PROGRAMS & CURRICULUM

Two-Year-Old Program​

​

The two year old year is a most exciting one in the life of a child. He or she will spend most waking hours trying to figure out how the world works and discovering the effect he/she has on the world around him/her.

​

Our two year old program at Kinderplatz of Fine Arts is self-contained, and is built around the seven essential elements of a preschool classroom in order to stimulate the whole brain and body experience.  It is designed to encourage the child’s natural intelligences within a secure framework of limits and routines. Your child will have the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of developmentally appropriate activities. All will appeal to the child’s senses in as many ways as possible.

The curriculum is built around a theme, a concept, a contrast and a letter/number of the week. Although the curriculum will provide much new information, stimulate much curiosity and allow many opportunities to use imaginations and logic, we believe self-esteem, confidence, personal responsibility and respect for others and the world is vital to a strong foundation  upon which all else is built.

​

​

Pre-K Program

​

The preschool or "rotating school" is designed for children ages 3, 4 and 5 years emphasizing the development of academic readiness through the arts. The preschool uses music, movement, art and drama as the nucleus of its curriculum. A strong emphasis is placed on language development through good literature, reinforced by repetition in games and folk

music.

Hand-eye coordination, essential to reading and writing is perfected in musical games and rhythms. Large motor skills are developed through folk games and dances. Further hand-eye coordination is fostered by painting, claywork and other art related activities. Drama affords opportunity to improvise and flex imaginations. A fine arts preschool is a creative approach to learning, using the child’s natural expressions in speech, singing and movement, combined with playing specially designed instruments to achieve mastery of basic skills and concepts.

The 3 to 5 year olds rotate daily from 9:00-12:30 between four core classrooms: Art, Creative Play, Language Arts/Math/Science and Music spending 45 minutes in each subject.

​

​

Kindergarten Program

​​

The Kindergarten program is designed to provide a developmentally appropriate kindergarten program based on the Kinderplatz philosophy which would serve children who are too old for our preschool program yet unable, because of age or developmental readiness, to enter other kindergarten programs.  To be admitted to the kindergarten class, children must be five on September 1.

​

Through the blending of traditional approaches and leading research, our goal is to instill in each student the positive habits, study skills, and attitudes that will pave the way for future successes.  Each day children work on math concepts, reading readiness skills, social studies and science. The children are introduced to proper handwriting skills and letter and number concepts, and learn to follow oral directions to complete paperwork. Each child keeps a journal of work throughout the year to document concepts that have been introduced.

The Kindergarten schedule is 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., five days per week.  A full day program is also available.  In keeping with the Kinderplatz mission of educating through the arts, kindergarten students visit the music and art rooms each day to work with Kinderplatz specialists, and engage in creative play and drama daily in their own classroom.

​



Art Curriculum



In Art the children learn the methods of great artists while expressing themselves through paint, pottery, found art, drawing, sculpture/building, jewelry making, color mixing, print making, and exploration in a variety of materials. These activities are strategically chosen to inspire creativity of freedom of expression and to help children grasp the curriculum/contrast/concept/letter/number or emphasis of the week.

​

In Art, we do not just teach art, but use art as a springboard to reinforce all other learning.

​

​

Creative Play Curriculum



In the Creative Play classroom, the children have the opportunity to role play real life skills through pretending to be mommies, daddies, doctors, and other occupational roles. Within this classroom they have opportunities to cook, learn good manners, practice courtesy and respect for others and gain problem solving skills and sharpen social skills. Children also have opportunities for exercising their imaginations through fantasy play and acting out and performing stories.

​

This room has a variety of materials chosen to stimulate creative expression and to reinforce the curriculum/letter/number/concept/contrast and emphasis for the week.

​

​

Language Arts, Math & Science Curriculum



In the Language Arts/Math/Science classroom, the children learn experientially through a modified Montessori phonics approach as they are introduced to a letter/concept/contrast and a weekly emphasis. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations in story writing, and to work in personal journals.

​

In Math/Science, the children are exposed to a number of the week and an animal. They learn concepts/contrasts and an emphasis through science experiments and the natural world.

We believe every subject can be taught through nature.

​

​

Music & Movement Curriculum

​

In the Music and Movement classroom, the children are exposed to Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Orff instruments (both based on the brain-body connection), folk dances, heritage music, famous composers and their music. The children experiment with various instruments, gaining confidence through performing solos, dancing and singing songs and movements to reinforce the theme/concept/contrast/number/letter and emphasis of the week.

​

The Dalcroze method, also known as Dalcroze Eurhythmics, is another approach music educators use to foster music appreciation, ear-training and improvisation while improving musical abilities. In this method, the body is the main instrument. Students listen to the rhythm of a music piece and express what they hear through movement. Simply put, this approach connects music, movement, mind, and body. This method was developed by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, a Swiss composer, music educator and music theorist who studied with Gabriel Fauré, Mathis Lussy and Anton Bruckner.

​

The Orff Approach is a “child-centered way of learning” music education that treats music as a basic system like language and believes that just as every child can learn language without formal instruction so can every child learn music by a gentle and friendly approach. It is often called “Elemental Music Making” because the materials needed to teach students are “simple, basic, natural, and close to a child’s world of thought and fantasy.”

​

In Music And Movement, we don’t simply teach music, but use music and movement as a springboard to reinforce all other learning.

​

​

Our Nature Reserve



Every classroom has a door opening to the porches or gardens as an extension of the classroom. You will not find playground equipment in our gardens because we want to teach the children to be creators rather than consumers.

​

We want to teach them respect for our earth, personal responsibility, a love for nature and the world around them.  In our gardens the children learn the life cycle of vegetables, herbs and fruit.  They learn how the seasons affect our world.  They plant and harvest the produce from our gardens and observe the life cycles of butterflies and other insects the plants attract.

​

The gardens are also used for performing plays, singing and dancing, classifying and labeling objects in nature. For gross motor activities there are hills and tunnels, tricycles and hippity hops, hula hoops and a variety of equipment to help foster the use of growing bodies and imaginations.

​

We own a small piece of land adjacent to our property which Christopher Morris, a Kinderplatz alumnus, took on as his Eagle Scout project. He created trails and natural benches so that the children could visit and enjoy the natural world around them. We use it in many ways for the enjoyment of the children. Sometimes we take magnifying glasses, bug catchers, clipboards and paper, cameras, tents and books.  Sometimes we find Peter Rabbit’s shoes and coat caught in the underbrush and sometimes we just enjoy the walk around the trails and enjoy a snack outdoors.

​

This land is now under development and is named The Jack Savell Memorial Nature Reserve!