Serving as a bridge to Kindergarten, the Transitional Kindergarten program at NGFS provides young students the “gift of time.”
At New Garden Friends School, we honor the multidimensional process of early childhood development. We know that all young children develop at their own unique pace. Some students benefit significantly from the gift of time before kindergarten.
Transitional Kindergarten is often the right choice for students who have birthdays late in the year or who may have the intellectual development to engage in more robust academic work but need a little more time to develop their social-emotional skills.
In Transitional Kindergarten, we help students develop Kindergarten readiness skills (pre-reading and math) and fine motor, gross motor, and social skills. By joining our Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten students together for some activities and separating them for others, Transitional Kindergarten students build the social skills they need for Kindergarten, including sitting in the circle with friends, taking turns talking, participating cooperatively in group activities, and attending to instruction for increasingly longer periods. We also work with students to help manage their belongings and build the capacity to resolve conflicts peacefully.
