Kindergarten is all about developing skills to become independent learners! We work to enhance social/emotional skills, as well as an academic curriculum that meets the Iowa Core Standards.
Reading and writing in kindergarten consists of first learning letter names and sounds. As the year progresses students learn to apply those sounds by blending and segmenting words for reading and writing purposes. Here you can see Mrs. Beckner’s class completed a Phoneme Grapheme Mapping activity to segment the sounds, and then write the word.
We expose the students to quality literature where we teach them comprehension strategies to help them understand what they are reading. Ultimately, we want all students to develop motivation and a love for reading.
Math in kindergarten involves hands-on games and activities centering around a variety of math concepts such as: understanding math symbols, learning how to use the calendar and the number line for number identification, understanding how to identify groups of objects that are greater, less than, and equal to other groups, understanding attributes of shapes and being able to recognize them in a daily environment, and being able to compare and measure objects by length, height, and weight.
Here are photos of Mr. H’s students learning to measure their length and height during a math partner exercise:
Kindergarten’s 3 Social Studies units are: Rights and Responsibilities, Identity, and Children Long Ago. Here is a group of students in Mrs. O’Brien’s class learning how to play marbles as part of our exploration of the differences and similarities between children long ago and today.
Science also consists of 3 units. We study Trees and Weather, Animals, and Materials and Motion. During our Materials and Motion unit, we take a closer look at a variety of materials, their uses, and their durability. In the picture below, scientists in Mrs. O’Brien’s room can be seen observing a mixture of sawdust and wood shavings that they later used to create particleboard.
As you can see, our days are full in kindergarten, but we wouldn't have it any other way!