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Home » Lower School » Kindergarten
Turi Janes and Karen Burdick teach Charles Wright's two full-day kindergarten classes. They each have a paraprofessional assistant and 16 children in their classrooms. Kindergarteners are also taught by nine different learning specialists in the Lower School. Charles Wright's kindergarters are five or six years old and many attended CWA's Beginning School as pre-kindergarteners.
Charles Wright's kindergarten program is rich and stimulating with a focus on both intellectual and social development. Parent involvement in the learning process is encouraged, both at school and at home. Because children are generally at different stages of development as they enter kindergarten, every effort is made to accommodate these various levels of physical, emotional and cognitive maturity. In other words, we understand that each child has a personal "developmental clock" and we provide multilevel educational experiences, designed to challenge, without frustrating, each child. This requires nurturing, patience, encouragement, stimulation and respect.
In this caring and supportive environment, children work on a wide variety of academic skills by listening, observing and doing. Reading, writing and speaking skills are developed through the use of a whole language approach, combined with an emphasis on phonics. Students are introduced to the Zaner-Bloser handwriting system. Children draw and write in journals regularly, using inventive spelling. Parallel to this, students begin learning spelling patterns. The kindergarten curriculum is rich in literature, including story time and quiet time for choosing books. For math, we use the Everyday Mathematics program blended with Math Their Way. Children gain understanding by using manipulatives, games and problem solving. Kindergartenders also benefit from frequent field trips.
Chaplain Mike Moffitt holds chapel weekly with Beginning Schoolers (pre-k), kindergartners and first graders. Every month they learn about a different human virtue through stories, activities, videos and more. This year the nine virtues are goodness, compassion, thankfulness, faith, courage, charity, patience, truthfulness and hope.
Mary Beth Cole, the Lower School’s learning specialist, works with the admissions team to assess students readiness for kindergarten through classroom and one-on-one observations, as well as testing. During the school year she supports kindergarteners by working in the classroom and reading or practicing the alphabet with students. She collaborates with the classroom teachers to find remediation strategies for students who need extra help or accelerated materials for highly capable students.
Tyler Francis and Mindy McGrath, Lower School physical education teachers, meet with kindergarteners twice a week to learn and practice fundamental motor skills, spatial awareness, and the basic rules of games and sports. The kindergarten classes also have recess twice a day on a playground designed especially for children their size and restricted to the school’s youngest students during the first half of the year. After school, many kindergarteners participate in the fall Running Club and winter youth basketball program.
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Candy Anderson, known to all as Miz Candy, teaches visual arts in the Lower School. For kindergarteners, art is very much about process, not product. Students explore working with different art materials and enjoy the creative process of discovering what happens. Through art, kindergarteners learn to identify objects, lines, colors, shapes, textures, forms and patterns. Miz Candy teaches that art is a way of seeing, and that artists see things differently than other people because they know how to use what she calls their "art eyes." Art is about noticing how things look with both your normal vision and your artistic vision. When you use your "art eyes", you see what could be, and the possibilities are endless!
Gabriel Newton, the Lower School’s science specialist, leads kindergarteners in weekly science labs that focus on nurturing a child's natural love of science, teaching toward scientific inquiry, and providing a hands-on, interactive learning experience that teaches collaboration and teamwork. Labs mirror the topics covered in homeroom to create integrated learning. While learning about climate recently, Kindergartners were given the opportunity to use the tools of a meteorologist in order to make predictions about upcoming weather patterns.
Deborah Baldwin is the Lower School librarian. She meets with kindergarteners weekly to introduce them to great books and help them begin to see themselves as both readers and authors. Kindergarten students develop their reading comprehension skills by listening to stories read out-loud in the library and develop pre-reading skills as they learn to identify repetitive words and patterns in books. Ms. Baldwin also plans responsive activities like art projects that connect to the stories she reads to kindergarteners and helps them find books to take home from the library to share with their families.
Plinio Gutierrez-Delgado teaches Spanish to kindergarteners twice a week. The children delight in listening to stories, singing songs, playing games, and creating puppet shows. They discover culture through arts and craft projects and holiday celebrations. With an emphasis on listening, speaking, and basic vocabulary development, kindergarteners experience the joy of exploring the Spanish language.
Turi Janes and Karen Burdick teach Charles Wright's two full-day kindergarten classes. They each have a paraprofessional assistant and 16 children in their classrooms. Kindergarteners are also taught by nine different learning specialists in the Lower School. Charles Wright's kindergarters are five or six years old and many attended CWA's Beginning School as pre-kindergarteners.Charles Wright's kindergarten program is rich and stimulating with a focus on both intellectual and social development. Parent involvement in the learning process is encouraged, both at school and at home. Because children are generally at different stages of development as they enter kindergarten, every effort is made to accommodate these various levels of physical, emotional and cognitive maturity. In other words, we understand that each child has a personal "developmental clock" and we provide multilevel educational experiences, designed to challenge, without frustrating, each child. This requires nurturing, patience, encouragement, stimulation and respect.In this caring and supportive environment, children work on a wide variety of academic skills by listening, observing and doing. Reading, writing and speaking skills are developed through the use of a whole language approach, combined with an emphasis on phonics. Students are introduced to the Zaner-Bloser handwriting system. Children draw and write in journals regularly, using inventive spelling. Parallel to this, students begin learning spelling patterns. The kindergarten curriculum is rich in literature, including story time and quiet time for choosing books. For math, we use the Everyday Mathematics program blended with Math Their Way. Children gain understanding by using manipulatives, games and problem solving. Kindergartenders also benefit from frequent field trips.
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Judy Herrington, the Lower School’s music teacher, leads weekly kindergarten music classes filled with song, dance and laughter. In the music room, children experience and practice basic music skills by singing, playing instruments, learning games and practicing movement. They are introduced to the skill of reading music as they discover how a symbol can become a clap, drum beat, an instrument sound, a jump or a wink. Learning songs for the Lower School’s weekly town meeting gatherings is an important way kindergarteners become members of the Charles Wright community.
Chaplain Mike Moffitt holds chapel weekly with Beginning Schoolers (pre-k), kindergartners and first graders. Every month they learn about a different human virtue through stories, activities, videos and more. This year the nine virtues are goodness, compassion, thankfulness, faith, courage, charity, patience, truthfulness and hope. Mary Beth Cole, the Lower School’s learning specialist, works with the admissions team to assess students readiness for kindergarten through classroom and one-on-one observations, as well as testing. During the school year she supports kindergarteners by working in the classroom and reading or practicing the alphabet with students. She collaborates with the classroom teachers to find remediation strategies for students who need extra help or accelerated materials for highly capable students. Tyler Francis and Mindy McGrath, Lower School physical education teachers, meet with kindergarteners twice a week to learn and practice fundamental motor skills, spatial awareness, and the basic rules of games and sports. The kindergarten classes also have recess twice a day on a playground designed especially for children their size and restricted to the school’s youngest students during the first half of the year. After school, many kindergarteners participate in the fall Running Club and winter youth basketball program. Candy Anderson, known to all as Miz Candy, teaches visual arts in the Lower School. For kindergarteners, art is very much about process, not product. Students explore working with different art materials and enjoy the creative process of discovering what happens. Through art, kindergarteners learn to identify objects, lines, colors, shapes, textures, forms and patterns. Miz Candy teaches that art is a way of seeing, and that artists see things differently than other people because they know how to use what she calls their "art eyes." Art is about noticing how things look with both your normal vision and your artistic vision. When you use your "art eyes", you see what could be, and the possibilities are endless!Gabriel Newton, the Lower School’s science specialist, leads kindergarteners in weekly science labs that focus on nurturing a child's natural love of science, teaching toward scientific inquiry, and providing a hands-on, interactive learning experience that teaches collaboration and teamwork. Labs mirror the topics covered in homeroom to create integrated learning. While learning about climate recently, Kindergartners were given the opportunity to use the tools of a meteorologist in order to make predictions about upcoming weather patterns. Deborah Baldwin is the Lower School librarian. She meets with kindergarteners weekly to introduce them to great books and help them begin to see themselves as both readers and authors. Kindergarten students develop their reading comprehension skills by listening to stories read out-loud in the library and develop pre-reading skills as they learn to identify repetitive words and patterns in books. Ms. Baldwin also plans responsive activities like art projects that connect to the stories she reads to kindergarteners and helps them find books to take home from the library to share with their families. Plinio Gutierrez-Delgado teaches Spanish to kindergarteners twice a week. The children delight in listening to stories, singing songs, playing games, and creating puppet shows. They discover culture through arts and craft projects and holiday celebrations. With an emphasis on listening, speaking, and basic vocabulary development, kindergarteners experience the joy of exploring the Spanish language. 