Placement of Students

Our philosophy at Pinecrest School, Palmdale, 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: Children are grouped developmentally according to readiness levels in motor skills, attention span, social maturation and ability groups for reading are formed within each class.

Second Grade: In preparation for the middle-grade curriculum, classes are grouped heterogeneously. Reading ability groups, plus intervention and pull-out programs provide additional support and enrichment for qualifying students.

Third and Fourth Grades: Classes are grouped heterogeneously, with ability groups for reading and math. team teaching is introduced, with each staff member specializing in either science, social studies or core literature. Note: Fifth graders attend our Lancaster campus.

Fifth through Eighth Grade attending our Lancaster campus): Team teaching is expanded with each teaching specialist instructing in their subject area, i.e.., English, science, social studies, math. Students are grouped heterogeneously, except for math, where ability groups continue.

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 and observation of that child in our preschool, if he/she attended our Pre-K.)

If a child has difficulty with two or more of these categories and respective tasks, (s)he 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 (661) 265-0045 to schedule an interview, tour and test for him or her. We look forward to speaking with you and visiting with your young learner!