Kindergarten Overview

End of the year expectations

By the end of the school year, each child is expected to:

LANGUAGE ARTS SKILLS:

    *Recognize all upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.

    *Know sounds for all letters.

    *Understand that print conveys meaning.

    *Understand how print is organized and read (for example:  locating print on a page, matching print to speech, knowing parts of a book, reading top-to-bottom, left-to- right, sweeping back to the left for the next line).

    *Write first and last name (with appropriate upper and lower case letters), all letters of the alphabet, and 15 words correctly.

    *read 8 basic color words.

    *Listen attentively to books read by the teacher in class and retell simple narrative stories or informational text.

    *recognize 15 high frequency words

    *Show familiarity with rhyming words and identify beginning and ending sounds in words.

    *Write a sentence using inventive spelling with the sounds of words in order.

    *Follow oral instructions.

    *  Identify and write 19 or more sounds of 39 sounds from dictated sentences.

    *Be able to read at Text Level 2 with at least 90% accuracy.

MATH SKILLS:

    *Recognize, count, and write numerals 1 - 20.

    *Use one-to-one matching to determine if two things are equal.

    *Recognize and produce a pattern of at least 3 objects.

    *Match numbers to sets of objects to 10.

    *Count by ones to 100.

SOCIAL SKILLS:

    *Use appropriate social behaviors at school:  sharing, respecting others, cooperating, and accepting responsibility.

In order to achieve the above goals, we use the methods listed below.

Learning  Centers

Kindergarten is a wonderful time of discovery!!  We learn a lot about ourselves and others.  One way we do this is through our learning centers.  We spend a good part of the morning in learning centers.  These are various activities that are set up in our classroom that are multi-leveled, so that children of various abilities may find success in their work.  Some of the centers we can work in are:  the Library center, ABC center, Computer center, Listening center, Pocketchart center, Writing center,  Lego table,  Math manipulative center, Art center, playdoh center, block center, and outside center.  The children are free to choose the learning center that appeals to them. . . this makes the learning meaningful to the child.

Curriculum

We are using the Houghton Mifflin Reading program for our Language Arts.  To check out more about this program, you can go to their website:  www.eduplace.com/kids. 

To supplement our phonics I am using Superkids.  It includes daily dictation, daily phonemic awareness, daily handwriting and phonics activities. 

For handwriting, the D'Nealian font is the adopted style of writing for WISD.

In Math, we use Saxon Math.

Assessment

We screen every child at the beginning of the school year in the basic skills we will be needing to go forward with (colors, shapes, numbers, writing their name).  This helps us to identify those children that might be "at-risk" and need a little extra help.

We also use Early Literacy tests to see where the children begin and end the year with us.  These tests are Letter ID test, Concepts About Print test, Written Vocabulary test, Dictation test, and Reading Word test. 

In addition, we administer the TPRI tests, as required by the state of Texas in January and April.

We have ongoing communication with the parents through report cards, progress reports and parent conferences. 

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