Kindergarten

Heritage Academy offers a full day of developmentally appropriate learning. Our Kindergarten program provides your child with opportunities to grow, explore, and achieve. There is rich literacy exposure (in both English and Hebrew), singing , class meetings, small group instruction, learning centers, and “specials.”

In general studies, reading instruction includes: learning the alphabet, phonetic awareness, emergent, leveled, and phonetic readers. Writing incorporates random letters and “inventive” spelling at the beginning of the process, and eventually integrates more correct spelling, usage of high frequency words, and spacing between words. Science (Looking at the Earth and Sky; Characteristics of Living/Nonliving Things; Exploring the 5 Senses; The Body), social studies (Safety, Holidays, Mexico, and Open Cirle), and the Saxon Math Program round out the curriculum.

In Judaic studies, students learn the aleph bet (recite, identify, write, and sound). Some students may progress to simple Hebrew sight words, along with the decoding of simple words. Students do hands-on activities and projects related to Shabbat and all the traditional and modern Jewish Holidays. Students learn the basic story connected to the Parasha HaShavua (weekly torah portion). Israeli songs and dances are taught. Beginning Tefillah (prayer) is part of every day.

The kindergarten classroom is rich with materials: blocks, puppets, arts and crafts supplies, listening center, library corner, math manipulatives, globe, CDs, and audio tapes. The environment is visually stimulating with posters, charts, photographs, signage, and student work. Instruction is in small groups, with a student/teacher ratio that does not exceed 10:1. Kindergarten students have many opportunities to mix, mingle and learn from students in other grades. Cross-grade projects and activities are not unusual.

A year in the Heritage Academy kindergarten is one filled with joy, love of learning, and achievement.