The
goal of our Baldwin Kindergarten is to nurture children's cognitive,
aesthetic, social/emotional, neurological, and physical development. Our
major focus of curriculum planning and implementation is to ensure that
we create and balance appropriate educational activities that
contribute to these facets of young children's growth and development
within a supportive classroom/school environment. Our approaches involve
creating an environment in which children of a wide range of interests
and stages of development engage in a variety of "hands on" activities
that nourish their growth as life-long learners.
Curriculum
content areas are carefully planned, woven, and implemented into
activities that make up specific themes of study. By integrating various
areas into related activities (for example, combining the study of
insects with reading, writing, music, art, drama, math and social
studies), we are able to cover a great deal more than we would by
treating them as separate areas of study. This approach is exciting and
encourages home involvement too!
Our daily activities are aimed
at increasing children’s self-esteem, independence, self-motivation,
cooperation, and problem solving experiences. Children are given
opportunities to learn independently, with a partner, as teams, on to
one with a teacher, and in whole class interactive lessons. We highly
value children interacting and learning from each other.
Before
children come to school, they have learned about their world through
play. We capitalize on this natural inclination by providing time and
materials for play as part of our daily schedule. One of the best ways
for children to learn is in an enriched, supportive environment that
combines teacher facilitated developmental activities and that nurtures a
child’s natural curiosity through play.
Our children’s families
are important members of our class and school community. We value and
encourage open and on-going communication through the year. We know that
a strong, comfortable school/home connection is vital to support a
child’s success in school. We welcome and provide many academic,
cultural/ethnic, and social opportunities for family involvement and
participation in the classroom and Baldwin School Community.
Enrichment
Class trips to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Maynard Ecology
Center, Cambridge Public Library, and Thematic Topic Trips.
Baldwin Storytelling Program
Our
students in kindergarten and first grade participate in storytelling
theater where the students are the actors. Storytelling is a powerful
medium that helps develop visual imagery skills and is an effective
bridge to emergent literacy. Each classroom has their own “stage” where
students take turns creating stories and acting them out together.
Storytelling builds children’s self-control, fosters cultural
appreciation, develops working memory, inspires imagination and
encourages children to take risks.