Literacy in Kindergarten

In kindergarten we teach reading through a combined phonics and whole language approach.  We teach the letters and their sounds through combined reading and writing activities.  I will always include what letters have been studied on any given week in my weekly newsletter that is sent home in the folder every Friday.  The students are encouraged to use 5 reading strategies to successfully read based on the "Reading Recovery" model developed by Marie Clay.  We start by reminding the children to "Look at the picture"  which develops context while reading.  We remind the children to "Get their mouth ready" which means that they should use their knowledge of beginning sounds to read the word.  The children use their reading finger (the index finger on their writing hand) to point under each word as they read.  This is important as the children read and learn to reread when meaning is lost.  You will often hear the teacher say "Something tricked you there, try that again."  Reading to maintain comprehension is emphasized as we prompt with "Does that sounds right?"," Does that make sense?".  We have 22 sight words in kindergarten that the children must learn to read and spell.  They are: I, a, is, in, am, to, come, like, see, the, my and, at, here, on, up, look, go, this, it, me, and we.

The most important thing a parent can do to help their child develop into a good reader is to read to them.  This is the single most important activity in the development of oral language and comprehension.

Mathematics

In kindergarten we begin the year learning to write the numbers correctly as we learn to count and read the numbers to 10.  As the year progresses we expand this skill as we learn the numbers to 100 and learn to count by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s.  In kindergarten all of the math lessons use concrete objects to support concept development and in our addition and subtraction lessons you will always see the children using math manipulatives to calculate their answers. In kindergarten we learn alot about each other as we create many graphs and have lots of fun using math in many art activities involving shapes and patterns.  By the end of kindergarten the children will also be able to identify the coins, tell time to the hour, and measure using standard and non-standard units.  As with literacy, the weekly newsletter will keep you informed as to the math objectives studied during the week.

Science and Social Studies

In September in Social Studies we focus on character education which involves the role playing of problem-solving situations and the writing of our class constitution for Constitution Day.  In Science we will watch the weather closely as we observe the changes occurring as we move into the season of Fall.