Overview of Kindergarten Curriculum

KEERAPAT International School offers an international curriculum based on the American Curriculum which is a balanced curriculum including the following subjects: Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Science, Thai, Information Technology, Chinese, Art, Music, PE, and Health

In order to meet each child's individual needs, we use a combination of various theories of child development and learning: Multiple Intelligence, Montessori, Project Approach, and Whole Language Approach to our Kindergarten Curriculum.

1. Multiple Intelligence

Howard Gardner, Ph.D is a professor at Harvard University and invented the theory of Multiple Intelligences; he claims that there are several different kinds of intelligences. This gave teachers a way of beginning to understand students who sometimes didn?t fit the mold. It helped teachers to look at what students could do well, instead of what they could not do. Howard Gardner's identification of each of the intelligences are as follows

• words (linguistic intelligence)
• numbers or logic (logical-mathematical intelligence)
• pictures (spatial intelligence)
• music (musical intelligence)
• self-reflection (intrapersonal intelligence)
• a physical experience (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence)
• a social experience (interpersonal intelligence), and/or
• an experience in the natural world. (naturalist intelligence

2. Montessori

Montessori is a greatly hands-on approach to learning. It encourages children to develop their observation skills by doing many types of activities. These activities include use of the five senses, kinetic movement, spatial refinement, small and gross motor skill coordination, and concrete knowledge that leads to later abstraction.

3. Project Approach

A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about. The investigation is usually undertaken by a small group of children within a class, sometimes by a whole class, and occasionally by an individual child. The key feature of a project is that it is a research effort deliberately focused on finding answers to questions about a topic posed either by the children, the teacher, or the teacher working with the children. The goal of a project is to learn more about the topic rather than to seek right answers to questions posed by the teacher.

4. Whole Language Approach

• Children are expected to learn to read and write as they learn to talk, that is gradually, without a great deal of direct instruction.
• Learning is emphasized more than teaching... It is assumed that the children will learn to read and write, and the teacher facilitates that growth.
• Children read and write every day--and they are not asked to read artificially simplified or contrived language.
• Reading, writing, and oral language are not considered separate components of the curriculum or merely ends in themselves; rather they permeate everything the children are doing.
• There is no division between first learning to read and later reading to learn.

KPIS Kindergarten Program is child-centered. The purpose of the KPIS Kindergarten Program is:

• to promote the development of sensory, large motor and small motor development
• to provide activities in learning concepts such as numbers, language, alphabet, art, music, and science
• to promote the development of self-esteem, social skills, and independence
• to provide ?hand-on? experience, learning through the experience of creative art focusing in the process rather than the product
• to meet individual needs based on each child's own learning style
• to create a safe, nurturing, and fun learning environment
• to promote independent thinking skills through experiences in literature
• to provide age appropriate activities
• to provide information and resources for families
• to encourage the development of independent creativity, self discipline, and good peer relationship

Kindergarten Assessments

For on-going school improvement, everyone and every program must be monitored and assessed throughout the year. Thus, assessment of student learning is incorporated as an integral part of the teaching-learning processes. We use a variety of different assessment methods, to name a few; oral presentations, student work observations, paper and pencil exams. They reflect a diversity of approaches and criteria motivating and supporting constructive learning and the achievement of goals rather than interpersonal competitiveness and the ranking of individuals. Cooperation and team work, participation in classroom activities, taking the initiative to learn and helping others learn, etc. and other citizenship aspects are also integrated into the assessment program.

At KPIS, we also use the Bracken School Readiness Assessment (BSRA) to determine readiness for learning and the need for remediation of Kindergarten students.

The BSRA is generally used to assess academic readiness by evaluating a child's understanding of eighty eight (88) important foundational concepts in the categories of colors, letters, numbers/counting, sizes, comparisons, and shapes. The readiness concepts assessed in these categories or subtests are ones that are directly related to early childhood education and predict readiness for more formal education. The concepts are acquired in a developmentally predictable fashion that is consistent across cultures and language studied (Bracken,1988; Bracken, Barona, Bauermeister, Howerll, Poggioli, & Puente, 1990).

In the Academic Year 2008-09, the BSRA was administered to students during the first semester and the second semester (pre test and post test) , in addition to the mentioned goals, to determine progress of the students in each of the above mentioned concepts.

Findings indicate that the majority of the KPIS Kindergarten students have obtained the normative classification results which are interpreted as advanced with little less than the majority of the students has obtained the normative classification results which are interpreted as average. It is worth to note that a significant percentage of students have obtained the normative classification results which are interpreted as very advanced and a very small percentage among the students have obtained the normative classification results which are interpreted as delayed and none of the students obtained the results in the very delayed normative classification.

Home-school communication

Home-school communication is vital to the success of your child's school experience. To keep you informed of what is happening at school your child's teacher will communicate with you daily through a Daily Report Book.

It will contain daily homework assignments (if any) as well as any special events or activities that your child has participated in and future activities. Parents are encouraged to write notes back to the teacher if they have any requests, questions, or comments.

In addition to daily communication on the progress of your child is reported formally twice a year. In October and again in March through the parent and teacher conferences and a progress report is sent home. Between reporting periods parents may request progress information by contacting their child's teacher.

If you have requests, questions or concerns, please call the school office or send a note to speak to your child's teacher. Please arrange appointments or conferences in advance so that teachers can collect information needed to answer your questions.

Homework

Students in Kindergarten School will have daily homework. This will always include language arts and math since they are such important skills. There may be other assignments depending on the projects being undertaken by each class at any given time. Parents can expect their child to spend from ten to fifteen minutes on homework each night.

Parents are welcome to help their children with homework by explaining what is expected for an assignment. If a child doesn?t understand what to do it is better to work through an example together than to tell them the answer. Please don?t do the homework for your child. This doesn?t help to improve their understanding.

When reading with your child it is most helpful to have your child read aloud so you are able to hear their reading. Ask questions about what has been read to check their comprehension. Read a variety of books together. The more a child reads at school and at home, the stronger his/her reading skills will be and when they turn to reading for pleasure we will know we have done our job well. If your child has difficulty with reading assignments and you are not sure how to help, please write or call your child's teacher.