Ours is a warm, busy, nurturing, happy, frequently noisy community. The children are cared for by people who are passionate about their emotional, physical and intellectual well being. Honoring individuality on every level and promoting self-esteem are priorities in the class.

For short periods, three or four times a day, we require the children to give excellent attention to a teacher's lesson, which is verbal, visual or kinetic, and usually involves interpreting materials. These lessons are met with enthusiasm and appreciation. The group, small or large, might either be on the floor, at a table or facing the chalkboard/easel. Sometimes it is a demonstration of air pressure, other times a reading of a poem with onomatopoeic words. Directions for a class assignment to do with a partner might follow the lesson. The choreography is as important as the information!

A visitor might see groups of four children solving a cooperative problem, assembling a homemade book or graphing the temperature. They may be mixing potions, sailing small rafts, drilling or sawing, sewing or painting, climbing or swinging. They are always analyzing, synthesizing, composing, making decisions, creating stories and working interactively.

One of the many studies we undertake each year is the first-hand observation of the life cycle of Monarch butterflies from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. We read stories and poems about Monarchs, sing songs about them, act out the life cycle through movement, make "butterfly candy", create clay caterpillars and butterflies, keep "butterfly journals" to record our observations, count how many days the monarchs are in the chrysalis, and much more. The way we approach this curriculum; multi-disciplinary and experiential in manner, is an example of how we approach all learning in the Kindergarten class.

Every day the children enjoy our field, woods, pond, nature center, gym, or our "Buddies", the sixth grade students, who are good friends and good models for our class.

On a weekly basis, Kindergartners enjoy several enriching classes taught by qualified, caring specialists. Library, music, Spanish, science, physical education and art are scheduled throughout a Kindergartner's week.

Kindergarten science meets once a week and sees students engaging in hands-on discovery. A planned lesson may be scrapped to observe a great blue heron alighting in our backyard pond and the search for its digestive "pellet." Much of what happens with kindergarten is about what they see, hear, smell and touch all around them, their bodies and the local wildlife.

Kindergarten physical education is a time to run, move to music and play cooperative games, while music class sees students learning through music, whether it is math or grammar.

Art for Kindergartners introduces them to the joys of various mediums, clay, watercolor, oil pastels, color mixing and studying different artists.

An exceptional component of the WDS curriculum is the early introduction of Spanish instruction. Recognizing the benefits of teaching a second language at an early age, Kindergartners are exposed to the rhythm and sound of the language through listening and bilingual stories once a week with our Spanish teacher. This is supported throughout the week by the classroom teachers, in an effort to integrate the Spanish language into the regular curriculum.

Click here to see information on the faculty.