Academic News: Reading:  | | | | GRADE KINDERGARTEN READING OVERVIEW | | | | |
What children will study this year:
Learning to read, write, speak and listen are all parts of your child's language
development. The kindergarten program is designed to build on the language which children bring to school and to promote interest in books and in learning to read. In the Integrated Language Arts program, children:
• talk and write about experiences
• attempt to read what they write or dictate
• learn letters and letter sounds
• learn to read some words
• look at picture books
• hear many stories and poems
Children in Kindergarten vary in their development in many ways, including the way they acquire language skills. You are encouraged to discuss your child's achievement with the teacher at conference time or whenever you have a question.
What you can do at home to help:
• Talk with your child. Talking is one of the most important things you can do
with your child. It helps your child connect the spoken with the written word.
• Point out the print around your child every day, i.e. street signs and signs
advertising stores and products.
• Read to your child. Talk about what you are reading. Discuss the story, have
your child predict what will happen next or how they think the story will end, and let your child tell you the story after reading it. Re-read stories.
• Read nursery rhymes (over and over and over), read poetry, and sing songs.
• Let your child see you and family or friends reading. Try to have both women
and men model reading.
• Provide writing materials. Let your child use different kinds of paper, markers, crayons, pencils and paints. First writing efforts will probably look like scribbles to you, but your child will soon refine these marks to look like letters and words. Ask your child to "read" to you the marks and drawings he or she has made.
• Tell stories of family happenings. Help your child write stories to go with
drawings or photos of family events.
• Support and appreciate make believe games your child plays about animals,
situations, and stories.
• Include words that show relationships like "when," "since," "because," "if,"
"while," "before," "until," and "between" as you talk with your child.
• As you answer your child's questions, explain why you are thinking what you are.
• Have FUN reading, writing, speaking and listening. Stop when your child loses interest or tires. Start again another day or time. |
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Writing: | | | | GRADE KINDERGARTEN WRITING OVERVIEW | | | | |
What children will study this year:
Kindergartners regularly engage in a mini-lesson (with explicit instruction focused on writing skills and strategies), write, confer with a teacher about their writing, and share their writing with others including peers, parents and teachers. Students assume the role of author as they develop personal narratives focused on small moments, which stretch across pages and focus on an experience from the writer's life.
Kindergartners are introduced to the D'Nealian form of manuscript letters. These forms are designed to minimize the changes children need to learn when they are introduced to cursive handwriting later. It is expected that children will write the manuscript alphabet by the end of kindergarten.
What you can do at home to help:
• Scribbling is your child's experimentation with writing. It is important to
encourage the scribbling and to give a lot of adult praise for the attempts at writing.
• Allow your child to "write" stories and read them back to you.
• Provide materials such as large crayons, chalk, markers, pencils, paints,
and wide-lined paper.
• Provide a comfortable place for children to sit and write. Let the child
determine how far to be from the paper.
• Ask your child's teacher for a chart showing the D'Nealian letters.
• Let your child see you write. Explain to your child what your writing says
and why you are writing. When you make shopping lists, leave phone
messages, or write notes, provide paper and pencil for your child to
write, too.
• Write messages. Help your child write reminders and calendar entries,
such as "Library Day is Friday" or "Tomorrow we go to the dentist."
• Keep a home calendar. Record and anticipate important events with your
child. A picture or sticker on a calendar can also be a form of writing your
child could add to make a message, such as a drawing of a tooth for a
reminder of a dental check-up.
• Narrate family happenings. Help your child write stories to go with
drawings or photos of family events. Relatives might enjoy reading these!
• Display your child's drawings and writing where they can be seen.
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Social Studies: | | | | GRADE K SOCIAL STUDIES OVERVIEW | | | | |
 What children will study this year:
The Kindergarten social studies program is hands-on and content-rich. During the school year, children in kindergarten will develop an awareness of themselves as unique individuals and as members of social groups. They will learn about the past by reading stories set in different times and places. Kindergarten students will begin to learn and apply basic social studies skills, including understanding and using maps. They will also learn the difference between basic needs and wants.
What you can do at home to help:
- Establish a set of family rules, routines and manners.
- Talk to your child about what makes a good friend.
- Take your child to visit an older family member. Talk with that person about what his or her childhood was like and how it was different from today.
- Look through a family photo album or view home movies or videos. Talk about the events in which your child was involved. Tell your child about any special times shown in the photos or films.
- Talk about family traditions such as family celebrations, family artifacts or stories that have been passed on through the generations.
- Volunteer to do something to help in your community. (For example, you might pick up litter, check on an elderly neighbor, or donate food to a shelter or food bank.) Discuss why helping others makes our community better.
- Discuss ways to protect and care for the environment (classroom, home, community, earth).
- Have your child make decorations for his or her favorite family celebration.
- Help your child draw a "map" of a room in your home.
- Show your child some of the landmarks that set our community apart from others.
- Learn about the world around us. Help your child cut out pictures from magazines about places around the community and the world.
- When making purchases, talk to your child about the difference between needs and wants. Identify purchases that support what we need to live (food, shelter, clothing) verses wants.
- Visit one of our local museums. Many of which support Social Studies concepts. Your county library has information on free passes available for various museum locations around the metro area. For more information on the Museum Adventure Pass visit a county library branch near you or visithttp://www.melsa.org/MuseumAdventurePass.
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Math:
What children will study this year:
• Counting, estimating, representing and comparing numbers
• Reading and writing numbers
• How to represent numbers in different ways (counters, words, drawing, and equations)
• How numbers are put together and taken apart
• Concepts of addition and subtraction with math tools, such as counters
• How to share their math thinking
• Collecting and organizing data, using and understanding tally marks and different kinds of graphs.
• Using nonstandard measurement tools (cubes, blocks, feet, hands, etc.) and be introduced to standard tools (rulers, tape measures, yard sticks, etc.) for measuring objects
• Naming and sorting 2-and 3-dimensional shapes
• Exploring visual, rhythmic and movement patterns
• Using rules to sort, make patterns, and play games What you can do at home to help: • Practice counting to 31, with and without objects.
• Play card games that involve numbers at home: Make flashcards with numbers, 0-31.
Draw a card to name the number.
Draw a card and tell what is one more or one less.
Draw 3 cards and put them in order from smallest to largest. • Play board games other common card games (Yahtzee, War, Candyland, Kings Corner, etc).
• Play "I Spy" with shapes
• Estimate and measure objects to find out which is heavier/lighter or more/less.
• Roll dice and count the correct number of objects to match the dice. Can your child name the number of dots without counting them? Does your child just recognize that there are 4? 3? 6? If so, your child can subitize (soo-beh-tize)! This is an important skill they will continue to develop for adding and subtraction.
• Play counting games in the car (counting to 31, start counting at different numbers, count backwards from 20).
• Make simple patterns using household objects.
• Sort things at home (candy, silverware, toys, etc.)
• Count everyday items in your home (steps, setting the table, baked cookies, etc.) |
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Science: | | | | KINDERGARTEN SCIENCE OVERVIEW | | | | |
What children will study this year: The Kindergarten science curriculum is inquiry-based and hands-on. Kindergarten students will make predictions, record their observations and describe changes they observe throughout the following units: - Materials in Our World: Students use their five senses to observe, describe, sort, and compare the properties of various woods, paper, and fabrics. Students engage in hands on experiences that heighten students' awareness, curiosity, and understanding of the physical world. They discover some objects are found in nature and some objects are designed by people.
- Animals & Plants: Students engage in hands on interactions with animals and plants to identify the different parts. Students create a habitat for plants and animals and care for the natural system.
- Weather: Students will observe day-to-day changes in weather throughout the year using their senses and simple tools. These concepts will be learned in the Every Day Math® daily routines.
What you can do at home to help: - Provide opportunities for simple science experiments. Watch together what happens when baking soda is added to vinegar, for example. Model how to describe observations that use your five senses.
- Have your child describe an object, without saying its name, until you are able to guess what it is.
- Take nature walks and make observations
- Talk together about the characteristics of each new season.
- Talk together about how things change and grow, e.g. new leaves on a plant, new teeth for them, a baby's first steps, or a puppy's changing size.
- Ask your child to share what they are learning in science. Keep a science notebook to draw/write observations and ask questions.
- Visit the library to learn more about the topics your child is studying in science.
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