Full-Day Kindergarten Advantages

Herman (1984) describes in detail the advantages of full-day kindergarten. He and others believe full-day programs provide a relaxed, unhurried school day with more time for a variety of experiences, greater opportunity for screening and assessment to detect and deal with potential learning problems, and more occasions for good quality interaction between adults and students.

While the long term effects of full-day kindergarten are yet to be determined, Thomas Stinard’s (1982) review of 10 research studies comparing half-day and full-day kindergarten indicates that students taking part in full-day programs demonstrate strong academic advantages as much as a year after the kindergarten experience. Stinard found that full-day students performed at least as well as half-day students in every study (and better in many studies) with no significant adverse effects.

A recent longitudinal study of full-day kindergarten in the EvansvilleVanderburgh, Ohio, School District indicates that fourth graders maintained the academic advantage gained during full-day kindergarten (Humphrey 1983).

Despite often expressed fears that full-day kindergartners would experience fatigue and stress, school districts that have taken care to plan a developmentally appropriate, nonacademic curriculum with carefully paced activities have reported few problems (Evans and Marken 1983; Stinard 1982).

Disadvantages of Full-Day Kindergarten Programs:

Critics of full-day kindergarten point out that such programs are expensive because they require additional teaching staff and aides to maintain an acceptable childadult ratio. These costs may or may not be offset by transportation savings and, in some cases, additional state aid.
Other requirements of full-day kindergarten, including more classroom space, may be difficult to satisfy in districts where kindergarten or primary grade enrollment is increasing and/or where school buildings have been sold.

In addition to citing added expense and space requirements as problems, those in disagreement claim that full-day programs may become too academic, concentrating on basic skills before children are ready for them. In addition, they are concerned that half of the day’s programming in an all-day kindergarten setting may become merely child care.

Kindergarten in India

In India, kindergarten is divided into two stages- lower kindergarten (LKG) and upper kindergarten (UKG). Typically, an LKG class would comprise of children 3 to 4 years of age, and the UKG class would comprise of children 4 to 5 years of age. After finishing upper kindergarten, a child enters Class 1 (or, Standard 1) of primary school. Often kindergarten is an integral part of regular schools. In most cases the kindergarten is run as a private school. Younger Children are also put into a special Toddler/Nursery group at the age of 2 – 2 1/2. It is run as part of the kindergarten.

An all-day kindergarten program can provide children the opportunity to spend more time engaged in active, child-initiated, small-group activities. Teachers in all-day kindergarten classrooms often feel less stressed by time constraints and may have more time to get to know children and meet their needs.

Preschool Activities

1. Availability of toys that encourage play reenactment of children’s experiences and observations during the disaster can help children integrate these experiences. These might include fire trucks, dump trucks, rescue trucks, ambulances, building blocks or playing with puppets or dolls as ways for the child to ventilate and act out his or her own feelings about what has occurred.

2. Children need close physical contact during times of stress to help them reestablish ego boundaries and a sense of security. Games that involve physical touching among children within a structure are helpful in this regard. Some examples might be:

# Ring Around the Rosie

#  London Bridge

# Duck, Duck, Goose

3. Have the children draw pictures about the disaster and then discuss the pictures in small groups. This activity allows them to vent their experiences and to discover that others share their fears.

4. Have the children do a mural on long paper with topics such as what happened in your house (school or neighborhood) when the big storm hit (earthquake, etc.). This is recommended for small groups with discussion afterward facilitated by an adult.

5. “Short stories” dictated to an adult on a one-to-one basis on such topics as “What I do and don’t like about the rain.” This activity can help the child verbalize his/her fears, as well as to perhaps get back in touch with previous positive associations with the disruptive phenomena.

If your child is in kindergarten or first-grade Questions

If your child is in kindergarten or first-grade, the following questions may be the most appropriate:

• Is my child able to get along with others?
• Can my child participate well in group activities?
• What can I do to encourage or help my child learn to read?
• Can you describe my child’s reading program?

In second and third grade you may want to ask these additional questions:

• Is my child experiencing difficulty with any specific skills? If so, what are they! How can we help him with these skills?
• Is my child experiencing any difficulty that may hinder him in the future?

What is primary or elementary education?

Primary or elementary education consists of the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood.  Primary education generally begins when children are four to seven years of age. The division between primary and secondary education is somewhat arbitrary, but it generally occurs at about twelve years of age (adolescence); some educational systems have separate middle schools for that period.

Typically, primary education is provided in schools, where (in the absence of parental movement or other intervening factors) the child will stay, in steadily advancing classes, until they complete it and move on to secondary schooling.

The major goals of primary education are achieving basic literacy and numeracy amongst all their students, as well as establishing foundations in science, geography, history and other social sciences.

What is montessori and the concept behind it?

Montessori education was founded by Dr. Maria Montessori. Montessori is a philosophy with the fundamental tenant that a child learns best within a social environment which supports each individual’s unique development.
   
     It is a “Children’s House”  ,where young children learn best in a nurturing environment, filled with developmentally appropriate materials that provide experiences contributing to the growth of self-motivated, independent learners.The primary goal of a Montessori program is to help each child reach full potential in all areas of life.

   Each Montessori class, from toddlers through elementary, operates on the principle of freedom within limits.Creativity flourishes in an atmosphere of acceptance and trust. Montessorians recognize that children, from toddlers to teenagers, learn and express themselves in a very individual way. The aim is to encourage active, self-directed learning and to strike a balance of individual mastery with small group collaboration within the whole group community.Music, art, storytelling, movement, and drama are part of every Montessori program.

What makes the montessori a perfect institution?

An authentic Montessori classroom must have the following basic characteristics at all levels:

• A classroom atmosphere which encourages social interaction for cooperative learning, peer teaching, and emotional development.
• A diverse set of Montessori materials, activities, and experiences which are designed to foster physical, intellectual, creative, social, and personal independence.
• Teachers educated in the Montessori philosophy and the methodology for the age level they are teaching, who have the ability and dedication to put the key concepts into practice.
• A partnership established with the family. The family is considered an integral part of the individual’s total development.  
• A schedule which allows large blocks of time to problem-solve, to see connections in knowledge and to create new ideas.  
• A multi-aged, multi-graded heterogeneous grouping of students.