At BASIS Independent Bellevue, our Kindergarten students fill our campus with joy, curiosity, and an unmatched excitement for learning. Recently our Head of School, Dr. Thies, spent a full day with our youngest learners to experience the joy first hand. Her experience provides a window into how we develop fearless and confident thinkers from the start of a student’s educational journey with us.

On the day of Dr. Thies’ visit, students had their Engineering class. However, in addition to Engineering, students also take Art, Music, Drama and Mandarin, throughout their week. To view a weekly sample schedule for Kindergarten, click here.

Step inside a dynamic day in Kindergarten with Dr. Thies and experience the creativity, joy, and collaboration that is abundant in Kindergarten at BASIS Independent Bellevue!

Arrival

Suffice is to say that it has been a while since I attended Kindergarten. However, I found myself flooded with the usual kid anxiety as I prepared for my full day in Kinder adventure. 

“What should I wear?”  I asked myself 

“I wonder if the kids will enjoy having me in class?” 

But, as soon as I entered our Kindergarten building my anxiety was put at ease.   

“What greeting would you prefer, Dr. Thies?” Ms. Metrick asked me. Without hesitation I chose a fist bump (and added fireworks for added emphasis). I then found my decorated name tag at Table 3 and began my coloring activity. Can I just take this moment to ask why we don’t all begin our day with an energized greeting and coloring time?  I feel like the world may be a much better place with this one simple adjustment. 

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Morning Meeting

Once all of the students had arrived, we moved to the carpet for our Morning Meeting time. We were all told to find our place on the carpet. While I was not sure where I should sit, my Kindergarten friends were very helpful in letting me know where I should not sit. With kindness in their hearts, they told me, “Dr. Thies, that’s where Dhruv sits.”  “Not there, that’s Ethan’s spot.” I eventually landed on the correct spot, sat criss-cross applesauce (that is a little more challenging with age), and prepared for a day of learning. 

My favorite part of our Morning Meeting time was our swimming greeting. I have never actually participated in a greeting like this before and, quite frankly, I now know that I have been missing out. In order to properly execute a swim greeting, you allow someone to introduce themselves and then you respond with a kind hello while also fully committing to a beautiful freestyle swim stroke. Now that I think about it, I believe that any swim stroke will do with the method of greeting. So, if you are more of a backstroke or butterfly aficionado, they will work as well. Saying hello to all of my new classmates in this manner put an immediate smile on my face. So, maybe try it out sometime? I mean, Kindergartners shouldn’t be the ones having all the fun, right? 

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Language and Literacy

Once we finished our greeting, reviewed our daily schedule, discussed the date and days of the week, and sang our weather song, we moved on to Language and Literacy. For this portion of the lesson, we got to split into two groups and began our activity. I was lucky enough to work with Ms. Armitage. She handed out plastic covered phoneme handouts and dry erase markers. We practiced our new phonograms together first and then Ms. Armitage let us color in the phonogram that represented the beginning letter of the word she read aloud. Ms. Armitage reminded us of the long, short and shwa sounds as well so that we could be confident in the answers that we chose.   

I loved this activity and was really happy to see my friends practicing their sounds aloud before they made their selection. As I began to color my long “A” phonogram I thought to myself, “Wow, these Kindergartners are pretty smart; I better pay close attention so that I can keep up!” I was happy to discover that my new friends were not only smart, they were kind and happy to help. If I had any questions, they happily demonstrated the sounds for me so that I could be sure that I completed the activity correctly! 

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Recess

Don’t even get me started on a mid-morning snack and recess time. I’m not quite sure why this is not a normal part of my work day. But I am missing out! During snack, I returned to my assigned table and got some time to talk with my classmates. I learned a few things about myself at snack and recess. The first is that I am really good at opening things. Before this time, I was not fully aware that I possessed such an important gift, but I feel empowered with my new found strength. The second thing that I learned is that making chalk art is a much better choice than attempting to ride a very small bike. While I was able to make it around the loop, my legs did not thank me Saturday morning. 

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Engineering

I took my spot as #19 in the line and followed my classmates from recess to Engineering. I was pleasantly surprised when Ms. DiBattista met me at the door with my very own hardhat, clipboard and title of “Chief Boxitech”. We entered the classroom and Ms. DiBattista reminded us of the importance of working together in a positive manner and communicating respectfully as we worked as a team. My classmates were then divided into groups to create and draw different buildings in a community. My responsibility was to recognize and award those groups that worked well together and give a final sticker of approval when they had finished their design and were ready to build. I am happy to report that all drafts were approved and the finished products were amazing. Several groups also earned PACE passes and additional stickers because of their teamwork and positive problem-solving skills. I eventually had to turn in my hard hat and hang up my clipboard because it was time for PE. 

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Movement Foundation

I will fully admit that I am slightly biased about this class being a former Physical Education teacher. I could hardly wait for PE because I am such a fan of exercise and bodily kinesthetic learning. So, I once again took my place at the end of the line and headed to the gym for another fun-filled adventure. While in PE, my classmates and I warmed up by pretending the floor was lava and sticking to the clearly marked lines to ensure our safety.  We then transitioned to a game called, “What Time is it Mr. Fox?” where we got the chance to practice our counting skills and test our speed and endurance. I worked together with another classmate to make sure that we were not eaten as Ms. Tello (aka Mr. Fox) yelled out “Lunch Time” and chased us back to our line! All this talk of lunch time made me hungry—and good thing because after PE we headed off to lunch.

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Lunch and Recess

I thoroughly enjoyed lunch with my classmates. We talked about weekend plans and even got some high five from the high school students before they left the lunchroom. When we returned to class, we reviewed our class rules, talked about how we can be kind to one another, and participated in a highly engaging brain break.   

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Math

For math we split into groups again and this time I got the opportunity to work with Ms. Metrick. She taught us about fact families and even sang a song with us to help us remember. When we returned to our tables for independent work, I got the opportunity to work with my tablemates. I was so impressed with their ability to solve problems, write number sentences and check their work. We worked collaboratively to make connections and describe how we had arrived at our answers. I truly enjoyed working through the learning process with the students and witnessing their resilience when they were challenged. To top of a great chunk of learning, we got to color our fact family worksheets after we finished. 

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Enrichment

We were rewarded for all of our hard work with enrichment time. Within minutes, the classroom transformed into a plethora of mini projects in the making. I was so impressed with all of the different choices that the students made and the fact that they all seemed to naturally pair up and happily share with one another. There were students using building blocks, practicing math skills with the cash register and play money, developing structures with Magna-Tiles, constructing tubes for marble transport, and so much more. As I looked around the room I was amazed to witness creativity in action and overwhelmed by their use of respectful language as they shared ideas. 

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Language and Literacy

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Civics, History & Science Foundation

We wrapped up our day with a civics lesson on wants vs. needs. Everyone was eager to share their ideas and I loved listening to my Kinder friends share their thinking.

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Until Next Time

We have all heard the saying, “everything that I need to know I learned in Kindergarten,” but I don’t think that I truly understood this until I was lucky enough to spend a full day learning such important skills in such a dynamic way.  Kindergarten learning is intentional and so important but what struck me the most about the day was the fact that I had so much fun!  The teachers were exceptional and my classmates added to the joy of the learning process.  The only part of the day that I did not enjoy was dismissal because it meant that this incredible experience had come to an end. The next time I am in need of collaborative classmates, creative ideas, or dynamic learning songs, I know just the place to go!

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A huge thank you to Dr. Thies, our wonderful Kindergarten teachers, Ms. Metrick and Ms. Armitage, Ms. Dibattista, Ms. Tello, and of course our incredible Kindergarten students for being a part of this blog!