Kindergarten at Boxford Academy is intended to be a warm, supportive transition from the pre-school years to grade one. Our emphasis is highly academic. Readiness skills required for reading, writing and math form the nucleus of the curriculum. Our goal is that kindergarten students be reading by mid to year’s end.

Curriculum

Phonics forms the basis for the Language Arts program. Students participate in daily review and strengthening of the consonant sounds and long and short vowels sounds. By the last quarter of the school year, students are spelling words.

The children are taught to write the letters of the alphabet know the sounds of the letters and begin blending the sounds into words. The shape and meaning of numbers is taught. Once the children have mastered one-to-one correlations, simple addition and subtraction are begun.

We provide a rich variety of experiences which help develop visual and auditory discrimination and memory. Music, art, story-time, lessons, phonics and number skills provide the opportunities for the children to acquire the basic understanding which will set them on a strong track for the coming years of school.

Texts:

• ABeka Letters and Sounds K
• ABeka Writing with Phonics K
• Saxon Math Part I of First Grade
• Houghton Mifflin Science
• ABeka History & Geography

• Scholastic Bob Books (Sets 1-5)
• The Adventures of Little Bear Series, Elise Holmelund Minarik
• Frog & Toad Adventures, Arnold Lobel
• Nate the Great Series, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
• I Can Read Books, Levels 1, 2 & 3 (the list below is a sampling)

1. The Case of the Hungry Stranger, Crosby Bonsall
2. Morris the Moose, B. Wiseman
3. Morris the Moose Goes to School, B. Wiseman
4. Oscar Otter, Nathaniel Benchley
5. Little Chick’s Breakfast, Mary DeBall Kwitz
6. Mouse Tales Series, Arnold Lobel
7. George Washington’s Mother, Jean Fritz
8. The Josefina Story Quilt, Eleanor Coerr
9. Greg’s Microscope, Milicent E. Selsam

Kindergarten students are continually evaluated throughout the school year to assess their progress in all subject areas. Students who complete the Kindergarten reading program may begin reading the First Grade Abeka readers at the discretion of the teacher.

Enrichment

On Wednesdays, Kindergarten students have music, gym and art.