Kindergarten
Philosophy
The primary objective of our Kindergarten is to provide an accepting environment which is loving and nurturing, with the result being happy and secure children. Working in conjunction with our families, our goal is to help each child achieve according to his or her individual potential.
Religion in Kindergarten is integrated within the curriculum. We model and practice our Catholic faith in every day situations. We learn a love for God, a love of family and friends, and a respect for life in all its forms. In addition, we have daily prayers and we attend mass escorted by the eighth graders.
According to Piaget, “children learn best by doing” which means beginning with concrete materials. With this in mind, we strive to establish a curriculum which is developmentally appropriate, of high interest to the children, and includes a variety of open ended activities designed to meet the needs of children with varying abilities.
What is the Kindergarten Reading and Writing Curriculum?
Reading Readiness
Our literacy program in Kindergarten teaches reading and writing in accordance with developmentally appropriate practices. Kindergarten is not a place to master skills but a place where a strong foundation is established for literacy. Children enter Kindergarten with a variety of experiences and varying degrees of readiness, which necessitates the inclusion of a variety of techniques in the teaching process.
Early Literacy
First and foremost, an early literacy program provides a print-rich environment with multiple language experiences. Following are examples of strategies and activities which foster emergent readers throughout Kindergarten and First Grade:
What is Daily News?
The Daily News is a beginning of the day activity wherein the children orally share experiences with their classmates. The teacher writes three lines of shared experiences on a chart table. From this activity they learn the following:
• What we say can be written down.
• We read from left to right.
• We use spacing between words.
• We write our words from left to right and top to bottom.
• We use punctuation.
As the year progresses we learn…
To identify beginning and ending sounds of words.
To build sight recognition vocabulary of high frequency words such as I, to, go, is, and.
What is our writing process?
In an emerging literacy program, reading and writing are mutually interdependent activities. Many activities are used to develop beginning readers in an early writing program.
Shared writing: Daily News
Recognizing letters and letter sound matches.
Understanding left to right and top to bottom orientation.
Become familiar with concepts of prints (punctuation and capitalization).
Match spoken words with written ones.
Recognize high frequency words and develop a sight vocabulary.
Journal writing
Once having established a basic foundation, the children begin writing in their own journals. In this activity we distinguish between Book spelling and Journal spelling in order to provide an attitude of acceptance which enables the children to be risk takers.
We write in a small group.
Children learn to segment words and blend the sounds into whole words.
They learn to stretch the words.
What is our Math Curriculum?
Our Math program is based on a “hands on” approach as proposed by Go Math.
Use of the center format with a variety of “tubs” containing different activities.
The center activities contain a variety of materials with different objects. Example: geo boards, pattern blocks, unifix cubes, shape activities, patterning lessons, number and writing tracing cards, adding.
Calendar
Numberline
The primary objective of our Kindergarten is to provide an accepting environment which is loving and nurturing, with the result being happy and secure children. Working in conjunction with our families, our goal is to help each child achieve according to his or her individual potential.
Religion in Kindergarten is integrated within the curriculum. We model and practice our Catholic faith in every day situations. We learn a love for God, a love of family and friends, and a respect for life in all its forms. In addition, we have daily prayers and we attend mass escorted by the eighth graders.
According to Piaget, “children learn best by doing” which means beginning with concrete materials. With this in mind, we strive to establish a curriculum which is developmentally appropriate, of high interest to the children, and includes a variety of open ended activities designed to meet the needs of children with varying abilities.
What is the Kindergarten Reading and Writing Curriculum?
Reading Readiness
Our literacy program in Kindergarten teaches reading and writing in accordance with developmentally appropriate practices. Kindergarten is not a place to master skills but a place where a strong foundation is established for literacy. Children enter Kindergarten with a variety of experiences and varying degrees of readiness, which necessitates the inclusion of a variety of techniques in the teaching process.
Early Literacy
First and foremost, an early literacy program provides a print-rich environment with multiple language experiences. Following are examples of strategies and activities which foster emergent readers throughout Kindergarten and First Grade:
What is Daily News?
The Daily News is a beginning of the day activity wherein the children orally share experiences with their classmates. The teacher writes three lines of shared experiences on a chart table. From this activity they learn the following:
• What we say can be written down.
• We read from left to right.
• We use spacing between words.
• We write our words from left to right and top to bottom.
• We use punctuation.
As the year progresses we learn…
To identify beginning and ending sounds of words.
To build sight recognition vocabulary of high frequency words such as I, to, go, is, and.
What is our writing process?
In an emerging literacy program, reading and writing are mutually interdependent activities. Many activities are used to develop beginning readers in an early writing program.
Shared writing: Daily News
Recognizing letters and letter sound matches.
Understanding left to right and top to bottom orientation.
Become familiar with concepts of prints (punctuation and capitalization).
Match spoken words with written ones.
Recognize high frequency words and develop a sight vocabulary.
Journal writing
Once having established a basic foundation, the children begin writing in their own journals. In this activity we distinguish between Book spelling and Journal spelling in order to provide an attitude of acceptance which enables the children to be risk takers.
We write in a small group.
Children learn to segment words and blend the sounds into whole words.
They learn to stretch the words.
What is our Math Curriculum?
Our Math program is based on a “hands on” approach as proposed by Go Math.
Use of the center format with a variety of “tubs” containing different activities.
The center activities contain a variety of materials with different objects. Example: geo boards, pattern blocks, unifix cubes, shape activities, patterning lessons, number and writing tracing cards, adding.
Calendar
Numberline