Kindred Classroom MicroSchool
Kindred Classroom's MicroSchool will consist of 6 children age 3-4 years old 8:45am-12:00pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
September - June Program
How We Respect Children
Children are never seen as "empty vessels" but rather, they are creative, curious and capable people. Children are given respect. Children are encouraged to follow their interests and build knowledge that they care about - not solely the knowledge that their adults want to impart. Within the children's interests, teachers will support children's curiosity and build curriculum and skills that are developmentally appropriate and will lay a strong foundation for current and later learning.
Curriculum
We are inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy which uses Emergent Curriculum. Emergent Curriculum allows teachers to document conversations, actions and play of the children and create engaging and thoughtful curriculum surrounding the interests of the children. The interests of the children then become the children's project work. A project can last a week or all year, depending on the interest of the children. Within each project teachers organically weave into the curriculum literacy, math, fine motor skills, gross motor skills and social and emotional learning. As projects progress, documentation of the children's process will be presented in the classroom at the children's level through pictures of the experience, dialogues from the children, art and other creations made surrounding the project work. The children can review their work, feel pride in what they have done so far in their project work and gain new ideas from the documentation. Documentation is added in the classroom as projects progress, it is not added as a final product bulletin board.
How We Approach Art
We believe the process is more important than the final product when creating. We aspire for all children to work under the approach of “Process Art.” Our goal is to present children with a multitude of curated materials throughout the year where they can then use the materials as they see fit within guided boundaries. This allows the child to feel confident in their abilities, feel freedom to create, practice fine motor skills from where they are, access language skills that are meaningful to them to describe their process, as well as a number of other learning experiences. Oftentimes when a craft with a defined product is the class expectation, teachers end up doing 80% or more of the actual work. We want children to feel capable and that their work is what matters, not a standard set by adults.
Daily Schedule:
8:45 am - 9:00 am Drop off, sign in
9:00 am - 9:15 am Meeting time
9:15 am - 10:00 am Project work and centers work
10:00 am - 10:15 am Wash hands, bathroom break
10:15 am - 10:30 am Snack
10:30 am - 11:00 am Gross motor time - Outside/ in Ballroom
11:00 am - 11:15 am Wash hands, bathroom break
11:15 am - 11:45 am Lunch + Book reading
11:45 am - 12:00pm Goodbye Meeting
12:00 pm Pick up
School Calendar 2022-23
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Parent Orientation Night September 1
Individual School visits September 2
Labor Day September 5
First day of school - parents/caregivers attend September 7
Second Day of School - parents/caregivers attend September 9
Third day of school - parents/caregivers attend September 12
Fourth day of school - parents/caregivers begin to separate if children are ready September 14 (Parents will work with the teachers to determine the best separation plan for each child)
October 7 No School
Parent Teacher Conferences November 7
Thanksgiving Break Nov. 23-25
Holiday Party December 16
Winter Break Dec. 19-Jan 2
Martin L. King, Jr. Day January 16
Mid winter break Feb 13-24
School Closed March 10
Parent Teacher Conferences March 17
Good Friday April 7
Spring Break April 10-14
Memorial Day May 29
Last Day of School - Beach Day (weather permitting) June 9