Marymount of Santa Barbara

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Marymount of Santa Barbara
2130 Mission Ridge Rd. | Santa Barbara, CA 93103 | 805.569.1811 805.569.1811 | mseguel@marymountsb.org


KINDERGARTEN - GRADE 2
THE PRIMARY GRADES: KINDERGARTEN, GRADE 1 & GRADE 2

Reflective of the best practices in early childhood education, Marymount’s Kindergarten through grade two provides your child with a warm and welcoming environment. He or she will be immersed in engaging, hands-on experiences that promote intellectual, social, and physical growth. The spiritual aspect of each child is intentionally nourished through God-centered lessons and practices integrated into the broader curriculum. This is also when your child will begin the process of developing into a responsible member of the community. All of this happens in a variety of settings from individual instruction to small classes.

During these years your child will discover an inviting new world of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Using the premier literacy program Imagine It! he or she will learn that letters are linked to sounds, that those sounds form words and words can form sentences. In addition, your child will read, listen to, and discuss a wealth of classic children’s literature including folk tales, fables, and novels. These engaging stories provide your child with examples of a rich vocabulary while promoting an enthusiastic love of reading. Your child will begin to learn about phonics in a structured, sequential manner. He or she will also begin to recognize more and more words, gaining skill and confidence as a beginning reader and writer. Don’t be surprised if by the second grade, your child is proudly writing one and two page journal entries with ease and confidence. A literacy coach supplies one-on-one tutoring in school for students struggling to master basic reading skills, and ensuring that all children can read on grade level by the end of grade two.

Our math program for the primary level is Math Investigations, an engaging introduction to logical thinking and the use of concrete manipulatives to help children gain a true sense of “numberness.” From your child’s very first week of kindergarten, activities in math (such as counting, patterning, graphing, and sorting) will be practiced daily. These hands-on math experiences support your child’s gradual transition from concrete to abstract thinking. A wide variety of classroom materials will help to support your child’s grasp of abstract ideas while reinforcing previously learned skills. Marymount’s program will enable your child to explore and grow in his or her understanding of numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems. Repetition and review will provide your child with a firm foundation in place value, addition and subtraction, early concepts of multiplication and division, geometric shapes, measurement, data collection, and problem solving.

Of course, we also make sure that there is some unstructured time during the day just to have fun and be creative. Beginning in first grade your child will also be introduced to the elements of physical fitness and the skills each of us uses for a lifetime of recreation in sports, games, dance, and play. Throughout this program your child will be introduced to a wide variety of sports. More importantly, teamwork, fair play, determination, and hard work are at the core of our character education program; and nowhere are those values more in evidence than in our physical education.

Throughout a Marymount education, your child will be individually appreciated as he or she matures as a young learner. With small classes and a variety of resources, our program will suit your child’s unique abilities.