Look at what we are doing in Kindergarten!

 

Writer’s Workshop

Writer’s Workshop curriculum has four parts:

• Oral Story Telling:  Your child learns how to tell their stories to the other children.  They will learn how to sequence their stories (beginning, middle, and ending).
• Sketching:  The children practice drawing various pictures (people, animals, etc.) by identifying shapes in the pictures and then following along as the teacher draws.
• Writer’s Notebooks:  The children draw one part of a story on each page.  Some children will draw and label their pictures or they may put a letter to represent each word (for example, “M” for the picture of mom).  Eventually, the children will write complete sentences to match their stories.  This is the beginning process to prepare the children to write their own books later in the year.
• Publishing:  The children will write and illustrate their own stories in the form of a book!  Their stories will have a beginning, middle(s), and an ending.

 

Reader’s Workshop

Reader’s Workshop focuses on the five core components of literacy development:  phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Each day we begin with a whole group lesson, then the children work in small groups practicing skills that were taught during whole group lessons.  Following are some of the literacy centers that your child will participate in each day:

• Alphabet Books Center
• Poetry Books Center
• ABC Center
• Art Center
• Listening Center
• Literature Response Center
• Letter Practice Center
• Phonics Game Center

 

Math Curriculum

The TERC math curriculum is a hands-on approach.  Children use a variety of objects (buttons, pattern blocks, tiles, snap cubes, etc.) to explore and discover ways to count, sort, and make patterns etc.  Following are the units of study that we will cover this year:

• Who is in School Today? -- Classroom routines and materials
• Counting and Comparing – Measurement and the number system (part 1)
• What Comes Next? – Patterns and functions
• Measuring and Counting – Measurement and the number system (part 2)
• Make a Shape, Build a Block – 2D and 3D geometry
• How Many Do You Have? – Addition, subtraction, and the number system
• Sorting and Surveys – Data analysis

 

Social Studies and Science

We use a thematic approach to teach social studies and science topics.  The topics are woven into all parts of the Kindergarten day.

 

Social Studies topics include:

• Friends
• Families
• Holidays
• Communities

 

Science topics include:

• Animals
• Weather
• Seasons
• Water