school life

Primary Program and Kindergarten
The Suzuki School Primary Program is designed for children three through five years of age. At this age, the children begin to recognize the impact of their decisions for themselves and for their classroom. They are now ready for a more structured presentation of math, language, and science concepts. They remain intensely interested in practical life, which now includes caring for pets and plants, arranging their furniture, helping with meal preparation and cleaning/organizing their space and their materials. They take responsibility for keeping their room orderly and have a voice in deciding the room activities and rules.

Interactive Classrooms: Children in the Primary Program are confident in their abilities and eager to absorb more of the world around them. The classroom retains the same design elements seen at the Pre-Primary level; however, the children now arrange the room to suit their activities and needs as the day progresses. Encouraging this independence insures that the children form a close bond to their room and with each other.

Curriculum & Materials: Primary children, having been introduced to language and fine motor control in the earlier levels, are ready for more rigorous focus on language, math and fine motor skills. In Language, the children continue to master new vocabulary while learning to blend sounds in order to read words and sentences. Preparation for handwriting is practiced through various fine motor activities such as punching, tracing, sewing, and cutting.  As readiness is observed, formal lessons in cursive letter formation are presented and as the children begin to read, they also begin to write what they are reading.  In Math/Sensorial activities, children grade, order and compare attributes, demonstrate an understanding of quantity through one-to-one correspondence and then begin to add and subtract 1- and 2-digit numerals.  A Suzuki-developed science and multicultural social studies program is used in a spiral curriculum that begins in Pre-Primary and continues through Kindergarten.

Foreign Language: Native French or Spanish speakers teach children French and Spanish in these classrooms twice a week using a language immersion curriculum. These programs are taught during both the school year and during the summer program.  Our Chinese Immersion Program, developed to both familiarize the children with the Chinese culture and to teach the tongue early on to make the sounds of this tonal language, is taught primarily through the exercises of Practical Life so that the vocabulary of both English and Chinese is taught simultaneously in the naming of familiar objects.

Rotation Routines: Morning lessons follow a block schedule so that the presentation of and practice with the materials can be completed leisurely and without interruption. The children are placed in multi-ability groups and rotate every day in language, math/sensorial and practical life/art areas for the morning lesson block. This three day rotation allows the children to work in succession with all the classroom teachers in the areas of math/sensorial, language, fine motor, art, practical life and social studies/science.

 
Enrichment: Our regular curriculum is supplemented by special visitors, including storytellers, musicians, magicians and nature specialists. Students participate in small group music instruction once a week. They also have the opportunity to participate in optional enrichment activities such as private music lessons, ballet, gymnastics and sports movement classes.

Communication: At Suzuki, we recognize the parent as your child’s first and best teacher. To foster our partnership, we communicate with parents daily so that you are informed of your child’s progress and of his or her day. Parents are encouraged to communicate directly with the teachers in the afternoons after the end of the academic day and through email.