SOCDS offers a full day kindergarten.  Kindergarten is not mandatory in New Jersey and therefore we can accept students close to district age cut-offs.  The benefit of this is that families will have one more year of growth before appealing to districts for exceptions to the age cut-off.    One note is that the health immunization requirements for a kindergarten student are dictated by the class and not by the age of the student.

Our kindergarten class has been historically small, approximately 8-10 students per year.  This ensures that students receive individual lessons and activities at their level, while at the same time developing independence among the students.  

The majority of the learning experience in kindergarten is self-directed.  Students receive a lesson from the teacher and then are given the opportunity to practice and explore the concepts on their own.  The teacher then reconnects with the student to monitor understanding and offer additional direction.  

The main objectives of our kindergarten program is to:

Social  –  recognize personal property and space;  display sportsmanship and lose with grace;  carry a flowing conversation with peers

Group Behavior –  positively respond to redirection;  invite friends to play and work together

Manners – Interrupt politely and when important;  can acknowledge behavior and actions

Reading – reading chapter books with comprehension; interpret colloquial sayings; identify missing step in a sequence of actions; top 100 sight words; spelling of three and four letter words with short vowels 

Mathematical Reasoning – identify and add-on to patterns with multi-criterion; simple computations;  word problems