The Kindergarten Student
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE KINDERGARTEN STUDENT Kindergartners are curious and eager to learn. Each specific task that absorbs them is part of a larger need to make sense of the world around them. They learn through acquiring information from adults and from observing what is happening around them, through observing and practicing skills of various kinds, through feelings and certain habits of mind (cooperation, curiosity, trust, etc.), and from being with others who exhibit these dispositions. The kindergarten classroom offers children an environment that nurtures their natural curiosity and love of learning, and that expands their perceptions of the world. It provides meaningful, concrete experiences, which are fundamental to the way young children learn. Learning is encouraged through active involvement: observing, comparing, investigating, manipulating, and problem solving. The kindergarten classroom provides experiences that allow children to make choices and decisions, to question, to take risks, to make mistakes and try again (it is often as a result of mistakes that learning takes place), and to enjoy many successes. Each child is unique, an individual with his or her own learning style and learning timetable. To accommodate individual differences, the kindergarten classroom makes a wide variety of materials and activities available. Teachers understand each child as an individual, and support and encourage each child in work and play. Parents/guardians are encouraged to be partners in their child’s educational process. They can provide information about their child, supplement the teaching and learning experiences at home, and provide assistance in the classroom as volunteers and resource people. GOALS OF THE KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM One of the main goals of the kindergarten program is to encourage the growth of positive and socially responsible attitudes in children. The kindergarten program strives to help young children experience satisfying interpersonal relationships with their peers as well as with adults. The following are other important goals of the kindergarten program: Children will grow in their self-esteem, cooperative skills, independence, and individual strengths. Children will begin to develop a life-long love of learning. Children will develop control of their own behavior with adult guidance. Children will become increasingly self-motivated and able to resolve problems among themselves with a minimum of adult direction. Children will gain increasing control of their large and small muscles. Children will engage in interesting, appropriate experiences that integrate their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development. THE KINDERGARTEN DAY Each kindergarten teacher strives to create a classroom environment that is stimulating as well as comfortable. The underlying structure is designed to allow flexibility and responsiveness to children’s needs and interests. The school day is divided into several sections. On any given day, the activities in a kindergarten classroom may include the following: MORNING MEETING signals the start of the kindergarten day and informs the children of the day’s activities. CENTER TIME is teacher directed small group time, this includes interdisciplinary language arts and math activities which include some of the following: exploring art projects, role playing, using blocks and construction toys, solving math problems, experimenting with the computer, or engaging in experiences such as independent reading, small motor activities, science experiments, and social studies activities. STORY TIME helps develop listening and higher-order thinking skills. FREE PLAY allows children to socialize with teachers and each other, browse through books, or work with manipulative activities. SNACK TIME provides opportunities for social interaction, language development, and self- expression. LANGUAGE ARTS encourages whole class participation with songs, chants, poems, charts, lists, stories, etc. PHONEMIC AWARENESS provides 15-20 minutes of daily teaching of rhyming, segmenting, consonant sounds, and listening skills. Later in the year the focus is on sound manipulation and phonics. HANDWRITING allows children to develop fine motor skills while learning correct handwriting techniques (grip, posture, letter formations, etc.). SHOW AND TELL gives children a comfortable environment for developing public speaking skills, including how to ask probing questions and make appropriate positive comments. LUNCHTIME is a time where social skills, language development and self-expression are practiced. Children eat in the school dining room and learn the rules and routines of doing so. Children bring their lunch from home and have the opportunity to purchase milk. RECESS encourages free choice of physical and social activities, as well as interaction among peers. FIELD TRIPS give children hands-on, real-world experiences that cannot be duplicated in the classroom. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES may be school-wide and/or in class, and embellish the thematic approach to learning that is utilized in the kindergarten program. Enrichment activities may include storytellers, author visits, theatrical and musical presentations, and special artist-in- residence programs. COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS/GUARDIANS Teachers communicate regularly via classroom newsletters. In addition, reports cards are sent home three times a year. Conferences will be scheduled twice during the year. Teachers are also available whenever clarification is needed about an issue involving a child’s education. While phone calls and email messages will be returned as soon as possible, parents/guardians are reminded that teaching duties and other responsibilities make instantaneous communication impossible. SOCIAL COMPETENCY CURRICULUM: OPEN CIRCLE PROGRAM As one component of developing a supportive and nurturing classroom environment, Pine Hill School teachers present “Open Circle” lessons twice a week for fifteen minutes throughout the school year. The Social Competency Curriculum, which was created by staff at The Stone Center, Wellesley College, is designed to develop and improve the interpersonal skills of children in order to further their social and academic growth. Research has shown that when children have strong social skills, they are able to develop better relationships and their learning is enhanced. The curriculum features three sections of lessons designed to: Create a cooperative classroom environment Build self-esteem and positive relationships Solve people problems Our students are asked to apply the lessons they are learning, then reflect upon and share the effects of their new skills in subsequent Open Circle meetings. PORTFOLIOS All Pine Hill children understand and use a portfolio system in which a variety of their papers are saved and sorted through regularly. As children look back through their own work they are encouraged to reflect on their progress, to articulate what makes one paper “better” than another, and to set goals for themselves for the future. Through this model, children begin to experience ownership and take responsibility for the quality of their work. Kindergarten children are introduced to the collecting and sorting process; in subsequent grades children are asked to discriminate, reflect about, and discuss their own products. ACADEMIC PROGRAM LANGUAGE ARTS An important emphasis in kindergarten is on listening to acquire language comprehension and on speaking to improve expressive language. Appropriate reading activities provide an opportunities for students to observe how written language works. Teachers act as model readers, demonstrating by pointing to enlarged print material. The enlarged text allows children to look and listen for words with the same initial or ending consonants, to match like words or phrases, and to observe words that rhyme. Comprehension strategies of prediction, re-phrasing, and questioning are modeled. Children take part in group meetings, in large and small group instruction/discussion, read aloud, share news, and take part in creative dramatics and choral reading. Children are taught to listen carefully to each other and to make responses that are brief, to the point, and interesting. Phonemic awareness is a vital skill for successful reading. Through daily phonemic awareness lessons, kindergarten students learn to listen attentively, actively, and analytically, to sounds and sequences of sounds; to discriminate and respond appropriately to sounds and sequences of sounds; to identify and predict rhyming patterns, to recognize words as a separate set of packages containing meaning; to recognize sentences as groups of words containing meaning; to recognize the order of syllables; to hear initial and final sounds; to orally segment and blend multi-syllable words; to count syllables; and to demonstrate sound/symbol relationships by generating letters for corresponding sounds in left/right sequence. Our phonemic awareness and phonics programs are based on a variety of sources including Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Marilyn Jager Adams, et al; Sounds Abound developed at the Stern Center for Language and Learning by Orna Lenchner and Blanche Podhajski; Road to the Code by Benita A. Blachman, et al; Lively Letters Multisensory Mnemonic Letter Card Program by Nancy Alemian Telian. In the second half of the year, kindergarten students will begin guided reading in a reading workshop model. Guided reading, which is based on the work of Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, involves small