Kindergarten: Building the Foundations
for Learning
Sunset Mesa offers a full day program for kindergarten. This
enriched experience
provides students with a strong foundation
in phonics and early literacy. Our math program uses patterning
and hands-on
activities to develop strong numeration skills
at an early age. Communication is an important aspect of
our partnership with kindergarten parents. Each child's progress
is formally reported to parents three times per year. Parent-Teacher
conferences are scheduled at the end of the first and third
reporting periods and an interim mid-report is sent to call
attention to any particular concerns and review progress.
Prefirst: A Gift of Time
Sunset Mesa Schools offers a unique
Prefirst Program to ten students each year to give them extra time to mature
before entering the first grade. This exclusive class emphasizes personal attention
and a solidification of foundational skills in a nurturing, self-paced environment.
This extra year can benefit certain children beyond measure as they "come
into their own" in our Prefirst program.
Elementary Grades 1 -
5
The emphasis in elementary grades 1-5 is to develop a strong
foundation in reading, language arts, math, science, and social
studies while producing critical thinkers and creative problem
solvers. Visiting Sunset Mesa Schools, you may observe a first
grade class using manipulatives to eagerly explore math concepts
or watch fifth graders play Revolutionary War history board games
they developed in small groups. You might even be invited to
listen to third graders wearing animal masks they created in
art class as they present book reports written in their homeroom.
Embracing Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences,
teachers at Sunset Mesa implement a variety of instructional
strategies to support student learning styles. Regular parent-school
communication and teamwork is a unique facet of Sunset Mesa schooling.
Trimester grading periods and yearly spring testing using the
Iowa Test of Basic Skills demonstrate each child's progress.
Interpretation of these scores with parents continues our tradition
of parents as partners. For more about Sunset Mesa's educational
environment, see Enrichment Programs and Sunset Mesa School Extras.
