Divisions: Kindergarten

“Once there was an alien. This alien battled a bad banana…”
-Rory

Five year olds are storytellers. While sixty students join us each fall, we meet hundreds of characters in our first hours together: superheroes, princesses, monsters, kings—and, yes, bananas—fill our classrooms and our yard.

“Once upon a time there was an ocean and it was looking for friends…”
-Savion

And then curriculum begins. Studies of the ocean see the construction of a nine-foot-tall coral reef mural, and an enormous orca whale is suspended from the ceiling; when the ocean curriculum gives way to a study of nonsense, the kids gleefully give the orca a monocle, sword and shield. Next door da Vinci’s studio is the stuff of dreams and inventions; flying machines make way for flying animals, and soon birds both real and imagined build nests and soar on fabric wings. Across the hall portholes glitter with views of collaged stars and planets—the room itself has become a spacecraft from which to explore the mysterious reaches of the solar system.

“Once there was a little girl. She really liked dragons and friendship. And N’s and L’s…”
-Lana

N’s and L’s indeed! At Henry Street, symbols from the realms of literature and mathematics come into focus and become every bit as magical as dragons and wizards. Letters are read and formed, sung and strung together in words and poems and stories; we count our days, and the once unfathomable one hundred becomes cause for celebration. Patterns and rules are discovered, played with and challenged in the expanse of the yard and the block corner or within the strategic grid of a chessboard.

Once upon a time.
There was a princess.
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
There was a ghost…
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
They were best friends
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
Once upon a time…
They all lived happily ever after.
Once upon a time…
The end.
-Petra

There are more stories brewing at Henry Street than we can ever possibly fully gather. The stories of the children, the stories of their glorious teachers, and the stories that come into being as they play and tell and listen and write together. We are always on the edge of our seats over here—what will happen next? Well, first grade… but that’s another story.

Bonnie Schiff-Glenn
Head of the Kindergarten