Kindergarten

KINDERGARTEN

Statement of Kindergarten and Our Philosophy

The Creativity Private School offers an American preparatory education within an environment in which Islamic values are not only respected but practiced.

CPS, an independent, not-for-profit organization, offers what is best about American education in order to provide an educational experience designed to promote the maximum potential of its students. The school will challenge and assist students to become intellectually adept, thoughtful, and ethical contributors to a global society.

Statement of Kindergarten Philosophy and Goals

We believe:

✔	Each child is a unique individual and that children develop at different rates.
✔	Education should address the needs of the whole child.
✔	The kindergarten program should focus on the physical, social, emotional, aesthetic-creative, intellectual development of the child.
✔	Children demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways, such as through active involvement, interacting with manipulative, and play.
✔	Children should learn in a safe, child-centered environment through exploration and a variety of open-ended activities.
✔	Education is the shared responsibility of the administration and faculty, students, parents, and the school community.
✔	A safe and secure environment that is marked by respect for the rights of others and acceptance of personal responsibility is conducive to effective learning.
✔	Students are individuals whose learning is influenced by age, prior knowledge, backgrounds, experiences, personality, and physiology.
✔	The learning environment and educational process should recognize different learning styles, abilities, and interests.
✔	Children may be relatively more advanced in some aspects of their development in comparison with other aspects of their development.
✔	Education is most effective when the learner is actively engaged in the learning process.
✔	Kindergarten activities should provide meaningful and relevant experiences that parallel those found in everyday life.
✔	Education should foster independent thinking and encourage creativity.
✔	Education should develop a sense of values within each student to assist them in understanding themselves and how their values relate to the world in which they live.
✔	The school experience should promote positive interpersonal relationships where students can work cooperatively with a partner, group, or team to become caring, sharing individuals, aware of the concerns of others.
✔	Education should help every child acquire knowledge of different cultures and an appreciation of the equal worth and rights of all people.
✔	The early establishment of a positive self-concept and a positive view of the school provides a foundation for later achievement.

The Kindergarten Program

The Kindergarten Program at the Creativity Private School is one of the best in Bahrain. With two levels of instruction, Kindergarten I, and Kindergarten II, CPS provides the foundation for social and academic learning for students between the ages of three and six.

The Creativity Private School is committed to providing a quality early childhood program that includes comprehensive learning experiences in a planned environment. We work closely with parents to ensure that the children’s school time experience is reinforced at home. Our Kindergarten is not a daycare. It is an environment that employs appropriate practices to meet the early developmental needs of children in a consistent and secure setting.

Our program focuses on the needs of the whole child: physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and familial. Activities and routines are based on sound educational practices and are built on children’s natural curiosity and problem-solving abilities. Children participate in many play and language activities and have the opportunity to work and play in small and large groups as well as individually. Our child-centered approach reflects an understanding of the needs of children in a complex society.

Kindergarten I

Our KGI program is designed for four and five-year-olds whose fourth birthday falls on or before December 31st of the academic year. KGI is still a transition year from home to school and is the first school experience as well for children who have not attended Pre-K. In KGI children are exposed to hands-on, fun, and age-appropriate concepts and skills that will be presented in the Kindergarten II program in a more structured way.

KGI continues to focus on the development of social, self-help, and language skills. Pre-reading and writing concepts and skills include recognition of numbers, letters, shapes, and colors, as well as the correct use of classroom tools such as pencils, scissors, and glue sticks. Handwriting is introduced. Students learn to love and take care of books. Notions of science are presented through activities involving the use of the five senses. Social studies activities include the concept of community and recognizing Bahrain on a large map.

Kindergarten II

Kindergarten II is the equivalent of a Kindergarten program in the United States. KGII is designed for five and six-year-olds whose fifth birthday falls on or before December 31st of the academic year. The KGII curriculum continues to focus on oral language, listening, and social skills, while offering more structured approaches to academic concepts, in preparation for grade one. Children learn to recognize all upper and lower-case letters and initial consonants and long and short vowel sounds. Handwriting is continued and expanded upon. Children at this age are encouraged to be self-reliant and independent in the classroom.

The Kindergarten Curriculum

Thematic Units

In K1 and K2, programs are developed around thematic units. Through the units, teachers introduce their classes to a wide variety of topics. Social and cognitive development occurs informally throughout the year as a part of these units.

Social Development

Learning how to get along with others is a valuable skill for kindergarten students and one on which we place great emphasis. Children are encouraged to sort out minor interpersonal problems by using positive language and actions and, as much as possible, without adult intervention. When required we use gentle, friendly questioning techniques to encourage children to discover for themselves successful, positive problem-solving strategies. Students are provided opportunities to become independent and responsible individuals.

Language Development

The spectrum of kindergarten language experience integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening to support the development of active literacy. The kindergarten program uses a balanced literacy approach to early literacy, which provides children with a multitude of challenging and interesting experiences with literacy in a supportive learning environment. Best practices are based on classroom observations and involve systematically teaching children the strategies of language arts within the context of their use. Students listen to stories; dictate words, sentences, and stories; and are encouraged to write independently. Good quality children’s books are essential to an active literacy-based program and are used to help students learn to love reading and to understand basic print concepts.

Mathematical Development

Kindergarten 1

At this level, a great deal of mathematical development is approached informally. The skill areas include:

✔	counting number concepts
✔	numerical recognition
✔	shape
✔	size
✔	time (e.g., before, after, yesterday, today, tomorrow)
✔	quantity (e.g., more, less, few)
✔	patterns
✔	classifying/sorting

Kindergarten 2

In K2 concepts, which have been introduced in K1, are reinforced and developed using the Harcourt curriculum. Activities are designed to illustrate mathematical concepts and relationships in a concrete manner.

✔	Sorts objects by similarities (choosing their own criteria)
✔	Compare, arranges and orders objects according to size
✔	Shape, and color
✔	Matches objects of sets one-to-one
✔	Counts and recognizes number in a set, 0-30
✔	Counts number of items in a set, 0 through 20
✔	Selects numeral that names the number of elements of a set, 0 through 20
✔	Measures length by comparing nonstandard units
✔	Sorts and identifies basic geometric shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and oval)
✔	Recognizes and reproduces patterns
✔	Understands ordering and sequencing of numbers

Motor Development

We provide activities in both kindergartens to develop both fine and gross motor skills. Inside the classrooms, children participate in activities involving the use of scissors, clay, paint, glue, and crayons. Small manipulative, bead threading, sewing cards, and fingerplays are also used in the fine motor areas. Gross motor skills are developed through the use of playground equipment, sand toys, and balls.

Perceptual Development

The ability to discriminate fine differences both visually and auditory is essential to beginning reading. We provide teacher-directed listening and visual matching activities. For example, children work with pattern blocks, puzzles, design cards (where children copy designs using colored tiles), cut/match/paste designs, and other more informal building activities like Duplo and building blocks.

As the year unfolds, the number of skill and concept activities is increased. Children work more and more in groups in order to prepare them for entry into the K2 program.

In the K2 program, the skills, which have been addressed in K1, are reinforced. In addition, the program elaborates on the visual and auditory areas while incorporating even more fine muscle experience. The degree, to which an individual child acquires the skills presented in the K2 program, is determined by their individual maturation and development.

Aesthetic Development

It is important that children learn early on how to express themselves creatively through daily art and craft activities. Teachers give instruction in the use of different materials, but they encourage children as they become familiar with these different media to express their own ideas, feelings, and personalities. Children are given the opportunity to appreciate and respect the work of others.

Block Building

Block building is an important vehicle that weaves our youngest learners through all areas of earning.

Social Studies

Children learn about people and their work, understanding their interactions with their environment beyond the classroom, interdependence, and symbolic representation.

Art

Children are able to see patterns, symmetry, and balance.

Language Arts

Children develop pre-reading and writing skills such as shape recognition, differentiation of shapes, size relations, and telling stories about buildings, students develop language and listening skills by planning a building, naming a building, exchanging ideas, labeling, sign making, and cleanup.

Social-Emotional

Children acquire feelings of competence, cooperation, respect for the work of others, self-confidence, autonomy, and initiative.

Science

Students make discoveries about gravity, stability, systems, trial and error, and interactional forces.

Mathematics

Children further their understanding of shapes, size, order, numbers, fractions, measurement, area, height, width, and length.

Physical Development

Children’s fine and gross motor skills are supported through spatial awareness, visual, eye-hand coordination, hand manipulation, and perception.

“Specials”

Children at all three levels also take physical education and visit the Com Lab on a weekly basis. KGII students have a weekly 40-minute Life Skills class taught in English. Outings are planned around educational concepts that reinforce a skill, theme, or topic that is being covered in class.

Arabic/Islamic Studies

The Arabic/Islamic studies classes are scheduled for 90 minutes a day in KGI and KGII. The curriculum includes stories and discussion of a variety of topics, with emphasis on vocabulary enrichment. The Arabic lessons include a supplementary math component: instruction in numbers, counting, and concepts of size, shape, and measurement, all presented in Arabic in a fun and exciting manner. KGII students also do simple addition and subtraction practice during the Arabic class.

Islamic study accounts for nearly 40 minutes a day schedule and is rich in stories about the Al-Seerah, daily prayers (Dua’a), and Quran memorization. An annual Holy Quran recitation competition is held in the KG Department. That includes Islamic stories and lessons about the life of prophets. The use of the computer is integrated into this extra Islam class.

Physical Education

The course is designed to develop gross motor skills and competency in body management, by using developmentally appropriate activities. Units emphasizing locomotors, non-locomotors, and manipulative skills are taught on a weekly basis. Games and activities incorporating these skills are used to foster skill development, social interaction, and cooperation. KG students participate in Physical Education twice a week.