Kindergarten

Please visit our "Digital Learning" tab to view all grade-level lessons after 3/30/20.

Hello Kindergarten Parents! I am looking forward to working with you and the students this year! Please use this site as a resource to know what topics your child will be learning about throughout the year. Guidance is a special for 30 minutes every other week, Tuesday and Thursday. We cover many topics throughout the year, however, the topics always fall within academic, social/emotional, or career education. Your child may want to share with you the topics we discuss throughout the school year. To make this easier, I will always try to provide "extension questions" for each lesson to help facilitate meaningful conversations at home.

Our School Counseling program is both preventative and responsive. If you need to consult with me about any concerns you may have surrounding your child's school or home life, please feel free to contact me via email Noah.Kachman@lcps.org.

September

InTRODUCTION

The children have been introduced to their school counselor and have learned what the school counselor role is. We used the book, "What is a Counselor?"

At-Home Extension Questions:

How does a School Counselor help students?
What are some reasons you may see a School Counselor?
How can you ask for help from your school counselor?
Whose jobs are not the school counselor's?

Handouts: Parent Letter from the Counselor

October

BULLYING PREVENTION (1)

Kindergarten is being introduced to the concepts of conflict and bullying (how to differentiate between the two). We will be discussing the 3 steps of preventing bullying and seeking help: Stop, Walk, and Talk.

At-Home Extension Questions:

Who are trusted adults you can seek help from?
Was it on accident or on purpose? Does the person stop when you ask them to stop?
What does it mean to Stop, Walk, and Talk (not the same as stop, drop, roll)?
How can you be a friend/buddy for someone else?

Materials: Bailey the Big Bully, Be a Buddy Sheet

BULLYING PREVENTION (2)

Kindergarten reviewed Stop, Walk, and Talk and the difference between bullying and conflicts. The book we read was King of the Playground, going over verbal bullying and how many it times it takes to go from a peer conflict to bullying.

At Home Extension Questions:

Peer conflicts are 1 or 2 times (considered rude, mean, poor listening). Is it bullying when it is 3 or more times?
Who can you talk to school if you've used S.W.T. and someone is still using negative behaviors (hitting, taking things, teasing, mean names)?
What about at home?

Materials: The Playground King, Who would I report Bullying to Worksheet.

November

Kindergarten this month are going over how to be helpful and responsible people - at home and at school. We discussed what chores, tasks, and responsibilities we take care of so that others do not do them for us.

At Home Extension Questions:

What chores are you responsible for?
If you take care of your chores now, does that leave you more time to play?
What tasks/jobs do you take care of in the classroom? What jobs does your teacher give you?
Even if you do not like the job you have, doesn't it feel good to finish it so you don't have to worry about it?
Materials: Being Helpful; responsibilities and job cute and paste

Kindergarten furthered their learning of responsibility and that it doesn't only include jobs - but also means that we are accountable for our actions.

At Home Extension Questions:

How are you a responsible person?
Are you honest about the things you did?
Even if others are doing something, does that mean we should join them?
Should you tell the truth and apologize if you did something wrong or hurtful?
Materials: I am responsible handout; What if Everyone Did That?

December

This month, the children are learning about diversity, and how we all have differences that make us who we are!

We discussed that while we may be similar in some ways, we are different in others and we should be respectful towards others and to ourselves!

At Home Extension Questions:

What traits do I have, culture to share? How can I describe myself (hair, clothes, skin, eyes, languages, holidays, etc)
Do any of my friends have similar traits or culture as me?
Who are my neighbors?
Are any families in my neighborhood similar or different from mine?
How can I be respectful towards others?

Materials: Our neighbors, Coloring Yourself worksheet

As we experience the first cold weathers of the season and part of our diversity learning, the children reviewed how snowflakes have some similarities and some differences! Just like snowflakes, we too have similarities and differences that make us each unique! Maybe you look similar or different from someone else, maybe your family speaks a second or third language, or even celebrates a different holiday!

At Home Extension Questions:

What makes me special or unique?
Who am I similar with or different from?
What family celebrations or traditions do I know about?
Do any of my friends speak another language that I know or don't know?
How can I learn more about others?

Materials: Snowflake presentation, creating your own snowflake

January

For the month of January, Kindergarten students focused on what it means to show good sportsmanship and to be a teamplayer. We read and listened to a Howard B. Wigglebottom story about winning and losing. The students were very excited to share what sports they played or what favorite games they played.

At Home Extension Questions:

Winning is wonderful, but will we win every game that we play?
How can we show good sportsmanship?
What are some examples of poor sportsmanship?
Even if someone else shows poor sportsmanship to us, should we be mean back?

Materials: Howard B. Wigglebottom, Howard B. Wigglebottom coloring sheet.

To continue the discussions from the previous class, we focused on teamwork. The kindergarten classes focused on what teamwork was by definition, examples of teamwork, and why it is important. The students were able to describe teamwork on sports teams such as talking to coaches and teammates, cheering on friends, and scoring points. The students were also able to provide examples of "adult jobs" that required teamwork such as firefighters, doctors, professional football, and vets.

At Home Extension Questions:

Why is so teamwork so important to learn about?
Did they work as a team with anyone during class today or last week?
When have they used teamwork at home?
Is it faster to do work as 1-person for many jobs, or many people for many jobs?

Materials: Teamwork PPT, Gymnasium Teamwork video, Firefighter video, team exercises.

February

This month Kindergarten was double dipping into 2 lessons, kindness and career lessons. Focusing on kindness first, the students put on their thinking caps and discussed how we can be kind to others. We discussed how we can demonstrate kindness to others through the concept of "filling our buckets." With a visual in mind, the students were able to gain a better idea of how being kind to others, and others being kind to us, can make our days a little better for everyone!

Extension Questions for Home:

How can we be good bucket fillers?
Even if someone spills or scoops out of our bucket (saying mean things, being physically mean like pushing, or keeping us out of games), should we try to fill someone's else's?
What can I do if someone else's bucket spills a little? How do I fill theirs back up?
How many people's buckets did I fill today?

Materials: Have You Filled a Bucket Today?; Bucket sheet handout.

As part of their introduction to careers, the kindergarten students discussed what a career was, what are some examples of careers, and how some jobs are community helper jobs. The children watched a video on community helpers and were able to identify who would be considered examples of community helpers.

Extension Questions for Home:

What sort of career would you like to try in the future?
What community helpers do you know?
Review - What is a career? Is it a kids job, like helping in the classroom?
Help students explore more careers by talking about your own. "What do you think mom and dad/grandpa(ma)/uncle and aunt/cousin/brother or sister/etc do?"

Please visit our "Digital Learning" tab to view all grade-level lessons after 3/30/20.

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