The German word:  “Kindergarten”  means a child’s garden. At St. Gabriel, we like to think of our Kindergarten as a place for a child to come, as one of God’s special creations, and grow with us—to continue to grow in all the aspects of his/her life—emotional, social, physical, academic, and, most of all, spiritual.  We hope to help promote in the child an ability to make right choices and to follow Jesus’ ways more nearly by seeing Him more clearly and loving Him more dearly.  We try to instill in the children the idea that all, who treat each other fairly will live peacefully.   Jesus calls us to this idea—it’s the only way we can live in the image of God.  It is in knowing, loving and serving God through one another that we are truly happy.  When the Kindergarten children see how this works in our classroom community, they blossom into the beautiful flowers that they are called to be.  To help accomplish this mission:  we have a Religion Series that we use almost daily;  we worship with the rest of the school once a week at an All-school Mass; and we say prayers daily-formal and informal.   By the end of the year, we hopefully, know the Our Father and the Hail Mary by heart as well as the Sign of the Cross. …Hopefully, by the end of the year, we have a better understanding of what it truly means to follow Jesus.  

Our curriculum is based on state standards in every area of learning.

In the “God’s children’s garden”  we use a reading series called “The Superkids” Reading Program.  This program is outstanding for its motivational techniques.  The children are learning the basics of sounds and blending them into words through colorful children- characters and lots of music that follow the children through a fascinating story-line throughout the year.  The daily phonemic awareness activities, the dictation exercises, and a Handwriting program help the children gain confidence in their reading and writing skills.  The Language Arts are integrated into the program and the use of multiple modalities guarantee the success of every student in his reading skills.  If a child comes into Kindergarten with this skills already accomplished, we assess him or her to see how we can best meet his needs.

Our Math program consists of a combination:  we have the Pearson Learning Group Math Series that we use for written tasks and we use a balance of manipulatives to enhance the skills that are presented in the text….  In the course of the year, many children learn to count to 100—(some even write numerals to 100.)  Many of them are successful if they write numerals to 50 by the end of the year.  We try to recognize the individual and allow him to progress to his fullest without feeling frustation.     

Our Science and Social Studies lessons are taken from

Harcourt School Publishers and many times are “tucked” into our learning centers activities.  We even subscribe to Scholastic News which comes with 3-4 issues a month for each child and gives us wonderful experience in whole-language reading activities as well as scientific information or material that deals with current events that relate to history or social studies.

Our daily schedule includes one of the “special” classes—Art, Music, Physical Ed., or Computer.  The children check out a book from the Library weekly and they also have a Spanish language class once a week.  As mentioned earlier, the children participate in the All School Mass weekly.   The Kindergarten children have Fifth Grade Friends who sit with them at Mass to help them in participation.  The Fifth Grade Friends also meet with the children once a week to help them in a reading/writing activity or some project that needs one-on-one assistance.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed this visual walk through “God’s Children’s Garden” at St. Gabriel.  We invite your child to come “blossom” with us and then, just watch how we grow as God’s Superkids!

!     ~Marilyn Rowland,   Kindergarten Teacher

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