Transitional Kindergarten, often referred to as TK, is an exciting educational opportunity for children who turn 5 between September 2nd, 2024 and September 1st, 2025. Transitional Kindergarten is the first year of a two-year kindergarten program which offers an additional year of school to our younger students. Transitional Kindergarten bridges the path between preschool and kindergarten and gives students the gift of time that will help them build a strong foundation for future school success. Transitional Kindergarten is a full-day program.

TK benefits children, families, and schools.

• Children are better prepared to succeed.

• Families have an additional option to ensure their children enter kindergarten with the maturity, confidence and skills they need to excel.

• Schools benefit because children will be better prepared to succeed academically and less likely to be placed in special education or held back in later grades.

Escondido Union School District TK program is grounded in developmentally appropriate, early childhood learning experiences.  Teachers and staff engage in extensive professional development on creating experiences where young children thrive. Dedicated attention is given to identifying student’s strengths and interests and engaging them in experiences that help them flourish. EUSD TK classrooms are best described as vibrant, bustling, and full of enthusiastic children and staff.  

Play is a cornerstone of EUSD’s TK program and developmental appropriate centers serve as a means of helping students thrive while engaging in play-based learning.  There is a wealth of research on the influence that play has on cognitive development.  The prominent developmental psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, engaged in extensive research on the role of play in early childhood asserting that play is the pathway in which children learn.  Here are several points that Vygotsky asserts:

• Pretend play frees a child’s thinking from concrete experience, creating a foundation for abstract thinking and symbolizing.

• Pretend play supports children’s ability to manage their own behavior and emotions.

• Play creates a zone of proximal development for young children because they are capable of more mature and sophisticated thinking and behavior when they are engaged in a pretend play context

For more information on Vygotsky’s thoughts regarding the importance of play in early childhood visit page 50 - 54 in California Department of Education’s instructional resource Powerful Role of Play in Early Education (PDF).