In December of 2023, the district’s school board announced that they would officially switch to a full-day version of the kindergarten program in the upcoming year. For many, this was a long-awaited change: the half-days were a hindrance to parents with a work schedule and influenced some families to enroll their children in a private kindergarten before switching to LMSD. While undoubtedly hearing the cries for a full-day program from the community, the district was also motivated by a rising national trend: kindergarten’s revamp as a rigid academic course.
The rationale of the curriculum committee was fueled by recent research showing an increase in reading and math scores and achievement with a full day of learning. Former superintendent Steven Yanni, who oversaw the implementation of the program, stated that “what Universal Full-Day Kindergarten [would] do is allow our teachers to actually go deeper with content.” The time abundance allowed for an expansion of the kindergarten syllabus, including the purchase of a new science curriculum, all conforming to the new PA STEELS standards. Time was also increased for the “specials:” art, music, PE, library, and—instead of foreign language—a STEM block. The new structure of the day is sectioned into small blocks, anywhere from ten to sixty minutes, each purposed for whole-group or small-group activities. Sandwiching the day is WIN (What I Need) time, a block designed for individualized attention, and “fine motor bootcamp”—structured purposeful play.
Purposeful play is the newest invention in the curriculum of full-day kindergarten. The district defines it as a type of learning where teachers “[set] up playful experiences that are intentionally designed to support a specific learning target.” The district uses this fifteen minute block to incorporate social and emotional learning into their core curriculum in order to improve creativity, thinking, and academic growth. Attaching a purpose to play may seem counterintuitive, as play is an activity intended for creativity, spontaneity, and imagination. However, Cynwyd kindergarten teacher Suzan Spiegelman noted that the curriculum has still “increased the amount of time students have to develop social and emotional skills,” solidifying this new philosophy’s value within kindergarten. The board committee stated in the midyear evaluation of the program that they are “still growing into how best to implement interdisciplinary and content curriculum” in spaces like purposeful play.
Another big aspect of this shift was the use of technology. Full-day kindergarten follows LM’s policy of 1:1 devices, meaning that every student is provided an iPad. As Jen Gaudioso noted at the March 17 school board meeting, kindergarten teachers were “thoughtful about integration of screen time,” spending approximately 15-25 minutes per day on iPads. She continued that voiced-over, recorded, individualized lessons is one of the key ways these devices were integrated and are essentially used when teachers aren’t available or occupied with other students. The iPads are also used for independent work. Our district has always been very pro-technology, so this policy is not surprising. Older generations of kindergarteners used iPads every so often, but not with the implication of learning material through the technology.
Kindergarten teachers have felt largely positive about the change. Many, like Emily Powell of Merion Elementary, feel like it has made the day feel less crammed and increased their teaching capacity. “I love that more time allows for a slower, more relaxed pace and approach to the day,” she stated. “We’re no longer rushing to pack in as much as we can in a half day.” Spiegelman agreed that “more planning time during the day allows for more creativity in planning and design of my teaching…I feel the children appear more settled; in the past I often needed to rush through instruction to move with the pace of the curriculum.”
It seems that despite drastic changes to teaching length, content, and styles, the full-day kindergarten program has been successfully implemented. It will be fascinating to see the next generation of students progress with this new foundation. Will test scores increase? Will achievement gaps narrow? Will the program achieve what it was intended to, or did LMSD just keep up with the Joneses? In a time where technology is ubiquitous in education and parents want their children to get ahead as much as possible, the program and its purpose are very fitting. Hopefully, full-day kindergarten will produce a social, cognizant, creative student body. As the saying goes, everything we need to know we learn in kindergarten.
