NEW TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN CLASS
At St. Peter, we strive to offer strong early childhood programming to make sure little ones are prepared for kindergarten and beyond. This year, we have introduced a new Transitional Kindergarten class for children who are either a young five or nearly five years of age as an alternative to three years of preschool. As traditional kindergarten programs have become more academic, T.K. allows children to continue developing school readiness skills in a classroom setting that is designed to be more social, using play and exploration in addition to traditional classroom instruction. This is the first year St. Peter is offering this class, and we are so excited to share all it has to offer to families.
Mrs. Lindsey Sustr, who has taught both preschool and kindergarten at St. Peter, teaches the T.K. class with Mrs. Sue Bates assisting. The class uses a research-based curriculum that provides students with academic challenges without repeating what they will learn next year in kindergarten. At the same time, there is still plenty of music, movement, play, and flexibility that allows the kids to socialize, interact, and problem-solve with their peers.
Mrs. Sustr uses Handwriting Without Tears and Zoo Phonics, which are also used in our traditional preschool classes, but at a faster pace. The kids can play with the Handwriting Without Tears wood pieces (Big Line, Little Line, Big Curve, Little Curve) which helps to increase awareness of the curves and lines used in writing. They get to create Mat Man and use the multi-sensory tools and manipulatives for learning letter formation while increasing grip strength and fine motor skills. Zoo Phonics combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components to teach the letter sounds while the kids have fun singing and dancing. Heggerty Phonics has been added to increase phonemic awareness, which focuses on learning that spoken words are made up of individual sounds, or phonemes. The students will learn to isolate sounds, blend sounds, segment words, and manipulate sounds in words during class. All of these are essential concepts in pre-reading.
The teacher-created math curriculum is hands-on, using manipulatives to teach concepts like patterning, sorting, and grouping. The students work together with math partners, which is new for them. The math program is a spiraling curriculum, meaning that key ideas will be repeated and built upon throughout the year so that important concepts are reinforced.
Add in daily staples like Jesus time, calendar, weather, art, play, and rest, and it is a full day for the students. Mrs. Sustr loves teaching this class and is so excited for what the year holds for these kids as she watches them have fun, be challenged, while continuing to grow socially and emotionally each day. Transitional Kindergarten is an exciting addition to St. Peter’s early childhood program.
