Moving from preschool into kindergarten is an exciting moment! Here at Rockwern, our full-day kindergarten offers a healthy combination of age-appropriate academics in a hands-on, play-oriented environment. 

As a Responsive Classroom school, we recognize that the social-emotional curriculum is fundamental to a child’s education. A crucial component of our kindergarten is focused on establishing foundational social-emotional, as well as academic skills. As part of Responsive Classroom, classes have a morning meeting, where children learn to greet each other, participate in a group game and an academic activity, listen to each other, ask questions, and cooperate. We also believe in providing academic choice, where children gain a sense of agency and control over their own education, and logical consequences, through which they understand that the choices they make affect both themselves and others. In kindergarten, we begin a process of creating a responsible, caring community of learners, and that process is carried all the way through our highest grades.

Our kindergarten students also participate in our “Bigs and Littles Program” where they are paired with a middle school student. Throughout the school year, they participate in various activities that create a bond between our older and younger students, and the year culminates with a field trip to the Cincinnati Nature Center.

  • Whether children enter kindergarten just learning to recognize letters or already reading some books, it is an exciting year as all students develop stronger reading skills. Our kindergarten classes use a curriculum called Amplify CKLA, which is a science-based reading program that is recognized by the Knowledge Matters Campaign as an excellent literacy program. Amplify CKLA intertwines word recognition (sounds, letters, and words) with language comprehension, creating an academic experience that meets the unique needs of each student. Some of the early units our students will focus on this year are: nursery rhymes and fables, the five senses, and plants. In kindergarten writing, students work with oral storytelling and illustrations, and each child progresses at their own pace writing stories, how-to books, and opinion pieces. Kindergarten students have a library session once a week. During this time, they are taken on adventures through a variety of different stories, and they also have the opportunity to choose books to check out and take home.

  • Rockwern’s kindergarten math program incorporates the standards of Common Core Math through creative, hands-on activities that often feel like play. Students utilize manipulatives, games, and online programs to enhance their instruction. Some students are able to work on counting and number sense, while others may be working on representing and solving addition and subtraction. Measurement and data are explored using standard and nonstandard measurement tools. Geometry includes identifying, describing, and composing shapes in the world. Our strongest math students will work with our math enrichment specialist weekly.

  • Every day includes time to read, discuss, grow, and play, both indoors and outside on our state-of-the-art playground. Our students draw, paint, and create a variety of projects in art. They learn fun songs and explore different instruments in music. The gym curriculum introduces them to new games and teaches them the importance of  movement. Technology is utilized daily, and integrated into most subjects. Additionally, once a week, our school counselor leads a class session using the Sources of Strength curriculum. This curriculum is designed to increase well-being, help-seeking, resiliency, healthy coping, and belonging.

  • Kindergarten students are immersed in a joyfully Jewish atmosphere, where they begin to explore Hebrew as a living language. While we focus on learning to read English in kindergarten and learning to read Hebrew in first grade, students are engaged in songs, dance, and crafts related to the Hebrew language and they learn to greet one another and write their names in Hebrew. As their language and critical thinking skills grow, students begin to understand more about Jewish values and the holidays that make up the year. Weekly Shabbat (Sabbath) celebrations in their classrooms create excitement as well as weekly lessons and structure.  Beginning in kindergarten, each grade hosts a special ceremony to which family and friends are invited. Showcasing the students’ learning at the kindergarten bedtime Shema program is a highlight of the year. This special event helps students build confidence in presenting and celebrating a Jewish prayer.