Coak, Alison
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Curriculum Overview
Curriculum in all of the kindergarten classrooms follows the Deer Valley Curriculum Guides & Common Core State Standards. While our kindergarten team enjoys working and planning together, naturally, each teacher will do what reflects the individual needs and personalities of the students in the class. We will have a great year conquering new challenges together.
Reading
Children read when they are ready to read whether it be when they are 4,5 or 6. All of these ages are in the norm. Your child will be involved in a variety of reading experiences, including whole-group, small group, shared and guided reading. These reading groups will help us provide a more individualized instruction to help meet the needs of all children. Small Reading Groups will meet 5 days a week in a Literacy Center format for 60 minutes. Whole group instruction will be teacher directed for 30 minutes each day. Students are grouped and regrouped according to their own instructional needs. In kindergarten we will teach letter recognition, letter sounds and letter formation using a phonemic approach. Our goal in kindergarten will be to get your student ready to read, not necessarily reading, although most will be reading by the end of the year. However, please remember that reading is a developmental skill and that each child develops that skill at their own pace. We will be sure to challenge each child at their level of reading development. We would really like to encourage you to read to and with your child each and every night. This is essential for your child's progress in reading.
** Each year it becomes more and more clear to us how important reading each day is to every child. To us, as teachers, it is painfully obvious which children do not get read to on a daily basis. We will be using thethe Into Reading Materials for our Reading Program in Deer Valley.
Writing
The children will have many opportunities to write in kindergarten. Writing activities help children to understand that the purpose of written language is to communicate meaning. One of the many writing experiences we will have in kindergarten is journal writing.
Handwriting
Handwriting will be taught in conjunction with letter recognition and sounds. In order to give your child a head start please teach them to write their name in both upper and lower case letters, i.e. Sue Smith During writing your child will be shown how to hold a pencil and how to use scissors correctly, please practice this at home too. If your child does not have a conventional pencil grip your child’s teacher(s) may meet with you to encourage even more practice at home, the quicker we can get all children to hold the pencil correctly the more they will experience success this year.
Math
We using Eureka Math to teach Arizona common core math standards. We use many manipulatives in our classrooms- pattern blocks, unifix cubes, geo boards, scales, dominoes, counters of various shapes and sizes, magnetic letters & numbers, linking cubes, dice etc. We will work on counting, comparing, addition, subtraction, composing & decomposing numbers, sorting, classifying, identifying numbers and reading number words, geometry and number concepts throughout the year.
Science
We will be using the district adopted FOSS Science program. This program focuses on animals, trees, wood and paper. The program is a very hands on approach to teaching science. Due to the hands-on nature of this program, we will occasionally need volunteers to assist with experiments and discovery. *A great portion of the Science Instruction will take place in the “blended” part of the Kindergarten day.
Social Studies
In social studies we will explore and discuss some of the following themes
“Community Helpers”, “Relationships”, “Cultural Awareness”, “Symbols of our Country
*Many of the Social Studies concepts will be taught during the “blended” or extended portion of the day.
Technology
The children will be using technology on a regular basis. We will be teaching the children to use the computers both in the classroom and in the lab. We will be using the internet to enhance our instruction by exploring web sites that support our curriculum. We will also send information home to parents via e-mail and would like to encourage parents to communicate with us through email also. The children will be learning to use a variety of software programs and apps. We will also be using iPads in the classrooms. The children will be using the iPads and we will keep you posted on what apps we are using so that you can use them at home also.