Mrs. Duchensky, Mrs. Galluzzi and Ms. Santafiore

Everything you need to know … you learned in Kindergarten!

Kindergarten is a time of wonder, discovery and growth.  Your child will be learning through a variety of multi-sensory activities throughout their school day!

The Daily Five is a way of structuring the language art’s block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks.   These researched based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as foster a love of reading and writing.   Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while intense instruction is given to individuals and small groups of students. The Daily Five is comprised of: Read to Self, Work On Writing, Read To Someone, Listen To Reading and Word Work.

Our Writing Workshop program is modeled after Lucy Caulkins Units of Study.  The kindergarten units begin with Lucy and her colleagues helping children approximate writing by drawing and labeling first in all-about books and then in stories. The first unit, Launching the Writing Workshop, acknowledges that most children will be labeling their drawings—and the letters in those labels will include squiggles and diamonds. The second unit, Writing for Readers, helps children write true stories—but does so fully aware that the hard part will be writing read-able words. Growth in kindergarten is spectacular, and by the later kindergarten units, children are invited to use their new-found powers to live writerly lives. In How-To Books: Writing to Teach Others, Unit 3, students write informational how-to texts on a procedure familiar to them.  In Persuasive Writing of All Kinds: Using Words to Make a Change, the fourth and final unit in the kindergarten series, students craft petitions, persuasive letters, and signs that rally people to address problems in the classroom, the school, and the world.

Courtesy of Heinemann

Our Reading Workshop program is also modeled after Lucy Caulkins Units of Study.

In kindergarten, your students begin to establish their identities as readers while they build the foundational skills for reading. In the first unit, We Are Readers, children will develop concepts of print, phonemic awareness, phonics, and the knowledge necessary to use story language to support their approximations of reading. The second unit, Super Powers: Reading with Print Strategies and Sight Word Power, glories in children’s love of play as they learn “super power” strategies that help them search for meaning, use picture clues, work on fluency, and communicate meaning. In the third unit, Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles, children attempt more difficult books with greater independence and use reading strategies to read with more accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The last kindergarten unit, Becoming Avid Readers, helps youngsters role-play their way into being the readers you want them to become. They pay close attention to characters, setting, and plot while reading fictional stories, become experts in nonfiction topics as they read together in clubs, and play with rhyme and rhythm while reading poetry.

Courtesy of Heinemann

Raz Kids: www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login

Our Go Math! curriculum is extremely fun and interactive.  This program is made up of 12 chapters that integrate skills including: number facts, addition, subtraction, 2D shapes, 3D shapes, measurement and much more!  This year our classes will also follow a workshop model when completing math lessons.  Each day, differentiated groups will visit different centers that represent an acronym for MATH:

  M - Math Facts

          A - Apps on the iPad

    T - Teacher Time

               H - Hands On  

Think Central:  www-k6.thinkcentral.com/ePC/start.do

The district is currently phasing in FOSS (Full Option Science System).  FOSS is a research-based science curriculum for grades K-8 developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. FOSS has evolved from a philosophy of teaching and learning that has guided the development of successful active-learning science curricula for more than 40 years. The FOSS Program bridges research and practice by providing tools and strategies to engage students and teachers in enduring experiences that lead to deeper understanding of the natural and designed worlds.  The kindergarten units include:

 

Physical Science:  Materials and Motion

Earth Science:  Trees and Weather

Life Science:  Animals Two By Two

 

FOSS Next generation:  https://www.fossweb.com/what-is-foss

STEM Laboratory: https://thestemlaboratory.com/stem-activities-for-kids/#_a5y_p=4873548

All About Me

Families and Friends

The Big Wide World

Long Ago and Today

Community Helpers

Our Country, It’s a Great Place

 

 

We will be learning about and discussing holidays and special days during the school year, including:

Columbus Day

Halloween

Election Day

Veterans Day

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Hanukkah

Kwanzaa

Diwali

Las Posadas

New Year's Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Chinese New Year

Valentine’s Day

Presidents' Day

St. Patrick's Day

Earth Day

Mother’s Day

Memorial Day

Character Education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, critical, and successful individuals.  We believe that it is critically important to begin your child's education through teaching strong character traits that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

This school-wide program will focus upon a different character trait each month and include:  Respect, Cooperation, Patience, Work Ethic, Kindness, Perseverance, Responsibility, Citizenship and Initiative.

 

Mindfulness focuses on paying attention, on purpose, to the present moment.  Various books, activities and projects are used to promote mindfulness.  Teaching kindergartners how to be mindful has many benefits:

Decreases a child’s stress and anxiety levels

Increases a child’s concentration and engagement skills

Aids in a child’s sleep habits at night

Helps a child recognize their emotions

Enhances a child’s decision-making and problem-solving skills

Guides a child in communicating feelings verbally rather than physically

Increases a child’s capacity for compassion

 

Sanford Harmony is our newest program and is filled with activities and techniques to guide children in being mindful of others.  The program is designed to teach kindergartners about cooperation, empathy and effective communication.  Sanford Harmony’s mascot is Z, an alien who crash lands on earth and learns about friendship from some amazing children.

Sanford Harmony:   https://www.sanfordharmony.org