Kindergarten Curriculum

Our first purpose in kindergarten is to develop student's phonemic awareness through hands-on activities built around different consonant sounds. This includes introducing students to nursery rhymes, songs, poetry, and other quality literature.

Throughout the year, students will recognize, verbalize, and write the entire alphabet. In addition, students will work in a journal drawing and writing at their own level throughout the year. Students continually review letters and sounds and read sight words and decodable words. At the end of the year, students will be able to read a list of 24 sight words and can read simple sentences.

MATH

We spend a great deal of time working on sorting, classifying and patterning during the kindergarten year. We also practice rote counting and skip-counting to one hundred. We work on identifying and writing numerals to thirty and identifying groups with up to thirty objects. We explore measuring with nonstandard units of measurement. In the area of money we work on recognition of penny, nickel and dime and understanding the value of these coins. We learn to tell time to the hour. We also study joining and separating sets of up to six objects. We investigate fractions and symmetry. In addition, the students are exposed to a variety of literary sources that deal with mathematical topics. Our purpose is to expose the students to math with hands on experiences that are as realistic as possible.

RELIGION

In kindergarten we start out the year with the story of Creation. As we continue through the first trimester, we focus on God's world of light and water, earth, life and the saints.

We learn about God's gift of senses, our feelings and that God makes all people good. We begin the second trimester with our celebration of Advent and Christmas.

After Christmas, the kindergartners will be learning about the Holy Family, God's gift of Jesus, how God made us all special, Jesus is our teacher and friend, and Jesus will always be with us. We begin a focus on Lent and the Easter celebration.

Our last trimester, we talk about God's gift of families and how we belong to God's family. We also learn that God's family prays together and helps one another. We end our kindergarten year learning that God made people to love. We learn that we can do wonderful things as we grow and change with God's gifts.

SCIENCE

Because of our thematic approach in our kindergarten program, Science will blend into our themes (as does Social Studies) throughout the year. Many Science projects will take place in learning centers.

We start our year studying signs of Autumn and the different characteristics of animals as they grow. We will also focus on pets and our responsibility to care for our pets. Recognizing the five senses and how to use them is our focus during second trimester. We also observe Winter weather and describe the activities and clothing that go along with this season.

February and third trimester bring us to our study of plants and new life. We also identify and observe signs of Spring. We end our year talking about our earth and how we need a clean environment. Kindergartners learn and practice recycling in our classroom. We will also focus on water. We will observe the changes in water as it freezes, melts or evaporates. Experiments will take place to see what type of objects sink or float.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

In kindergarten, we teach social skills throughout the school year. Time is allotted for students to have a regular choice time. During this time, children practice taking turns, cooperation, problem solving, and treating classroom materials and others with respect. Students also practice and role play different situations where kind words and actions are needed. Our goal for students is to become empathetic listeners and to become skillful in making friends. We feel these skills build self esteem so that students feel confident participating in daily activities.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We teach kindergarten in a thematic method. Our Social Studies will blend into our themes as we go through the year. Many of our activities will take place in learning centers.

We will begin our year in kindergarten with friendship, rules, bus and fire safety. First quarter is completed by learning about ourselves, our feelings and how we change and grow.

November and December are centered around holidays. We concentrate on Thanksgiving and even have a meal of Thanksgiving in memory of the first meal between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. In December we will learn about Christmas celebrations around the world.

Second trimester, we begin our study of families, signs in our community and community workers.

Eventually, we move farther away from our community and talk more about our world and country. We will focus on and celebrate diversity in our world.

ART

Kindergartners will be introduced to the basic elements of art such as line, shape and color. They will be exposed to a variety of artists and their work as it relates to projects done in class. Concepts being taught in the kindergarten classroom will be reinforced when possible, for example, families, self, animals, seasonal themes, etc.

Children will experiment with a variety of media, including crayon, watercolor, tempera, chalk, collage, marker, colored pencil, crayon watercolor resist, etc. Children will be encouraged to see art in their daily lives and will learn to discuss art along with creating it. They will also participate in the Art Adventure Program through the Minneaplis Institute of Art.

Updated 9/10/04