Your child will engage in learning activities while having lots of fun in our enrichment centers.

What is Full-Day Kindergarten?

Studies by the U.S. Department of Education show that children learn more in full-day kindergarten programs than they do in half-day programs. Significantly stronger academic gains are achieved in reading, language arts and mathematics.

Full-day kindergarten classes spend more time each day on teacher-directed whole class, small group and individual activities. While the majority of both full-day and half-day classes have reading and language arts activities every day, full-day classes are more likely to spend time each day on math, social studies and science.

Specific skills and activities (e.g., reading, writing, phonics and counting) are more frequently
covered in full-day kindergarten classes including mathematic skills and activities covered in full-day kindergarten that are typically those found in first-grade curriculum (e.g. recognizing fractions, telling time and writing numbers from 1-100).

It’s no wonder the trend toward full-day kindergarten classes is increasing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, sixty percent of all public and private Kindergarten school students in the U.S. attend full-day programs. For students who would otherwise make multiple transitions between home, childcare and school each day, full-day kindergarten offers a more stable, less stressful, and stimulating environment in which to learn and grow.

What is First-Grade Readiness?

Full-day kindergarten has a positive effect on both short-term and longer-term student achievement. Academic benefits of full-day kindergarten have been shown carry into first grade.

These benefits of a longer kindergarten day are attributed to the increased amount of time children spend at school, but more importantly, the way in which the extra time is spent.

Reaping the benefits of full-day kindergarten probably has as much—if not more—to do with the quality of curriculum and instruction as it does with the length of the kindergarten day. According to a report published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, effective kindergarten programs:

✔ Integrate new learning with past experiences through project work and through mixed-ability and mixed-age grouping in an unhurried setting.
✔ Involve children in firsthand experience and informal interaction with objects, other children and adults.
✔ Emphasize language development and appropriate emergent literary experiences.
✔ Make it easier for teachers and parents to share information about children and build common understanding.
✔ Align with brain research.
✔ Offer a balance of cooperative groups and individual activities.
✔ Assess students’ progress through systematic collection and examination of students’ work, often by using portfolios.
✔ Develop children’s social and conflict resolution strategies.

What is *Core Knowledge?
Core Knowledge Curriculum teaches a body of specific lasting knowledge in a way that allows children to gradually build on what they already know.

Based on a body of research in cognitive psychology and effective school systems worldwide, Core Knowledge provides that, in order to attain academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, early education curriculum should be solid, specific, shared, and sequenced.
Core knowledge curriculum provides a sequential building of knowledge that establishes strong foundations for learning by using four solid concepts:

The Four S’s
Core Knowledge Is:
• Solid
While current events and technology are constantly changing, there is nevertheless a body of lasting knowledge that should form the core of an academic curriculum. Such solid knowledge includes the basic principles of constitutional government, important events of world history, essential elements of mathematics and of oral and written expression, widely acknowledged masterpieces of art and music, and stories and poems passed down from generation to generation.
• Sequenced
Knowledge builds on knowledge. Children learn new knowledge by building on what they already know. The Core Knowledge Sequence provides a clear outline of content to be learned in succession. This sequential building of knowledge not only helps ensure that children enter each new grade ready to learn, but also helps prevent any repetitions and gaps characterized by traditional learning methods.
• Specific
The Core Knowledge Sequence is distinguished by its specificity. By clearly specifying important knowledge in language arts, history and geography, math, science, and the fine arts, the Core Knowledge Sequence presents a practical answer to the question, "What do our children need to know?"
• Shared
Literacy depends on shared knowledge. To be literate means, in part, to be familiar with a broad range of knowledge. One goal of Core Knowledge is to provide all children, regardless of background, with the shared knowledge they need to be included in our national literate culture.
By using the concepts of the Core Knowledge Curriculum in our Spanish Immersion Program at Rayito de Sol your child will gain the ability to read and speak the Spanish language as well as being provided with a solid foundation for learning now and in the future!

Class sizes are limited to enhance dialogue, improve retention, while accelerate skill development plus all our teachers are native Spanish-speaking.

If you are interested in additional information or you would like to scheduale a tour, please contact us at

Downtown Location:(612)332-2770
Plymouth Location: (763)545-1790
Burnsville Location: (952)564-5024

Or

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