Kindergarten at TWS
With more opportunity to learn and develop through play, our Kindergarten program offers your 4, 5 or 6 year old a setting reminiscent of home. Each class welcomes up to 18 children with an experienced Waldorf teacher and assistant.
Strengthening the cognitive, physical and social skills lays the foundation for success in school and life’s challenges to come.
We lay the groundwork for future success in these early years by developing gross and fine motor skills through movement, creative thought through imagination, and positive social skills through a young child’s innate capacity for imitation of worthy role models.
Schedule options
- 5 mornings a week
- 5 full days a week
- Hot vegetarian lunches and healthy snacks are provided daily for full-day program.
Play as a Foundation for Healthy Development
- The foundation developed in Kindergarten will support learning in Lower and High School and life beyond. This groundwork is laid unconsciously as your child plays, developing language and social skills, imagination and a healthy, active body.
- The rich language of stories, songs and verses will enhance your child’s language development, a precursor to reading skills
- Storytelling, songs and verses also help children develop the capacity to create their own visual images. Future reading comprehension and creative thinking will draw strongly on this capacity.
- Development of imagination is enhanced by the nature of play; natural materials such as shells, pine cones and driftwood become phones, bells and ships in the children’s minds, offering an unlimited canvas for play.
- Development of imagination is a cornerstone of future openness to new ideas and creative problem solving, a hallmark of Waldorf education.
Activities in the kindergarten could include;
- Unstructured play time indoors and out.
- Art: Watercolour painting, drawing and beeswax modelling.
- Eurythmy (movement).
- Circle time with rhymes, songs, finger plays and movement games.
- Storytelling accompanied by table puppets to provide concrete visual experience and rich language models.
- A nutritious snack prepared daily, shared by children and teachers.
- Regular adventure walks into the forest playground, meadow.
- Special activities such as the fall Lantern Walk and a birthday story and celebration for each child.
