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|  | | | | Welcome to Families | | Dear Families,
Welcome to Kindergarten! We are going to have an exciting year! Our
first unit of inquiry is:
Theme: Who We Are
Unit title: All About Me: Social Studies and Science
Central Idea: There are characteristics about people that are the same and different.
An Inquiry Into:
•Social characteristics
•Emotional characteristics
•Physical characteristics
•Personal histories. This unit is
an important start to our year as we get to know one another and our
classroom and school community.
Our daily schedule includes:
Writer’s workshop:
In the St. Paul Public Schools the Writer's Workshop is recognized as a
best practices approach to bringing balanced literacy and a
standards-based curriculum to students in kindergarten through sixth
grade. Writer's Workshop is organized into a daily program with
three basic elements: a brief opening meeting (will include
stories, poems, teacher-modeled writing,
student work) a
multi-activity work period (this may be painting, drawing, labeling,
and writing) and a reflective whole-class meeting (students sharing
their work, reflecting on their learning.
Reader's Workshop:
Reader's Workshop includes the same elements as Writer's
Workshop. The major components are: reading aloud, shared
reading, conferencing, independent reading, guided reading (small group
instruction with the teacher), partner reading, book discussion such as
literature, author, or genre
studies. Reader's Workshop is often connected to the Writer's Workshop and the skills in focus.
Skills Block:
This is an opportunity for students to work explicitly on skills such
as: phonics, letter formation, rhymes in words (at, bat, cat),
sound/letter recognition. This is done through nursery rhymes,
poems, songs, and word wall activities.
Math: Our
district curriculum is Everyday Math. Kindergarten math is done
through exploration and hands-on activities. We will explore
patterns, sorting and classifying, counting, place value, graphing,
standard and non-standard measurement, problem solving, coin
identification and value, calendar activities,
telling time to the hour.
All
inquiry and instruction is multi-leveled, insuring that every child
will contribute, be challenged and be successful! Learning is
purposefully designed in a manner that respects the whole child at
his/her age and stage of development.
Sharing (show and
tell): Your child will have an opportunity to bring an item each
week to share with the class. We encourage items that
pertain to our unit of inquiry. Please discourage toys unless it
is a special collection, a special gift or something that is of
significance to your child. With this in mind, as long as it fits
through the door, it should be fine. Please do not send anything
that is very valuable.
Homework: Homework will be sent home every Friday in the Homework Folders. As much as possible, the homework assignments
will relate to the Unit of Inquiry or specific skills we are working
on. Look for homework in the "Weekly Homework" section of the weekly
newsletter.
We look forward to working and learning together.
Linda, Sarah and Linda
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