Each kindergarten classroom is staffed with a kindergarten teacher and an assistant teacher.  Class size is no more than 20 students. Parents are also welcomed and encouraged to volunteer in their child's classroom. Throughout the week students are engaged in science, social studies, whole group language arts, and technology instruction, as well as specials. Below are descriptions ofa few of the activities that happen on a daily basis in our kindergarten classrooms

 

Kid Writing

 

    Kid Writing focuses primarily on teaching phonics in

the context of writing.  Kid Writing introduces the world

of the written language by engaging children in writing,

starting on the first day of school. Teachers create

opportunities to write for many purposes. The key is not

to tell children how to write, but to help them sound out

words through a process called stretching.  Stretching is when the children, independently or with teacher assistance, apply learned letter sounds and sound chunks (king of ing, star of are) in the words that they are writing.  Using beginning sight words (I, see, look) that are on the word wall is also encouraged.  In order for children to work towards transitioning to standard spelling, the teacher writes the correct spelling underneath the sound spelled words.  All children start with drawing pictures, then adding initial sounds for words represented in their drawings, then move to writing words and sentences over the course of the year.  Writings at this level may include dictated passages, copied sentences, and a child's original work.  All of these activities are important pieces in your child's ability to "see" themselves as a writer and a reader.

 

 

Language Arts Centers

Our language arts centers consist of the children participating in Daily Five centers

and small group instruction.  Daily Five centers include "Read to Self”, “Read to

Someone”, “Work on Writing”, “Word Work”, and “Listening to Reading." Skills being

practiced at the “Word Work" center include word families, letter sound activities,

sight words, rhyming, and other phonics skills.  At the “Work on Writing” center there

are a variety of options for practicing independent writing, such as: squiggle writing,

list writing, writing a note, seasonal writing, etc.  The reading centers consist of the

children looking at books and making up their own story to go with the pictures, looking

for sight words, and reading the words if capable.  The purpose of Daily Five is to have

the students involved in activities that will make them better readers, and writers, as

well as independent workers.While students are working through the Daily Five

centers, the teacher will call groups of students over to work on skills at their

academic instructional level.  This allows the teacher to differentiate and meet the

students’ individual needs.  Skills that are worked on during the small group instruction

include: letter and sound recognition, sounding out words, and reading leveled books.

  

 

Math   

     The math program that we use is called Ready Math.  We start math as a whole

group focusing on a specific math skill.  Students then work with a partner or

independently to practice the math skill. 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch  

     When children arrive in the morning, they need to select their lunch choice for the day. They may either buy the school lunch choice or pack their lunch.  Packers also have the option to purchase a milk. Kindergarten classes will eat in the multipurpose room.  As each class eats lunch, the classroom assistant teacher(s) supervises and assists the children.  After lunch, the students go back to the classroom for play time.  At this time, the students get to play with toys, which help them to work on their social skills.

 

 

Recess   

    Each classroom goes outside, if the weather permitts, for recess every day. During recess time, children can explore the equipment on the playground and enjoy games with their friends.  Recess is supervised by the classroom assistant teachers.