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Five Facts for National Kindergarten Day
posted by: Melissa | April 21, 2017, 05:57 PM   

Today is National Kindergarten Day and NWPE is saluting all of our members that teach kindergarten. Kindergarten is perhaps the most transformational year in a child’s life and, providing a bridge from early childhood to school age, is a grade that is unique to itself. So today, we celebrate kindergarten and kindergarten teachers with five facts you may not otherwise have known:


  1. Kindergarten dates all the way back to 1779, when a couple of citizens in Strasbourg created a school to provide learning and enrichment to the young children of workers during the day. The idea soon spread world-wide as cities and countries realized the importance of caring for the youngest members of their population.
  2. Each year about 3.5 million students enroll in Kindergarten thanks to the 45 states that require districts to provide some form of Kindergarten. Eleven of those states require districts to provide full-day kindergarten.
  3. Research suggests that students in full-day kindergarten programs see both academic and social-emotional gains, especially when those programs are located in low-SES districts.
  4. According to the Gesell Institute, ages in a single kindergarten class can range as much as 18 months, and include children anywhere from four to six years old! This holds true for developmental differences too, where the developmental age range can vary between three and eight years old mentally.
  5. All that play can tell you a lot. Research into behaviors that students exhibit in kindergarten has proven indicative of learning outcomes in first and second grade, making early intervention a must.

If you know a kindergarten teacher, don’t forget to go up to them today and thank them for all the hard work they do!


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