Math We use the Everyday Math Curriculum at UMS. It is a spiral curriculum, meaning students will be exposed to skills multiple times through the year. Part of the math curriculum includes our daily calendar activities. We will explore measurement, numbers, patterns, basic addition and subtraction facts, surveys, and graphs. We will explore these topics (and more!) through games, technology, hands on learning, and small group work.
There is no homework. HomeLinks will go home at the start of various lessons. These provide families with suggestions and tasks for kids to practice the skill at home. These are NOT expected to be returned to school. However, I am more than happy to hand out stickers for returned HomeLinks if your student needs a little extra motivation :)
Generally, we will learn a new lesson Monday through Thursday. We call Friday "Math Game Day". This provides students with time to practice skills they learned during the week by playing games with their peers, going on DreamBox on the Chromebooks or iPads, or using math tools we've learned about previously. It is their choice! Although I work with groups throughout the week, this is also time I work with students in more intensive small groups.
Social Studies We will formally cover three topics in Social Studies: Community, Holidays, and All About Me. We will cover other topics informally and as they relate to literacy units. Science Students will learn about Life Cycles, Seasons, and the Five Senses this school year. Some of these units will link with our Literacy topics!
Literacy
Phonemic Awareness
This is the foundation skill all readers must possess. It is all about sound and sound manipulation. It includes skills like identifying initial, middle, and end sounds in words, identifying words that rhyme and do not rhyme, substituting sounds with other sounds (ex: change the /h/ in hat to /c/ making the word cat) and hearing and clapping our syllables. We have a lot of fun with these skills. Kids love word play, especially when they can make up silly nonsensical words!
Letter Sound and ID
Letter sound and ID is an important skill to master. We will devote a lot of time to letter and sound manipulation. Our goals for letter and sound mastery include the ability to identify letters in words and isolation: knowing the letters in our names; writing letters; the ability to identify letter sounds in isolation without key word picture support. A student shows mastery when he/she is able to ID letters and sounds with automaticity (within 1-3 seconds of being shown a letter).
Sight Words
Each trimester has target sight words. Below is the list for Trimester 1:
I, a, am, and, in, is, you, me, my, the, go, to, on, it, we, no
Small Groups and Literacy Stations
I will meet with small groups of students during our literacy blocks to work on building, sustaining, and enriching literacy skills. Groups are flexible and change based on a student's need. All students will have an opportunity to practice skills at literacy stations. Stations include word work, technology, writing, listening to reading, pocket charts, puzzles, board games, folder games, and much more!
Writing
There is so much growth from a student at the beginning of the year to the end of the year, especially in writing. It is always exciting to show students their writing samples from the beginning of the year and compare it to the end of the year writing samples. The change is AMAZING! In Kindergarten, it is not expected that students spell conventionally, with the exception of some of the sight words we've studied. At this time, it is more important to build their confidence and love for writing
This is the foundation skill all readers must possess. It is all about sound and sound manipulation. It includes skills like identifying initial, middle, and end sounds in words, identifying words that rhyme and do not rhyme, substituting sounds with other sounds (ex: change the /h/ in hat to /c/ making the word cat) and hearing and clapping our syllables. We have a lot of fun with these skills. Kids love word play, especially when they can make up silly nonsensical words!
Letter Sound and ID
Letter sound and ID is an important skill to master. We will devote a lot of time to letter and sound manipulation. Our goals for letter and sound mastery include the ability to identify letters in words and isolation: knowing the letters in our names; writing letters; the ability to identify letter sounds in isolation without key word picture support. A student shows mastery when he/she is able to ID letters and sounds with automaticity (within 1-3 seconds of being shown a letter).
Sight Words
Each trimester has target sight words. Below is the list for Trimester 1:
I, a, am, and, in, is, you, me, my, the, go, to, on, it, we, no
Small Groups and Literacy Stations
I will meet with small groups of students during our literacy blocks to work on building, sustaining, and enriching literacy skills. Groups are flexible and change based on a student's need. All students will have an opportunity to practice skills at literacy stations. Stations include word work, technology, writing, listening to reading, pocket charts, puzzles, board games, folder games, and much more!
Writing
There is so much growth from a student at the beginning of the year to the end of the year, especially in writing. It is always exciting to show students their writing samples from the beginning of the year and compare it to the end of the year writing samples. The change is AMAZING! In Kindergarten, it is not expected that students spell conventionally, with the exception of some of the sight words we've studied. At this time, it is more important to build their confidence and love for writing
Phonemic Awareness Parent Handout– Kindergarten
What is Phonemic Awareness? Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words. Children must first understand that words are made up of separate speech sounds that can be blended together to make words before they can make sense of using the alphabet to read and write. Research has identified phonemic awareness and letter knowledge as the best two predictors of how well a child will learn to read during the first two years of school (National Reading Panel, 2000). Children who develop strong phonemic awareness skills at an early age are more likely to become fluent readers and better spellers than children who do not.
What should my Kindergartener be able to do? By the end of kindergarten, children should be able to:
• Identify whether words rhyme (hat, mat; sun, bug)
• Provide a word that rhymes with another (“tell me a word that rhymes with ‘sun’”)
• Blend syllables or onset-rimes into a word (cup–cake “cupcake”; /m/ /ap/- “map”)
• Clap or count syllables in a 1 to 3 syllable word
• Provide the first sound in a word (“what is the beginning sound in “fish”? Child: /f/)
• Segment sounds in a 2-3 phoneme word (“Tell me the sounds in ‘hat’.” Child: /h/ /a/ /t/)
How can I help my child develop phonemic awareness skills? To help your child listen to the sound in words:
• Read books and poems that focus on the rhythm of language and rhyme. Books such as “Hop on Pop” or “Sheep in a Jeep” help children pay attention to sounds in words.
• Give your child a noisemaker (such as a whistle). Tell your child to make noise if you say two words that rhyme (cat, cup; sit, mitt)
• Play words games such as “Guess My Word”. “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with ___. Can you guess my word?”
• Have a sound scavenger hunt. Give your child a bag and ask him/her to find as many things around the house that begin with a certain sound.
• Play “I spy” with beginning sounds of words “I spy something that begins with /t/”.
To help your child segment (separate) and blend sounds in words:
• Have your child guess a word that you sound out slowly (sssssuuuuunnnn).
• Give your child 3-5 blocks, beads, bingo chips or similar items. Say a word and have your child move an object for each sound in the word.
• Play Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with sounds. Say a word and have your child touch his/her head for the first sound, shoulders for the second sound, and knees for the third while saying each sound.
• Jump for Sounds. Say a word and have your child jump for each sound in the word while saying the sound.
Visit www.blog.maketaketeach.com for kindergarten reading activities!
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