our best discretion. Children are taught how to decode words phonetically and to comprehend what they are reading. This program has proven to be extremely successful. Our aim is to always make reading a pleasurable and enriching experience, inspiring and motivating our children with a love of reading.

For more information, visit our Reading Program page

Classroom Library Area

Our library is equipped with a large collection of books that are continually changing to ignite a child’s interest.   It is set-up with the latest wireless headphones and fun audiobooks. It’s the perfect retreat for a quiet story!

Story Time

Our daily story time is interesting, fun and interactive with opportunities to talk about the text, and predicting and retelling story sequences.  The children learn who the author is, what the illustrator does, identify characters in a setting and know the main idea of the story.

Social and Life Skills

Social skills are any skills that help us communicate and interact with each other. Life skills are skills necessary for a child to be able to deal with the challenges in everyday life. In helping young children with these skills, we use encouragement and positive reinforcement to guide the children as situations are presented.