Kindergarten Program

The CFSL operates a private half-day kindergarten program for children who are 5 years old by September 30th. The cost of tuition is $2000 (which includes the deposit). School operates from August 2026 - May 2027.

The CFSL kindergarten program serves as a teacher training facility for BYU students majoring in Early Childhood Education. This allows us to have 4-5 teachers per 20 children, making the teacher-child ratio 1:4-5. Thus, we can provide quality educational experiences as we identify and meet specific goals for each child.

Due to the University course schedules, our student teachers are assigned to the lab school twice a week for 14 weeks. New teachers are placed in kindergarten every semester, with the assigned head teacher remaining throughout the entire year.

Activities are considered to be developmentally appropriate when they are planned with the children's interests, needs and developmental capacities in mind.

We design our curriculum using the Utah state kindergarten core as we implement Project Work and discovery experience/centers. Through these two methods, we integrate our curriculum to address the whole child, thus focusing daily on the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student.

The daily schedule in each laboratory may vary depending on the topic of study, activities planned (field trips, guest speakers, etc.) and preference of the laboratory headteacher. However, each day will generally have the following components: large group class meeting/opening activities, small and large group work, discovery experiences/centers, literacy, math, and outdoor time.

Depending upon the well-prepared objectives of the learning plan, daily schedules are flexible - so that truly the teachers and children run the schedule rather than the schedule running the teachers and children. Sometimes unplanned opportunities present themselves during the teaching day that cannot be passed up (an exhibit at the Wilkinson Center, large excavation machines, or a hail storm, etc.). In these cases, previously-planned schedules will change to accommodate the spontaneous learning opportunity. Daily schedules and learning plans with specific curriculum goals and assessment strategies are posted weekly in each observation booth.

Click here to view the Current Schedule.

Each day, the children will have an ‘opening meeting’ to help them transition into the day. This includes a variety of activities such as singing songs, charting a calendar, observing the daily weather, sharing experiences, problem-solving, talking about classwork, and other math and literacy activities that help build cognitive and social skills.

Large group sessions introduce the project and stimulate the children’s interest in the topic. Large and small group work provides an opportunity for investigation, discovery, and developing skills. Small group work is intended to be hands-on experiences that are largely teacher-planned, but child-directed and based on the topic of study. Group work increases cooperative and collaborative skills and provides opportunities for language acquisition. These group sessions involve child participation and allow the children to express their ideas.

Discovery experiences allow children the free choice between multiple centers - science, music, blocks, manipulatives, math, computers, reading, writing, dramatic play, and art centers. Each center allows for the integration of multiple curriculum areas to assess the academic, social, and physical abilities of each child. It is a time for children to learn social skills, make choices, be responsible for the materials they play with, and develop new concepts and skills.

Children develop reading and writing skills best in a literacy-rich environment. Children have numerous possibilities throughout the day to use language, reading, writing, and comprehension skills. This is accomplished through labeling, alphabet walls, environmental print, shared and independent reading and writing experiences, and explicit teacher instruction. The children have multiple opportunities throughout the day to read and write in a variety of purposeful ways that build a strong literacy foundation.

Math skills are explicitly taught and fostered through hands-on applicable experiences throughout the day. The children are involved in surveys, graphing, constructing, building, observation, measurement, money activities, sorting, and data collecting to build number sense and problem-solving strategies.

Assessment is the process of observing, recording and documenting what children do to serve as a guide for curriculum development and to communicate with parents about their child's progress. The Utah State Pre-K curriculum serves as the guide to all assessments. Work samples are collected and reviewed daily. Daily observational notes and pictures are taken to be reviewed to help pre-service teachers become more aware of each child's needs. Pictures are uploaded each week to a digital portfolio to document growth for parents throughout the year.

Placements are NOT made on a first-come-first-served basis. Generally, placement is made in the following order: dependent children of full-time faculty, administrators, and staff; full-time students; and then community applicants. Each class accepts 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls).

Please note that after the application deadline passes, applications will added to our waitlist on a first-come-first serve basis. (Employment or student status does not apply to the waiting list.)

Our current payment link requires we include all programs on one screen. This link can be returned to repeatedly to pay for any program or any amount. You are welcome to pay additional funds or in smaller/different amounts at your convenience if the total amount paid each month is done so by the 1st. Each week, the CFSL office will email parents a confirmation of payments received. Please note that it takes 24 hours for our office to receive confirmation of payments received.

1. Click on the following link: https://commerce.cashnet.com/webcfsl
2. Please click on the “Child & Family Studies Laboratory” and fill in the information requested.
3. Add in the amount you would like to pay toward your child(ren)'s tuition at that time.
4. Select the program your payment applies to and then select “Add to cart.”
5. Select the cart image in the top corner and enter in your payment information to complete your payment.

Please be aware that one of the missions of the CFSL is to work with BYU faculty who want to conduct research to further our knowledge about children and families. Placing your child in our program assumes a willingness on your part to participate in occasional research activities. Most often these are questionnaires. All research projects are first approved by the University’s Human Subjects Review Board. Information is provided to parents before any research being conducted.

Parents are welcome and encouraged to utilize the observation booth at any time to see what their child is learning each day. Please see our tab “Lab Use: How to Observe” for more information.

Further, observation booths are used by several university classes throughout the year. University students do not have contact with the children at any time.