First Wesleyan Christian School’s accelerated kindergarten classes take students through A Beka first grade level reading concepts. In a typical year, at least 25 percent of FWCS’s kindergarteners score in the top one percent (99th percentile) of the nation on national academic tests. Most kindergarten graduates easily read second grade words such as "splash," "scream," etc.
First Wesleyan Christian School offers kindergarteners a safe, loving Christian environment. With small classes of typically fourteen to sixteen students, kindergarteners learn at an accelerated rate in our phonics-based reading curriculum, music, art activities, small computer classes, science, social studies, and other enrichment activities.
15:1
All K-8 classes also have five additional part-time teachers for art, computer, music, P.E., Spanish, library, and/or home economics.
94%
The combined average of local public school students at or above grade level is approximately 42%.
93rd
All schools nationally, public and private combined, averaged at the 50th percentile.
FWCS's kindergarten is accelerated in its reading instruction, as well as the depth in which it covers subjects such as science and social studies. Many of FWCS kindergarteners enter kindergarten with the same level of reading skills that many public school students possess when they graduate from kindergarten. By January most FWCS kindergartners are easily reading sentences like "Jake baked a cake." By graduation in late May, most FWCS kindergarteners are reading second grade words such as splash, scream, etc.
On the TerraNova3 Achievement Test, FWCS's kindergartners consistently score above the 95th percentile and/or above the 1.7 grade equivalent level in reading. These scores mean that FWCS students score higher than 94% of all students, both public and private, who take the same test, and they read test material as well as the average student does during his/her seventh month of first grade. By the end of first grade, the same FWCS students are usually independent readers at the third and fourth grade reading levels. Although the school doesn't stress math instruction as intensively as it does reading, FWCS's kindergarteners still score around the 90th percentile in math. FWCS's modern, colorful math texts more than exceed national standards for kindergarten classes.
The following is an actual page that 90% of FWCS kindergarteners are able to read by the end of March.
Dad, may Al ride on the bus?
Yes, Al may ride on the bus.
Al go on the bus.
The bus did not run late.
Al rode and rode on the bus.
By year's end, 80% of FWCS's kindergarteners are able to easily and fluently read the following first grade story:
Chip has work to do.
He will not play.
He must run to get nuts for food.
He fills his cheeks with the nuts.
He will store them in his nest.
He cannot see the food if snow is on the ground.
He must work now.
FWCS’s kindergarteners receive broad and rich instruction in various areas of community life, geography, American heritage, and cultures from around the globe. All kindergarteners also have the opportunity to participate in a grade wide geography bowl. The following is an overview of FWCS’s colorful A Beka social studies curriculum.
FWCS has created a transitional kindergarten (TK) class for students who are either not developmentally and
academically ready to successfully enter regular kindergarten classes or are younger 5s whose birthdays miss the September 1 cut off date.
This TK class serves as an accelerated prep-school to get its students ready
to enter regular kindergarten classes the following fall. It provides both a more challenging academic experience and an older peer group for
these students to interact with each school day.