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Kindergarten Curriculum |
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In Kindergarten, Communications is a broad term which includes Shared Reading, Read Alouds, Phonemic Awareness activities, LIPS and KidWriting. Shared Reading provides the opportunity for teachers to select text with specific instructional obectives in mind. Shared Reading may be done with big books and predictable text. Often after reading, students complete a book related activity. Read Aloud is a time where the teacher reads from a highly motivating text that has a great story line and interesting words. The purpose of read alouds are to build vocabulary, background knowledge and build listening skills in students. Read alouds are for the mere pleasure of reading. Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken words. These skills help children learn to read, spell, and write. We teach this through rhyme, rhythm and repitition of familiar songs, poems, games and predictable stories. LIPS is a sequenced program that is used to help present the alphabet and its sounds. Students use their ears, eyes, and mouths to identify, classify and label the letters that they learn. Students are taught to differentiate sounds by the way they are heard, seen and felt as they are said. Consonants are presented in pairs of brothers, ex. /p/ and /b/ are called "lip poppers", Pp is the quiet brother and Bb is the noisy brother. The vowels are also presented in a special way. Students are encouraged to apply the LIPS skills in their KidWriting and Reading Program. KidWriting Your child will also be doing KidWriting. We will keep a journal that will include your child's writing about his/her own experiences and things that they enjoy. Students learn handwriting skills, spacing, capitalization and sentence structure. |
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Our Math program is called Everyday Mathematics for Kindergarten. It is a hands-on based program. The purpose of Everyday Mathematics is to show children how math is used in everyday situations. Your child will learn new concepts by playing games, singing songs and using math manipulatives. Your child will be introduced to concepts such as counting, numeration, measurement, geometry, patterns and graphing. Classroom routines such as keeping track of the days of school on a number line and chart, graphing weather conditions, calendar activities and charting our daily schedule all give children real life opportunities to develop a variety of mathematics skills. |
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Parent/Teacher Relationship
I believe we share a common interest - your child. Your child is very important to me and I want him/her to have a successful year in Kindergarten. Throughout the year, I will communicate with you through notes, telephone calls, monthly newsletters and/or parent/teacher conferences. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns any time during the year. You can call me at 226-4557 ext. 2123, send me a note or email me at wierboja@wallenpaupack.org.
Parent Participation
Throughout the year, there will be a variety of special occasions and classroom activities that we will celebrate. Your help is greatly appreciated. I hope you can help us out by attending classroom functions such as holiday parties, classroom observation day, reading to our class when your child is our “Student of the Week” and sending in special treats for birthdays and other holidays. Your support is important and meaningful to your child (and me).
Homework
Homework is an extension of what we are learning in school. Weekly, I will send home two pages with the letters that we will be working on for the week. Your child will be responsible for finding a picture that begins with each letter. The picture can be cut from a magazine or drawn. These papers are given to the students on Monday and need to be returned by the following Friday. There may be times when I send home other activities that need to be done at home and brought back to school, these are fun activities that your child can express his/her creativity.
Recess
We will go outside for recess on a daily basis unless it is raining or extremely cold. Please dress your child appropriately for the weather. We have a variety of playground equipment, including pieces for climbing. Please keep this in mind when your child selects shoes. Sneakers and closed toed and heeled shoes are most appropriate.
Money
On any occasion that you need to send money to school, please remember the following information:
Book Orders
Your child will be bringing home a form to order books from Scholastic Book Club about every other month. If you would like to place an order, you can fill out the order form and send in a check payable to Scholastic Book Club. These books are quality children's books at a very minimal cost. Every dollar spent, our class earns points which is used to purchase books for our classroom. |
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