Kindergarten

By design, the Sacramento Waldorf School Kindergarten is a home-like, secure, and loving place with a predictable rhythm throughout the day, season, and school year.

We offer two years of a mixed-age Kindergarten, welcoming younger children's first venture into school and preparing older kindergartners for First Grade. Soft colors, fresh flowers, the beauty of nature, and natural toys fill the classroom.

The Kindergarten gently nurtures the development of imagination, verbal capacities, sequencing, sensory integration, memory, social skills, and motor skills that are essential as the foundation for later learning and academic excellence. This is all achieved in a supportive atmosphere free from formal academics.

Sacramento Waldorf School has two Kindergartens: Red Rose and White Rose. Each class is taught by an experienced teacher and assistant with Waldorf Early Childhood training.

Our Kindergarten classes offer a delicate balance between teacher-led group activities and free play. Children are given ample opportunity to re-enact and solidify their experiences from the group and build social skills.

An atmosphere of warmth and calm sets the stage for a rhythmical cycle of activities, including

Storytelling to stimulate visualization, vocabulary, and memory
Free play and drama to ignite imagination and support social relationships
Counting games to develop an awareness of numbers and sequencing
Artistic activities to explore color and motivate expression
Outdoor play and walks to foster an appreciation of nature and gross motor skills
Crafts to develop fine motor skills

Activities

The Kindergarten week includes arts and crafts, puppetry, movement, painting, story time, cooking, bread baking, singing games, outdoor physical play, walks, and learning social skills. With great attention to language, the teachers tell fairytales and multicultural stories while children absorb the images and strengthen their capacities for forming inner pictures. This capacity, when properly nourished, becomes the basis for language arts and future critical thinking skills.

Routine

Regular rhythms – alternating vigorous activities with quieter ones – guide the structure of each day. During nature walks on our biodynamic farm and the adjacent parkway, as well as during outdoor play times, children develop a sense of wonder and a love of the natural world.

Festivals

Celebrating seasonal festivals helps emphasize the greater rhythm of the year. These festivals not only remind children of the cycles of the year but also hold them in and connect them to the larger SWS community. Many families bring their cultural traditions to the school’s festival life, and we have celebrated día de los muertos, Diwali, and Lunar New Year in recent years.

Snacks and Lunch

The children help the teachers prepare a healthy, wholesome, organic mid-morning snack, which they enjoy as a class. The children are dismissed at 12:30pm unless they participate in the Extended Care program (details below). Kindergarten students who participate in Extended Care bring their lunch.

Hours and Extended Care

Kindergarten starts at 8:20am every weekday morning and runs until 12:30pm. Kindergarten is a five-day per week program. Kindergarten-specific Extended Care is available until 5pm on a contract basis.

Kindergarten Admissions Process

Our Kindergarten classes for the 2022/2023 school year are full. We accept applications to our wait pool and will interview applicants if space becomes available.

If you previously submitted an inquiry form, please contact Admissions to gain access to our new Admissions Portal where you can begin the application process.

If you have not previously submitted an inquiry form and are interested in learning more about our school, please submit an inquiry form through our Admissions Portal.

The application process for Kindergarten consists of the following steps: