Bridges Mathematics: Bridges in Mathematics engages students in exploring, discussing, and applying mathematical concepts. Hands-on activities, visual models, and engaging routines support all students in making sense of mathematics. The Bridges math curriculum focuses on developing:
Deep understanding of concepts
Proficiency in key skills
Flexible and efficient ways to solve problems
Communication skills such as describing, explaining, and asking questions
This year in Kindergarten, we will learn to count and compare numbers to 100 (with a special focus on numbers within 20), think about joining and separating situations as addition and subtraction, ort, compare, and draw shapes, combine shapes to make other shapes and complete puzzles.
Fundations: Fundations is a phonics and handwriting program. We will first focus on learning all the lowercase letters, sounds, and formation, before doing a short unit on writing uppercase letters. We will then move on to tapping (or sounding out) consonant-vowel-consonant words, and learning trick words (or high-frequency words). We will also work on elements of a sentence and story elements.
Literacy: This year will be Nashoba's second year implementing the EL Literacy curriculum. From EL's website: "Imagine Learning EL Education Language Arts is a comprehensive, content-based, structured literacy curriculum committed to helping all students in Kindergarten through Grade 8 learn to read and read to learn. To address the challenges that students may face when learning to read, the curriculum aligns with the National Reading Panel's five essential components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension."
Science and Social Studies: Though our focus is on math and literacy throughout the year, our classroom themes usually focus on science and social studies concepts (such as seasonal changes, holidays, etc.).
Choice Time: Children have choice time every day, during which they engage in building, drawing, writing, painting, dramatic play, and social interactions. We also include some choices that reflect our current theme during this time.