Kindergarten at TCS

The kindergarten at Truro Central School uses developmentally appropriate materials and activities to teach the curriculum. Students work in small, teacher led groups throughout the day. They explore concepts through play and active, hands on learning experiences .

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."


"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." 
Mr. Rogers 
                                      Students create snowmen in different ways with pattern blocks.
Students try out different ways to get the gingerbread men across the river and away from the hungry fox.
Students pretend to bake gingerbread men in the Dramatic Play area.
Students launch gingerbread men marshmallows onto a numbered mat.
6th grade students join our class for a block to read to us.
Students then  group the pumpkin seeds into groups of ten. This helps them count the total number of seeds in the pumpkin more easily. 
Students listen to a parent telling a story.
Children use unifix cubes to measure the height of their pumpkins.
Children revisit favorite stories and retell them to each other.
Students memorize favorite stories and retell them using the pictures and print as a guide. 
Students use a balance scale to measure the weight of pumpkins.
Children retell favorite stories using puppets.
Children work together to match lowercase letters to their uppercase "partners."
Students act out the story of The Gingerbread Man with the puppet theater.
Children and their grown-ups make and decorate gingerbread men out of gingerbread scented playdough.
Children follow multi-step directions to bake and decorate gingerbread men.
They roll out the dough.
They cut out the gingerbread men.
Then they get the gingerbread ready to bake.
Lastly we decorated the gingerbread men and women.
Children give thanks after a great year of harvest from our garden.
Students enjoy pea sprouts from our garden.
6th grade reading buddies.
This student is having fun squishing the pumpkin guts in his hands
Children work on removing the seeds and guts of a large pumpkin.
Children explore properties of ice and water as they play at the water table.
Kindergartners portray number values in different ways using a variety of materials.
Children play "beat the clock" games with numbers to promote automaticity in identifying and understanding numbers and number order.
Children observe as Monarch caterpillars eat and grow...
eat and grow...What will happen next?

Students work together to complete a puzzle. 
A student opens a milkweed pod to see the seeds inside.
Children paint monarch butterflies on that old Kindergarten arts and crafts standard...the egg carton!
Children match objects with their beginning sounds.
Kindergartners stamp their first and last names with ink...                and in playdough.
Children create patterns and ask classmates "Can you guess what comes next in my pattern?"
Children increase their vocabularies and start to recognize sight words as favorite stories are shared again and again.
Kindergartners sort buttons and other collections by size, shape, color, etc. then ask classmates to figure out how they are sorted.
Early engineering takes place as children work together to figure out how to make the most effective marble run.
Picture
Students work with teachers in small groups to play games in which they identify rhyming words and opposites.
"A happy childhood lasts forever" 
Author Unknown



Videos
That Promote Learning

The Famous Banana Dance! 
This song and dance combination promotes gross motor development and is great when Kindergartners need to move around. 
Warning: This song has a way of sticking in your head!
Frog and Toad: "The Garden" and "Cookies" in Claymation: 
Children listen to and watch these classic stories.  Then, they retell the stories using puppets and props.
Frog and Toad: "Dragons and Giants" and "The Dream" in Claymation
The "One Fine Face" Song by Ernie and Elmo: After learning the words to this song about the different  parts of the human face, students sing along as the teacher points to the words on a chart.
The "Fuzzy and Blue" Song by the Monsters of Sesame Street: After learning the words to this song, students sing along as the teacher points to the words on a chart.