Curriculum

Kindergarten Curriculum

Language Arts (Harcourt Reading Series):

  • Kid Writing - sounding out words, spaces between words, capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, period at the end of a sentence, writing 2-3 complete sentences, using resources to spell some words correctly, drawing pictures that match the story.

  • Interactive Writing - involves the teacher and children working together and "sharing the pen" to jointly compose text. The focus of Interactive Writing is on concepts and conventions of print, the sounds in words and how the sounds connect with letters. Children actively plan and construct the text. For the most part, children also control the writing of the text. The teacher guides this process and provides appropriate pacing, assistance and instruction when needed.

  • Handwriting (Zaner-Bloser style)

  • Making class books - writing stories together and adding each child's page of the story to a class book, which is added to our classroom library.

  • Shared Reading and Read Alouds - teacher reads stories aloud to children for enjoyment, comprehension, storytelling activities, and concepts of print. Children and teacher read Big Books together with large print and familiar vocabulary.

  • Guided Reading Groups (second half of school year) - matching voice to print, reading sight words, using picture clues to read unknown words, using letter sound knowledge to decode unknown words, answering comprehension questions based on what was read. Children are grouped with 3 or 4 other children of similar reading abilities.

  • Word Families - at, cat, bat, hat, sat, etc. or -ug, jug, bug, rug, hug, etc).

  • Phonemic Awareness - rhyming, beginning and ending sounds, identifying same beginning/ending sounds, identifying and clapping out the number of beats (syllables) a word has, segmenting words into separate sounds, blending sounds to make a word.

  • Literacy Work Stations (no longer known as "centers") - children work at stations independently during small group instruction time. Classroom stations include Listening, Math, Reading, Writing, Pocket Chart, ABC, Overhead, Puppets and Storytelling, Games & Puzzles, Handwriting, Creation Station, Word Wall, and Buddy Reading.

Science:

Plants

-Parts of Plants, What Plants Need and How They Grow, Leaves and Flowers and How We Use Plants

Animals

-Animals are Everywhere, Animal Needs, How Animals Grow and Change

Our Earth

-Soil and Rocks, Land and Water, Resources and Recycling

Sky and Weather

-Look at Weather, Seasons, Sun, Moon, & Stars

Matter

-Paper and Cloth, Wood, Metal, & Clay, Investigate Water

Motion

-Wheels and Motion, Gravity and Sounds, Magnets

Math (Saxon Math Program):

  • Writing/Identifying numbers 0-10
  • Counting objects through 10
  • Recognition of circle, square, triangle, rectangle
  • Identifying most and fewest on a picture graph
  • Sorting objects by shape, color, and size
  • Acting out story problems
  • Counting to 100
  • Identifying missing numbers
  • Ordering numbers
  • Creating, identifying, copying and extending patterns
  • Ordinal numbers
  • Counting backwards from 10
  • Identifying/counting pennies
  • Matching numbers to sets of objects
  • Telling time to the hour
  • Comparing and ordering objects by weight
  • Counting by 10s
  • Identifying/counting dimes to 50 cents
  • Paying for items up to $1.00
  • Identifying days of the week and months of the year
  • Identifying trapezoids and parallelograms
  • Identifying yesterday and tomorrow
  • Identifying and ordering numbers 0-20
  • Identifying numbers before, between, and after
  • Identifying a 1 cup measuring cup and quart container
  • Identifying full, half full, and empty containers
  • Comparing lengths - longer/shorter
  • Ordering objects by length
  • Creating a graph
  • Identifying nickels and counting by 5s up to 25 cents
  • Identifying a cylinder
  • Ordering objects by height
  • Paying for items up to 50 cents using nickels
  • Dividing by sharing
  • Identifying left and right
  • Exploring slides, flips, and turns using tangrams
  • Counting forwards and backwards on a number line
  • Identifying numbers through 30
  • Identifying a sphere
  • Sorting coins
  • Identifying a quarter and a dollar bill
  • Paying for items using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters
  • Identifying a cone
  • Counting by 2s
  • Identifying odd/even numbers through 10
  • Identifying and making symmetrical designs
  • Acting out stories - some more, some went away (addition and subtraction)
  • Identifying hot and cold
  • Measuring length using inches
  • Identifying halves and fourths (fractions


    Monthly Units and Themes (if time allows):
  • September  - Our Classroom, Our Names, Apples
  • October – Pumpkins, Fall, Fire Safety and Prevention, Colors
  • November – Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, The
                             Family Turkey  Project
  • December – Winter Celebrations and Holidays
  • January – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 100th Day of School, Winter
  • February – Presidents and The White House, Valentine’s Day
  • March – Dr. Seuss, St. Patrick’s Day
  • April – Oviparous Animals, Spring Egg Hunt, Earth Day, Donuts with Daddy
  • May – Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day
  • June – Getting Ready for First Grade, Summer Fun