Full-Day vs. Half-Day Kindergarten
Which is more effective?
Abstract:
This paper gives a brief history of kindergarten; where and why it was created. It describes both full-day and half-day programs, examines the advantages, and disadvantages of full-day and half-day kindergarten, and comes to a conclusion as to which program is more effective in educating the young.
Kindergarten plays an important role in the growth, and development of a child. It is here that children begin the foundation for the rest of there education. Educators are constantly looking for ways to improve the kindergarten program for optimal success, however change never occurs easily. There is always some opposition; as in the case with the change from half-day to full-day kindergarten. After carefully researching the controversial topic I have been able to come to some conclusions, as to which program is more effective, and practical. However it is important to first look into where kindergarten all began.
There is no denying the importance of the care and education of young children. That is why early childhood educators have been motivated for centuries to create high quality programs for the young. One of the most innovative and lasting programs that was created was German educator Friedrich Froebel’s concept of kindergarten. Froebel sought to develop a program that would stress the natural growth of children through play, and in 1837 he developed the first kindergarten (Froebel’s Kindergarten). Froebel believed that children after the age of three should be placed in the care of properly trained teachers for part of the day (A Comparison of the Reading Performance). In 1849 the training of kindergarten teachers began, and in the 1850’s kin...
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...from Academic Search/ EBSCO database
Kurtz, Jill. (2004, October 15). Starting School for Kindergarten Parents. Retrieved December 4, 2004, from http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/start/kday.htm
Mathur, Sangeeta, Elicker, James (1997). What Do They Do All Day? Comprehensive Evaluation of a Full-Day Kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(4), p.459 +. Retrieved October 3, 2004, from ERIC database
Schubert, Ellen (1997). Half-day kindergarten perspective. [Electronic Version]. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(4) p.481+.
Viadero, Debra (2002). Full-Day Kindergarten Boosts Academic Performance. Education Week, 21(31), p.14. Retrieved September 26, 2004, from Academic search/ EBSCO database
Wood, Daniel B. (2004, January 28). Learning trend: Kindergarten becomes and all-day affair. Retrieved December 4, 2004, from http:www.matr.net/print-9643.html
Williams, Leslie R. and Doris Pronin Fromberg, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992.
I am a firm believer that the quality of the child care directly affects the child’s development in the classroom. By eliminating the need for competing preschools to continue to improve their curriculum and to remain relevant in the field of early childhood education, we risk falling into the same trap K-12 education has fallen into. In other words, individual classroom freedom will be lost when teachers are forced to follow the governments blanket and mandatory regulations. I choose this concept because I feel it is important to allow a wide variety of options to families in order for them the find the right fit for their
The Prohibition or the Eighteenth Amendment was a huge failure for a law in 1920. There were many factors that led to its downfall that included illegal means, rise of gangsters, and the Twenty- First Amendment. Despite the Prohibition, it did not stop the people from drinking it and accessing it through thousands of speakeasies. It became a most lucrative business for criminals that led to dangerous competition. In 1933, the failed amendment was repealed and most people rejoiced that alcohol was legal again. The Eighteenth Amendment was an experiment that went horribly wrong and did absolutely nothing to bring any positive change. This was proof “that you don’t have to be drunk to come up with a really, really, bad idea.” (Carlson. 141)
...ories of why dinosaurs went extinct abound, and as there is no theory yet to be truly confirmed as the “right one”, my theory of dinosaur cannibalism is also purely anecdotal. The discovery of the cannibalistic Majungatholus atopus in Madagascar is an important scientific find because it confirms a long-standing theory of cannibalism among certain carnivorous dinosaurs. Behavioral patterns of extinct animals are difficult to establish; however, these bones give authentication to previous unfounded beliefs about the ancient feeding practices of some dinosaurs.
In August of 1945, both of the only two nuclear bombs ever used in warfare were dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These two bombs shaped much of the world today.
Stalin, political bureaucrats, and even leading Soviet physicists of the time often put early pre-war and wartime Soviet nuclear research on the back burner. This was mainly due to the Soviet Union fighting for its very existence during the first years of the war. After the tide of the war had turned towards the Soviets, and intelligence from the Western powers suggested an active atomic weapon program, renewed interest by Stalin and the Soviet machine began in earnest. The Soviet Union was behind the technological curve when it implemented its atomic weapons program in earnest and suffered greatly from a lack of resources. The Soviet scientific community, by itself, could not have produced a working atomic weapon in just four short years after the successful deployment of two atomic bombs by the United States over Japan in 1945. Resources, material, research, and scientists taken or stripped from Soviet occupied areas of the defeated Nazi Reich (mostly German) and designs stolen from the American Manhattan Project used for the Soviet nuclear weapons program allowed that program to become successful.
...ll. This group still remained successful during the Jurassic period and had a wide geopraphic distribution. Other reptiles evolved to not only live on land, but to fly. The earliest known birds appeared during this period; Archaeoteryx being the first to be considered the intermediate between the birds and predatory dinosaurs. It is debated on whether this ancient bird could actually fly or merely glid from tree to tree. Carnosaurus, meaning “meat-eating” is another group of dinosaurs that ruled during the Jurassic. With such large herbivorous prey animals, the correlation of these large predators make sense of why they were so common. An Allosaurus was one of the most common Carnosaurs in North America. Upon finding numerous intact skeletons in fossil beds, it has been reported that the Allosaurus was superficially similar to the later evolving Tyrannosaurus rex.
In 1940, the US began to fund its own program for atomic bombing after learning that research was being held in Germany on the use of nuclear weapons. The United States named their program “The Manhattan Project” which was kept in secrecy. For the next few years, the scientists involved in this program started to generate the materials needed which were uranium-235 and plutonium-239. They were sent off to New Mexico to be made into a bomb and then the first test of an atomic bomb was conducted and found to be successful at the Trinit...
Statics from the US Census Bureau reveal that just under half of all 3-4 year old children attended preschool in 2013. This is the also the same year that most school districts across the country adapted to a full day of kindergarten, rather than a half day. This means that children now will be expected to handle a 6 hour day of learning and, consequently; for those children who do not attend preschool this could be a real challenge. Preschool not only helps a child with social and emotional skills, it also provides a strong foundation for academic learning. It gives them an opportunity to become familiar with routine in a structured learning environment and can help make the transition to a full day of kindergarten even easier. Yet, there are still some parents who feel -- for many reasons, preschool is unnecessary and choose not to send them.
Yan, W. & Lin, Q. (2004, February 24). The effect of Kindergarten program types and class size on early academic performance. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(7). Retrieved March 26, 2004 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n7/.
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
In 1945, such a mechanism was created. The atomic bomb was created after many years of the study of atoms. Finally, a way to split the atoms was born. Germany was the first to try making a bomb. Efforts failed, but were picked up by the United States. Albert Einstein, although credited as the father of the atomic bomb, only lent support to begin American development. As it was to be, Robert Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb. He directed the laboratory at Los Alamos, where the atomic bomb was designed and built. The whole development in the making of an atomic bomb was called the Manhattan Project. The first bomb was tested on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. The end result was the dropping of two atomic bombs by the United States on Hiroshima. People had different opinions on the bomb, but they may have come to one conclusion had they known about the history of the atomic bomb, how it was created, and the effects the bomb had in the economy.
The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le...
I wanted to know where the term for kindergarten came from. This is exciting to me to read about the ideas of Froebel. He faced many challenges in his life which is very inspirational to me.
Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249)