All Around Child's Full Day Academic Kindergarten Program focuses on the Blue Valley Standards & Benchmarks for kindergarten as well as on the Project Construct Curriculum Approach which was developed for use in both Missouri as well as Kansas schools. Project Construct is a process-oriented curriculum and assessment framework for working with children ages three through seven. Constructivist theory states that children construct their own knowledge and values as a result of interactions with the physical and social world. The framework for curriculum and assessment is organized according to four interrelated domains: Sociomoral, Cognitive, Representational, and Physical Development. Because young children do not categorize learning according to various disciplines as older children and adults do, Project Construct is not organized according to traditional subject areas. Rather, the foundations for academic learning are embedded in the social and physical environment and integrated into contexts that are meaningful to young children and appropriate to their stages of development.
Project Construct was developed to fulfill a need for a curriculum and assessment framework that supports young children's characteristic way of learning and at the same time provides teachers, parents, and administrators with the information they need to make appropriate decisions regarding the education of young children. The framework enables teachers to function as professional decision makers who use their knowledge and observations of young children to enrich teaching practice. The project design provides for a variety of resources, including curriculum material and assessment instruments, as well as support pieces for educators and parents that address a range of theoretical and practical concerns.
Constructivist teachers provide learning environments which enable children to learn as they play and follow their own interests. Play, after all, is more than a pastime for young children. Play is a means of knowledge acquisition, and involves experimentation and creativity. Positive attitudes and dispositions, such as persistence, imagination, initiative, and cooperation, are also fostered through play.
When constructivist teachers observe children for assessment purposes, they consider child development, the sources from which children might develop knowledge, and the nature of nowledge construction. In addition, they look at how children attempt to resolve conflicts and how they make use of errors that occur during the construction of new knowledge. Teachers can promote the construction of knowledge by observing individual children and asking questions or making suggestions that will further their thinking. Teachers should encourage and accept all ideas, even when children arrive at conclusions that are inaccurate by adult standards. As children learn to resolve apparent contradictions and correct their own errors, they will move toward more complete understanding. (Project Construct: A Framework for Curriculum and Assessment. Copyright 1991 by author.)
Parents who choose to forgo public school kindergarten for their child for an additional year are invited to explore our private program. Since the focus is on the individual child versus the group as a whole, each child will have the ability and resources to succeed in his/her first year of formal education regardless of their level of social development and/or physical development. By all means, those children can still attend public kindergarten the following year and feel even more prepared for the tasks that they will face in the public school setting. Regardless, your child must be six years by September 1 in order to enroll in 1st grade the following year in Overland Park or Olathe. Therefore, an exceptional child may enroll in our private kindergarten if they are less than 5 years by September 1, but will not qualify for 1st grade in the Blue Valley or Olathe schools the following year.
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