Kinder-GARDEN Cohort 2025

Our Kinder-GARDEN Cohort meets once a month on Thursday morning from 10:00am -noon at the Arboretum in Chaska.

Why do we call it Kinder-GARDEN?

We value helping students grow both academically as well as in character. Each student grows at their own rate and we want to help each student discover how to grow.

The Kinder-GARDEN Cohort will be Montessori style to give students a chance to explore and learn together and at their own pace.

Each week we will have a read-a-loud led by one of our student leaders and at least one large group activity. Each student will be given a journal with additional activities to work on throughout the rest of the month.

By registering for the Kinder-GARDEN cohort, you are committing to participating once a month on the Thursdays listed below* from 10am-noon. We will stay for lunch, but you are not obligated to join us. You can pack a lunch and join us for a picnic if you would like and you are welcome to stay and enjoy the arboretum for the rest of the day. We will meet rain or shine. Please wear clothing appropriate for the weather and bring a water bottle.

We will meet this fall on

September 4th,

October 2nd,

November 6th,

December 4th

Spring semester will be

January 8th,

February 5th,

March 5th,

May 7th

*Please note that we meet the first Thursday of the month except for January and April. We will meet the second Thursday in January and will not meet in April.

Your student will also have an opportunity to participate in our online SeeSaw class. These learning activities will expand on what we cover during our in person learning experience each month. These activities can be completed at anytime. This platform will help the students to connect and share what they are learning with each other and develop deeper relationships. We will be offering a once a month optional zoom call to allow the students to connect and review what we introduced during the in person learning experience.

Space is limited for this cohort, if you are interested in joining us please register soon!

The cost to participate is $45/semester or $75/full year + a one time $25 cohort application fee. Arrow Kids Members can register for this cohort for only $5. To learn more about the Arrow Kids Membership, read this blog post. This cost includes admission to the arboretum, access to the SeeSaw platform and Zoom class, snacks and all class supplies. Students will each receive a journal that they will complete throughout the year. If your student loses their journal, you can purchase a new journal for $25.

To participate in our Kinder-GARDEN Cohort, please fill out the cohort application. After the application is completed, we will schedule an interview. The purpose of the interview is to discuss the track that your student(s) will want to focus on this fall and to make sure that the cohort will be a good fit for your family.

Learning Objectives for the 25-26 School year: (Some of these will take place on SeeSaw.)

We will be introducing/ developing these concepts:

Social/Emotional ~ How to be a friend, feelings, encouraging others and taking turns

General ~ Time, Days of the week and month, money skills

Math ~ Number Line, Graphs, Place Value, Number Sentences, Friendly #’s, Intro to addition and subtraction.

Language Arts~ Letter sounds, uppercase & lowercase (when to use them), identifying vowel sounds, identifying initial, medial and final consonant sounds, blends, word families, CVC words, vowel pairs, diagraphs, diphthongs, spelling, reading comprehension, retelling and sequencing.

To register for the Kinder-GARDEN cohort first complete the cohort application, then you can register here to join us for the Kinder-GARDEN Cohort.

Kinder-GARDEN Cohort FAQ's

Can we join the Kinder-GARDEN Cohort just for the fall or spring semester?

Yes, families can register one semester at a time to give families a chance to adjust their schedules as needed or you can register for the entire year. We understand that life can change and want to make sure families can make the adjustments they need. We do however ask that you commit to joining us for at minimum a complete semester. One of our main goals is to help the students create friendships and this is difficult if families are not consistent in their attendance.

Do I need to attend with my student?

Our Arrow Kids Academy learning experiences are interactive and we ask parents to stay and be involved with their childs learning.

I have a younger child who will be attending with me, do I need to register them as a student?

We ask that you register everyone who will be attending. We are developing the activities for 4-7 year old students, but they are easily adapted for younger students to participate as well. If you have a younger student who will attend with you, we recommend that you register them as a toddler so that we have enough supplies for them to join us with the activities we do. Our goal is to learn together so we work to make activities successful for all ages.

I have an older student, can they attend with us?

Yes, we would love to have older students be a part of our teaching team. These students will help to plan and lead the activities for the Kinder-GARDEN Cohort. During your cohort interview we will discuss if the teaching team is a good fit for your older students.

Are there scholarships available to help lower the cost of participating in the cohorts?

We never want finances to keep families from joining us. We know that it can be a burden on families especially those with multiple children so we want to work with you to help make it possible. We offer 50% off all our learning experiences and a member discount for our cohorts to Arrow Kids Family members. You can learn more about our memberships here. If you are in need of financial support beyond the membership discount, please complete this request form and we will be in contact to see how we can help make it possible for your family to be a part of the Arrow Kids Cohort.