Reading: What an exciting time it is where your child will be immersed in literacy all year long! We will have time each day for teacher read alouds, shared reading, and small group guided reading, all of which include instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and comprehension. Keep reading to your child every day at home as well!
Writing: Writing will likely become one of your child’s favorite times of our day. We will have times where children will come up with their own topics and ideas for writing, as well as time when children will write about a common topic. Drawing and labeling pictures is a great start to writing. As children begin writing words and sentences, please don’t discourage your child for misspelled words. We encourage students to write the sounds they hear and unfortunately, our language does not always make sense. We are doing our best and it’s important to find opportunities to celebrate all that your child has learned and recognize that this is just the beginning of a life of learning.
Centers: Children will learn some independence in the classroom as we work in centers each day. They will be exposed to a multitude of skills and use a variety of different tools to practice these skills. Some of our other centers will include sight words, word work, math, spelling, games, writing, and our guided reading groups.
Math: Students will explore math in so many different ways throughout the year! We focus on math daily through calendar time which includes the date, number of days we have been in school, etc. We build number sense throughout the year as we move from early numeracy skills such as counting and cardinality to learning about adding and subtracting. We will also be learning about 2D and 3D geometry, measurement, and money.
Science and Social Studies: Science and Social Studies are incorporated into our Reading Block. In Science, we will be exploring weather, plants, and animals. In Social Studies, we will be learning about self in relationship to family, friends, and community, holidays, rights and responsibilities, needs and wants, and other various important topics.
Grades: Kindergarten students do not receive traditional letter or number grades, such as an A or 93. Instead, students are assessed throughout the year based on their progress toward learning standards.
On Track (OT): Consistently demonstrates mastery of the entire standard.
Approaching Expectations (AE): Is making progress toward mastery of the standard.
Below Expectations (BE): Is beginning to learn the standard and needs additional instruction or practice.
Standards are taught in smaller parts throughout the year. These smaller parts are called daily or weekly learning targets.
For example:
Standard: Count to 100 by ones and tens.
Learning target: “I can count to 20.”
A child may be marked Below Expectations during the first nine weeks for the full counting-to-100 standard because the entire standard has not yet been taught. As we continue working on the skill, students should progress to Approaching Expectations and, by the end of the year, On Track.
Classwork is also marked OT, AE, or BE. These marks show your child’s understanding of the specific learning target taught that week—not the entire standard.
For example:
Learning target: “I can identify a penny.”
Standard: Identify pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and recognize the value of each.
A student may receive an OT on an assignment about identifying a penny, while still receiving AE on the full standard until they have learned all four coins and their values.
The monthly newsletter will share the learning targets and standards your child is working on. Please refer to the district curriculum overview for additional details.