As the school day begins for the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) class at Springer Elementary School in the Los Altos School District, 20 excited children file into Mrs. Joffe’s classroom. The children are abuzz with excitement and anticipation, chatting with each other about what they will be learning today.
The students gather on the rug for “circle time” and Mrs. Joffe captures their attention with a song, turning the classroom’s attention to morning activities. “Let’s see who will be my helpers today,” she smiles holding a hat, full of student names. After determining which students will serve as helpful classroom managers, Mrs. Joffe explains the game of bingo and the Kimochi activity for the day. “Our Kimochi is Excited, what does he say?” The students reply, “Fun has to be fun for everyone.”
The morning events are prime examples of the foundation of the Los Altos School District Transitional Kindergarten program: social-emotional learning. The student helpers gain confidence with specific classroom responsibilities. The bingo game, using animal silhouettes to celebrate Chinese New Year, promotes early literacy skills. The excited Kimochi, Huggtopus, helps students understand and explain their emotions, while learning to regulate them to avoid conflict and promote respect for one another.
“Adults think of school as a place where children learn reading, writing, science and math: and they do. However, in order to become confident, lifelong learners, social and emotional skills are critical,” explains LASD’s Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Sandra McGonagle. “By rooting early childhood learning in a social-emotional context, students’ academic skills blossom.”
Transitional Kindergarten in LASD is a wonderful year of educational development for students whose fifth birthday occur between September 2 and June 2. With birthdays too late in the year to qualify for Kindergarten, TK students have the gift of an additional year to “learn how to learn” in a formal classroom setting. Social-emotional learning and self-regulation are key components to success in Kindergarten, so the focus of the LASD TK program is to help students develop a strong foundation in processing and expressing their emotions in the classroom.
“My students learn to work in groups cooperatively and also gain the independence they need to focus on complex tasks. These skills are essential for educational success--and the learning starts here in our Transitional Kindergarten classrooms,” said Lisa Schubert, Almond elementary.
The LASD Transitional Kindergarten team consists of a talented teaching team who have developed a unique and effective program that integrates a Pre-Kindergarten program with the State of California’s Common Core State Standards. Each teacher has the support of a full-time instructional aide in the classroom, providing extra attention to each student.
“We developed a stand alone curriculum to explore phonemes and phonics, as well as early literacy by exploring different ways children can read.” Students explore the pictures in books, describe what those pictures tell them about the story, retell the story and truly absorb the meaning of a book. “By exploring the story structure and sequencing, understanding the cause and effect, retelling the story from memory, and acting out the stories, children are developing important and foundational literacy skills that propel them forward in reading and comprehension,” explained Mrs. Ortiz.
“How many ways can you make 10?” Ms. Schubert asks one of her students. Using colorful beads, the student groups 3 yellow and 7 green. “We explore early math skills by thinking about numbers in a way that makes sense to each student. This requires really knowing our students and working alongside them to learn math together.” In this way, the program is intentionally open ended to provide each student the extra support they need or additional challenge to conquer.
“Most importantly, we have a lot of fun in Transitional Kindergarten,” Schubert says. “In this early introduction to school, hands-on learning and play not only teach children how to learn, but reinforces the idea that learning is fun. We provide a safe, inclusive place for children to blossom, make friends, solve problems and resolve conflicts.”
Transitional Kindergarten students also take part in all of the educational programs that create the excellent well-rounded education for which the Los Altos School District is known; art, music, Living Classroom, Project Cornerstone (Kimochi; Social/Emotional learning in TK), Physical Education, STEM, and computer science are part of the TK students’ experience.
Transitional Kindergarten is currently offered for students who reside within any of the attendance areas of the district’s seven elementary schools. “My son’s transition from TK at Santa Rita to Kindergarten at Covington was absolutely seamless,” explained Sharim Asiong. “He was wonderfully prepared for Kindergarten academically and socially. Some of his friends from TK joined him at Covington, and we had the benefit of meeting other classmates and parents through summer Kindergarten playdates.”
“Research is really clear that when students come into Kindergarten having solid foundations in social-emotional skills and academic skills they will be on track to meet grade-level expectations throughout their schooling,” McGonagle stated. “That’s what our TK program does: prepare students for lifelong successful learning.”
For more information about the Los Altos School District Transitional Kindergarten program, please call 650.947.1177. To register your child, please visit https://www.lasdschools.org/District/5312-Registration.html.
