Kindergarten

Tender Years Academy Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a BIG deal for your child. Help them get the most from their experience with Tender Years. We offer Kindergarten programs in Camp Hill and Hershey.  At our Mechanicsburg location, we offer half-day Kindergarten Enrichment.  Kindergarten Enrichment is a continuation of learning after your child attends public school Kindergarten.  

As one of our Academy programs, Tender Years’ Kindergarten program is licensed by the PA Department of Education and taught by experienced, certified teachers. Here, your child will benefit from a curriculum that is designed not only to prepare them for success in First Grade, but to set them on a path that leads to success well beyond grade school.

As a parent, you are faced with many options for your child’s education. When selecting a Kindergarten program for your child, we would like you to know what makes Tender Years’ program different from the rest:

Tender Years follows a 1:15 ratio for our Kindergarten class.
Most public schools and other programs offer a 1:25 ratio for their Kindergarten class. This means that your child will receive more individualized attention from his/her teacher.

Before and after-school care is included!
This means that you will not need to worry about enrolling your child in a second program, or arrange transportation during the day.

We are rarely closed for inclement weather.
We are also open on most state holidays and public school in-service days for full-day care.

Your child can attend our Kindergarten as long as he/she turns 5 by September 30th.
Most schools in our area have an earlier cut-off date.

We also have the flexibility to offer our Kindergarten program to students who may miss the cutoff by a few weeks and do not want to repeat a year of Pre-k.
Those students can have the added benefit of spending a year in our K, and then following with another year of K in your school district.

We are a private Kindergarten, but we follow a public school curriculum and PA State Learning Standards.
Our school is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and our Kindergarten programs are taught by experienced teachers who hold a Bachelor’s degree and an active PA teaching certificate.

Curriculum

At Tender Years, our Kindergarten program curriculum is modeled after those in our local public schools, which are based on the Kindergarten State Standards. And because we coordinate our curriculum with the local school districts we serve, our students are well prepared for First Grade at their school.

Daily Schedule

7:00am – 8:00am
Arrival/Free Play in opening room

8:00am – 8:30am
Arrival in Kindergarten room, Free Play

8:30am – 9:00am
Circle Time: includes jobs, songs, calendar, weather, Pledge of Allegiance, Focus Lesson, poems, and books

9:00am – 9:30am
Gross Motor exercise/Outdoor play

9:30am – 10:00am
Bathroom break and morning snack

10:00am – 10:30am
Language Lesson: includes letter of the week, vocabulary, word families, word wall, punctuation, and the morning message

10:30am – 11:00am
Math Lesson: includes counting skills, skip counting, addition and subtraction

11:00am – 12:00pm
Centers: includes computers and table activities

12:00pm – 12:30pm
Bathroom break, lunch

12:30pm – 1:30pm
Complete morning work

1:30pm – 2:30pm
Day 1: Social Studies
Day 2: Art
Day 3: Science
Day 4: Music
Day 5: Physical Education

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Bathroom break, free play

3:30pm – 4:00pm
Afternoon snack

4:00pm – 6:00pm
Outdoor play/free play in closing room

Observations and Evaluations

Since our Kindergarten follows the regular school year, our program is divided into marking periods. Your child’s progress will be monitored and shared with you with a report card each marking period, and regular opportunities for parent/teacher conferences.

Daily Information & Communication

Parents are included in the daily lessons through Tadpoles and newletters. 

Meals & Snacks

Tender Years provides a morning snack. A general menu is posted to give you an idea of the types of snack items that we will serve. The afternoon snacks are provided by the parents for the class on a rotating basis. Bought snacks need to be unopened and in their original wrapping. No glass bottles, please. Homemade goodies are welcome; however, uneaten portions must be sent home or thrown away. For lunch, you may choose to pack a lunch, or purchase a hot lunch for an additional cost from our catering service. Menus are available on our website to help you make your choices. When packing lunch, please note that we are not permitted to microwave food for the children. You may pack hot foods in a thermos, or pack items that are ready to eat. All items that require refrigeration must be labeled before putting them in the refrigerator.