Kindergarten at ACA
Free Full Day Kinder
Reading by
December
Specials
Classes
Everyday
Highlights, click to read more...
Fun and Engaging Learning
At ACA we strive to keep our classrooms hands on and dynamic. We wants students to develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills instead of just memorizing facts. Our Kindergarteners have a unit on colonial times in the spring and one classroom read the story Stone Soup and made their own Stone Soup in Class!
The ACA Playground
Systems and Routines
At ACA we believe in systems and routines for all grades. We have found if we turn something as simple as transitioning from student desks to the carpet in the morning, if we turn that into a routine we can save up to 100 hours of instructional time by the end of the year! The following video shows what it looks like in an actual ACA kindergarten classroom in the morning.
Kindergarten Writing Curriculum
Lucy Caulkins teaches writing as a process and breaks it down into manageable parts that make it easier for children to grasp. For example: every story has a beginning, middle and end. While our kindergarteners might not be able to write comprehensive stories they can TELL stories through pictures and eventually learn to express their thoughts in words.
Kindergarten Curriculum
Our kindergarten curriculum is 100% aligned to National Standards for ELA and Math. Our math curriculum is called Zearn. It is based on critical thinking and problem solving. It is not focused on memorization but rather what numbers and math look like, visually and how to use them in the real world. Parents and students have access to Zearn online as well.
The English Language Arts curriculum is called Core Knowledge (CKLA) and focuses on reading foundations: letter names and sounds, phoneme segmentation (breaking words down into individual sounds), nonsense words (practicing blending sounds of letters to make words), rhyming, sight words. There is a focus on reading for understanding and comprehension. Our kindergarteners focus on both fiction and non-fiction when doing comprehension lessons.
Assessments
We benchmark test all of our students 4 times a year. In August, it gives us an idea of what they know, they usually won’t score high. They take it again in December, when we should start to see progress. It shows their growth each quarter and parents have access to all scores online. Assessments empower kids to know where they are at and where we may need to improve on our instruction and our curriculum.
How to prepare your child for Kindergarten at ACA
Sign up at the button on the top of the page to get a free Kinder Readiness Kit and receive bi-weekly resources to help your child prepare for kindergarten.
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Practice tracing, letter names, letter sounds
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Work on the concept of numbers 0-10
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Hands on play to increase motor skills (playdough, finger paint, coloring etc.)
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Visit the Starfall website (free) (link to www.starfall.com)
Early Kindergarten
For the regular kindergarten program, students need to be 5 by September 30th of the current school year. If a student turns 5 between October 1st and October 31st of that current school year, AND is the sibling of a CURRENT ACA student this makes them eligible for our Early Kindergarten program.
We have a limited number of spots for this program and once it’s full, students will go to the waitlist and are eligible to roll their application over for Regular Kinder the following school year. Please Note: this is NOT a Pre-K program, it is considered Kindergarten and if the student is ready, they will promote to 1st grade the following school year, please read about all the details of our program HERE.