Our philosophy at Pinecrest School is to place our beginning students at a developmental readiness level where they will feel comfortable, as well as encouraged to "reach" for learning the academic concepts presented at that level. This placement approach is used for our Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten levels.

First Grade continues with developmental placement, based on where students left off at the end of our Kindergarten, or entrance test results for students who are new to our school. Second Graders are placed heterogeneously, or an even mixture of older and younger students.  In the Third, Fourth and Fifth Grades, students are grouped by ability levels in Reading and Math.

When testing for our Kindergarten program, success in the following eight skill areas are sought:

Gross motor: Balances on one foot, throws ball, skips, catches ball.

Visual: Matches colors, shapes, numbers, letters, words; compares sizes.

Auditory: Identifies sounds, links sounds with pictures, matches rhyming words.

Language: Knows body parts, knows right from left, understands nouns, names common objects.

Comprehension: Understands basic math concepts, (add one to a number, take away one from a number), makes comparisons, recognizes cause and effect.

Fine Motor: Copies shapes, copies numbers, letters, words, traces, strings beads.

Memory: Recalls pictures, repeats short number patterns, repeats sentences, builds block models, produces design from memory.

Social/emotional: Shows feelings, interacts with other children, demonstrates responsibility.

(The latter two require input from the parents or previous school personnel.)

If a child has difficulty with two or more of these categories and respective tasks, he/she may benefit better from our Junior Kindergarten class. This program focuses on practicing all of the areas listed above. In addition, students move through the entire California K curriculum, while adding pure phonetic reading in the spring of Junior K.

Kindergarten then picks up where Junior K and our Pre-K (uses California K math and reading readiness curriculum during the spring semester) leave off, introducing First Grade concepts and materials about the third month of school.

If the information above is helpful to you in finding a school for your child, please call (805) 529-3255 to schedule an interview, tour, and test for him or her.  We look forward to speaking with you and visiting with your young learner!