Full-day Kindergarten is an integral part of ISB’s educational program. It is the foundation upon which students become life-long learners. Our Kindergarten program is filled with a wealth of learning activities which will help your child grow socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. We believe it is the most influential year in the child’s formal education.
Language Arts
ISB’s Kindergarten program develops literacy skills by placing balanced focus on reading, writing, listening and speaking. ISB Kindergarten students participate in activities which will enable them to develop skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Instruction in reading will be conducted through guided reading groups, independent reading, word work and explicit phonics instruction.
To allow for students to be able to start their journey of ‘life long readers’ we focus in several areas.
Recognize all letters and their corresponding sounds. The words they will start reading will be simple words i.e.: sat, at, it, is, cat, etc. As they become more confident in their decoding skills they will begin to decode more difficult words hence start to read at their appropriate level.
We use a phonics based program which teaches the 42 basic sounds in a fun and interactive way. The sounds are taught with certain movements for each sound. This strategy helps students to be able to recall the letter and its corresponding sound easily. This allows students to transfer their knowledge of sounds into their writing (phonetic spelling). Students are encouraged to use phonetic spelling because it gives them freedom to be able to write about any topic, without having to use the correct spelling.
Mathematics
Kindergarten students will have the opportunity to identify and reflect upon “big ideas” by making connections between the questions asked and the concepts that drive our inquiries. They will become aware of the relevance these concepts have to all of their learning. Mathematical studies at ISB are tied to real world experiences by exploring the five strands of mathematics within the PYP framework: Data Handling Shape and Space, Numeracy, Measurement, and Pattern and Function.
The power of mathematics for describing and analyzing the world around us is such that it has become a highly effective tool for solving problems. It is also recognized that students can appreciate the intrinsic fascination of mathematics and explore the world through its unique perceptions. In the same way that students describe themselves as “authors” or “artists”, ISB’s programme also provides students with the opportunity to see themselves as “mathematicians”, where they enjoy and are enthusiastic when exploring and learning about mathematics.
In the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), mathematics is also viewed as a vehicle to support inquiry, providing a global language through which we make sense of the world around us. It is intended that students become competent users of the language of mathematics, and can begin to use it as a way of thinking, as opposed to seeing it as a series of facts and equations to be memorized.
You can find the details of each grade level in our Mathematics scope and sequence document.
Social and Emotional Skills
Your child will be developing an awareness of his/her responsibilities and behavior throughout the school year. To help facilitate this growth, we work to provide a classroom environment with many positive activities and experiences for each student while practicing and modeling the PYP profiles and attitudes throughout the day.
Students will also be taught various strategies that help solve conflicts in an appropriate manner. This empowers children to be able to take responsibility of their actions and solve problems amongst themselves.
The Kindergarten program at ISB is designed to accommodate a variety of abilities, experiences and cultural backgrounds. Many of our students come to kindergarten having been exposed to increasingly sophisticated ideas and experiences. Nevertheless, all children have varied levels of maturation and experience. That is why ISB kindergarten offers developmentally appropriate activities to each of our students.
