Sierra Canyon School: Kindergarten

Kindergarten—the next step in Learning forward

In the magical year of Kindergarten, children strengthen their intellectual, emotional, and creative foundation— paving a path to lifelong success Our Learning forward philosophy means that our experienced and caring teachers thoughtfully challenge each child to stretch, grow, and reach the next level. In this nurturing and intellectually engaging environment, children develop greater autonomy and self-awareness, while learning how to navigate the world of school with purpose, curiosity, and care. Through a curriculum that blends strong academic foundations with hands-on discovery, Kindergartners build confidence in reading, writing, math, and scientific exploration. Just as meaningfully, they learn how to be a good friend, how to share and collaborate, and how to approach challenges with resilience, adaptability, and a growth mindset.

On our secure, sunlit, and beautiful Lower Campus, your child’s love of learning blossoms—and their understanding of their place in the world begins to take root.

“Kindergarten at Sierra Canyon has been an incredible experience.

My son flourished in reading and math, and the year was filled with hands-on experiences, like hatching butterflies and learning about rainforest creatures.

The entire year emphasized kindness. We are ready for the challenges of first grade, and for more love of learning.” – SC Parent

Learning with joy and purpose • In Writer’s Workshop, students discover the joy of being young authors—organizing their thoughts, drafting their ideas, and developing their writing through a process that encourage both creativity and skill-building, all while sharing and celebrating their work with pride.

• Through fun surprises and playful challenges, students explore place value and counting to 100. With encouragement from Zero the Hero, they build excitement around early math while deepening their understanding of number patterns and counting by tens.

• Joyful performances led by our Music and Spanish teachers build confidence and pride, while after school theater and dance offer even more opportunities to shine on stage.

• Special theme days—Pumpkin Day, Teddy Bear Day, Potato Day, Penguin Day, and more—reinforce graphing, sorting, pattern, and computation skills and build strong mathematicians.

An exceptionally secure campus At Sierra Canyon, your child’s safety is our top priority. Every car entering campus stops at a locked gate, where a security guard verifies visitor information and runs a background check using the visitor’s driver’s license.

Our school perimeter is gated and enhanced by video monitoring, and during drop-off and dismissal, we help your child in and out of the car.

Partners in your child’s education As your child learns and grows throughout the year, you’ll probably notice a growing independence—and that’s an intentional outcome of our Kindergarten program. Still, at this stage, education remains a team effort involving teachers, students, administrators—and you.

We encourage you to get involved and become an active part of our community—whether by participating in class activities, helping with events, or supporting school initiatives. Teachers communicate regularly with you through email, phone calls, a Friday take-home folder, a weekly newsletter, and one-on-one conferences, so you can stay fully informed about your child’s progress.

We welcome you to stop in and say hello when you drop off your child. It’s a chance to connect with other parents, greet your child’s teacher, and enjoy the welcoming, inclusive spirit of our school community.

Academics and character go hand-in-hand

Learning specialists

Our comprehensive, developmentally calibrated program combines academic rigor with the social and emotional skills essential for successful learning—and a happy, productive life.

We balance independent exploration with structured lessons, sparking your child’s curiosity and fueling their expertise.

Every day, students work in small groups and one-on-one with their teachers, learning to provide and receive feedback that improves their comprehension, creativity, and resilience.

At Sierra Canyon, your child doesn’t stay in the same room or with just one teacher.

Your child will leave their homeroom and meet with specialists for Spanish, Music, Computer Science, Wellness, Library, Art, and P.E. on a weekly basis. Studying with experienced educators who only teach that subject, your child grows accustomed to interacting with multiple faculty members and gains confidence in moving from class to class. Equally important, children discover the joy and excitement of diving deeply into a single subject.

At the same time, our signature character education program infuses everything your child does with a larger purpose. From the beginning, our students know that education isn’t only for their benefit. They understand how and why their actions affect others, and we help transform their natural compassion into meaningful action.

Our Kindergarten program strengthens the academic and personal skills your child needs to succeed throughout their Sierra Canyon journey. We integrate intellectual, social, and emotional development into our comprehensive curriculum of Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Health/Safety, Music, Performing and Visual Arts, Technology, Spanish, Character Education, Wellness, and Library.

SOCIAL SKILLS

THINKING/COMPREHENSION

WRITING SKILLS

Building on the foundations learned in preschool, your child develops more advanced skills for engaging with others, including:

Your child’s abilities to understand and interact with the world grow in these areas:

In Writers’ Workshop, your child experiences the delight and power of writing—and learns skills that help in school and life:

• being responsible • being respectful, kind and friendly to everyone • sharing and taking turns • coping with disappointment • following directions • cooperating/working with others EXPRESSIVE AND RECEPTIVE L ANGUAGE SKILLS Through expanded phonetics and vocabulary lessons in small groups, your child expands verbal capabilities, such as: • following multi-step oral directions

• logical thinking • forming opinions • predicting outcomes • visualizing • metacognition • asking questions

• making choices and taking initiative • following passions • imagination and design

MATH SKILLS

• development of voice

Your child uses hands-on manipulatives and real-world applications to develop:

READING READINESS

• sorting/classifying/comparing skills • conceptual understanding of mathematical operations • number sense • number recognition • composing and decomposing numbers

• increasing academic stamina and attention span

• addition and subtraction skills

• vocabulary development

• independence

• collaboration

• speaking comfortably in front of a group

• using descriptive language

• self-awareness and self-reflective behavior

• critical thinking and problem solving • introduction to measurement, time, money, and geometric figures

Our teachers differentiate reading instruction to meet children where they are and help them develop improved: • accuracy and fluency • stamina and independence • phonological awareness (letter sounds, rhyming, onsets and rimes, sound blending) • understanding of story elements (characters, plot, setting) • comprehension skills that include: –recalling details –making inferences –predicting

Go to sierracanyonschool.org for more details. And please do visit us in person, if you haven’t done so already. We’d be honored and delighted to share this special place with you.

– making connections from text to self, other texts, and the world –retelling stories