Kindergarten is a 2001 documentary miniseries that aired on HBO Family in 2001. It is an unscripted show about an American kindergarten class in Upper Nyack, New York.
The show ran for 13 episodes, and continued to be rerun on HBO Family for several years.
If you're looking for the video game, see here.
Kindergarten provides examples of:
- Accidental Hand-Hold: In "Open Wide", Quincy accidentally rams his back into Jonas' hand, which Jonas believes was on purpose.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In "Be My Valentine", some of the female students playfully stroke Benjamin's hair.
- All Love Is Unrequited: In "As I Grow", Joelle is asked how much she loves her new baby brother, and she replies "Even bigger than God".
- Argument of Contradictions: In "Spread Your Wings", the kids argue over who gets to hold the butterfly that lands on their shirt.
- Art Initiates Life: In "Open Wide", the class paints their own interpretations of the tooth fairy as part of an art class activity.
- Artistic License – Biology: In "How Does Your Garden Grow?", Jillian believes that talking to plants will make them grow higher in the sky.
- Bad News in a Good Way: In "How Does Your Garden Grow?", Miss Johnson delivers bad news about the class's vegetable garden being eaten by an animal and engages the students in problem-solving.
- Believing Their Own Lies: In "Hooray for Holidays", the students discuss how Santa Claus is able to see who's good or bad, implying their belief in Santa's magical abilities.
- Birthday Episode: The eleventh episode, "As I Grow", focuses on the theme of birthdays and celebrates the birthday of one of the students.
- Butterfly of Transformation:
- The main focus of the episode "Spread Your Wings" is the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies.
- In "Movin' Up", the class releases one last butterfly as a symbolic gesture during the graduation.
- Class Pet:
- In the first episode, Miss Johnson adopts a guinea pig and allows the class to vote on a name for it.
- The third episode involves the kids learning about the butterfly life cycle.
- Fire-Forged Friends: In "F is For...", the class learns about fire safety and visit the fire station, interacting with firefighters, and having a shared experience.
- First Day of School Episode: The first episode covers the experiences and emotions associated with the first day of school, including the fears, anxieties, and eventual realization that it's not so bad after all.
- Food Porn: In "F is For...", the class makes Miss F's Fine Fancy Fudge, with Miss Johnson guiding them through the process.
- Forgotten Birthday: In "Open Wide", Christopher reveals that he sometimes forgets to brush his teeth.
- Friends All Along: In "Be My Valentine", Anna Belle is reluctant to go to the YMCA with the other kids because she doesn't think anyone wants to include her as a friend. Luckily, Miss Johnson reassures that the other students will include her.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: In "Be My Valentine", the students talk about differences between boys and girls, their preferences for pink and blue, and the girls' belief about boys being afraid of being kissed.
- Good Is Not Soft: In "Doin' the Right Thing", after Benjamin is punished for misbehaving during class, Miss Johnson discusses with him about the consequences of his behavior and the things he misses out on during time out.
- Graduate from the Story: The final episode, "Movin' Up", ends with the kids graduating kindergarten.
- Grand Finale: "Movin' Up" focuses on the last week of kindergarten and the emotions of the students, as well as Miss Johnson's sadness to see her students go.
- Halloween Cosplay: In "A New Season", some of the kids dress up as different characters for Halloween.
- Hands-On Approach: In "Spread Your Wings", Miss Johnson teaches the class about the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies through various activities, including drawing a caterpillar and providing containers with caterpillars and magnifying glasses.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: In "Many Kinds of Kindness", the class discusses how Martin Luther King Jr. helped bring an end to segregation, draw pictures of him doing kind things, and put on a play about his life.
- Holiday Episode: In "Hooray for Holidays", the overall theme and activities are centered around various winter holidays, including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: In "As I Grow", a pair of twin girls attempt to identify each other in a baby photo and successfully guess correctly.
- Innocent Innuendo: In "A New Season", Jillian teases Dana by jokingly singing about Quincy being her boyfriend.
- Innocently Insensitive: In "Welcome to Kindergarten", Christopher comically pretends to faint off-camera when he has to spell his name due to how long it is.
- Magic from Technology: In "Welcome to Kindergarten", one of the class's activities is to squish some Play-Doh around to see if it changes color. The students are surprised when their plain white Play-Doh changes color, and one of them believes it might be some kind of magic mix.
- The Mentor: Miss Johnson acts as a mentor and guide to her students, introducing them to various activities throughout their school year.
- Milkman Conspiracy: In "Be My Valentine", the students notice that their milk cartons match each other's and tease one another about needing to match.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: In "Open Wide", a student paints a black bad fairy among the colorful tooth fairy drawings.
- Musical Episode: In "Hooray for Holidays", the students listen to the school band's Christmas music, sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and practice and perform with their instruments for the holiday assembly.
- New Baby Episode: In "As I Grow", Joelle becomes a big sister when her mother gives birth to a new baby boy named Patrick.
- The Power of Friendship: The overarching theme of the episode "Be My Valentine" is friendship and inclusion, particularly through Miss Johnson's guidance and the students' interactions.
- Properly Paranoid: In "Spread Your Wings", the students realize that Dana's caterpillar has died, most likely due to suffocation. Because of this, they try not to overfeed their caterpillars like Dana did.
- Real Song Theme Tune: "Hush Little Baby", by Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma.
- Redemption Earns Life: At the end of the episode "Doin' the Right Thing", Benjamin's improved behavior on the following day results in a good note from Miss Johnson.
- Rhymes on a Dime: In "One Fast Cookie", the students come up with creative rhyming sentences with "the gingerbread man", such as "the gingerbread man hopped out of the pan and broke his hand", which Miss Johnson writes down to staple onto the paper cutout gingerbread men.
- The Runaway: In "One Fast Cookie", the students have to locate a gingerbread man plush, which is described as sneaky and having run away in the past.
- Scare 'Em Straight: In "How Does Your Garden Grow?", when the class's vegetable garden is eaten by a groundhog, one student suggests creating a big animal to scare the groundhog and trap it.
- Shout-Out:
- In the episode "Many Kinds of Kindness", a girl has a toy of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls.
- Also in the episode "Many Kinds of Kindness", one of the students is wearing a Pokémon shirt.
- In the episode "A New Season", a girl is dressed like Jane Porter from Tarzan.
- Teach Him Anger: In "Many Kinds of Kindness", Miss Johnson educates the kids about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s significant role in fighting against segregation and changing laws.
- Tooth Fairy: The concept of the tooth fairy is central to the episode "Open Wide", as the students discuss putting their lost teeth under their pillows and receiving money in return.
- The Troublemaker: "Doin' the Right Thing" focuses on Benjamin's behavior and the discussions about his troubles, including instances where he disrupts the class or hurts others.
- Valentine's Day Episodes: Episode 10 is about Valentine's Day. The class shares Valentine's Day cards.
- Visual Pun: In "Open Wide", Miss Johnson uses hard-boiled eggs to represent teeth and demonstrate the effects of brushing or not brushing them.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: In the episode "Welcome to Kindergarten", Julia expresses optimism and idealism about her teacher and the learning experience, saying that the class will become very smart with Miss Johnson.
