KINDERGARTEN | CURRICULUM GUIDE

At The Epstein School, students experience an exceptional education led by specialized STEAM and Hebrew language programs. The school prepares confident lifelong learners grounded in their unique Jewish identities. We look forward to helping your student learn and grow this year.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS The Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum focuses on meeting individual and writing needs, providing students the time and support needed to become readers and writers. Reading focuses on developing decoding skills and fluency, while fostering the ability to read for meaning. Students enjoy reading aloud, shared reading, and guided reading experiences. They develop reading skills at their own pace to meet their individualized goals. Through the Writer’s Workshop program, students learn to generate ideas and take them from the initial stages of writing through to publication. Students learn to communicate effectively, work cooperatively, and attentively listen to acquire and understand new information.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS WE WILL EXPLORE: • Who am I as a reader? • Why do I read and write? • How does becoming a stronger reader help me become a better writer?

Over the course of the year, students will develop the following skills: READING: • Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words, demonstrating basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences. • Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds by producing rhyming words and blending and segmenting syllables. • Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. • Read common high-frequency words by sight. • Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding. • With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in text. • With prompting and support, retell familiar stories and identify characters, settings and major events. • Recognize common types of fictional text and know the parts of a book • Recognize the relationship between illustrations and the story. • Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. • Visualize the setting in a text. • Makes text-self connections to deepen comprehension of text. Selecting a good-fit book. Students make book choices based on interest to foster fluency, independent reading, and comprehension. Epstein uses the IPICK approach: • I pick a book. • Purpose. What is my purpose for choosing this book? • Interest. Am I interested in this book? • omprehend. Do I understand what I just read? C For more information on the workshop model, • Know. Do I know most of the words? visit EpsteinAtlanta.org/workshop

WRITING: • Generate ideas to use as seeds for further writing. • Use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to compose narrative, informative and opinion pieces. • Compose writing pieces based on personal interest and share writing with others for the purpose of constructive feedback. • With guidance and support, use a variety of digital tools to publish writing. • With guidance and support, participate in shared research and writing projects.

LANGUAGE (GRAMMAR, SPELLING AND CONVENTIONS): • Print all upper and lowercase letters. • Use frequently occurring nouns, verbs and prepositions. • Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/, /es/ or /z/ when speaking. •. Write a simple sentence that begins with a capital letter, contains spaces between words and includes ending punctuation. •. Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships • Understand and use question words. • Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately.

MATHEMATICS In Kindergarten, Epstein uses both Math and Everyday Calendar Math, which emphasize problem solving, concrete, and abstract thinking. Each new math skill begins with the use of concrete objects and progresses to pictorial representations and then to abstract algorithms. The goal is mastery of each concept. In Kindergarten, students develop number sense and begin to problem solve. Students focus both on process (how to think mathematically) and product (how to take those thinking skills and accurately apply them to new problems).

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, MATHEMATICIANS WILL: • Apply the use of a variety of problem-solving strategies. • Represent, relate and operate on whole numbers. • Represent problem situations in a variety of forms (physical model, diagram, words, symbol). • Develop number sense by working with numbers concretely, pictorially and abstractly. • Share problem-solving strategies and learn from one another. Over the course of the year, students will develop the following skills:

OPERATIONS AND ALGEBRAIC THINKING: • Represent and in a variety of modalities. • Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from. • Fluently add and subtract within 10. • Solve addition and subtraction word problems. • For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number. NUMBERS AND OPERATIONS IN BASE TEN: • Count to 100 by ones, twos, fives and tens. • Count forward beginning from a given number. • Write numbers from 0–50. • Count to tell the number of objects and answer “how many” questions. • Compare two numbers between 1 and 10. • Compose and decompose numbers from 0–20 into tens and ones to gain foundations for place value. MEASUREMENT AND DATA: • Describe measurable attributes of an object, such as length or weight, and directly compare two objects with an attribute in common. • Classify objects into given categories and count the number of objects in each category. • Tell time to the hour on an analog clock. • Recognize and determine the value of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. • Read data on a graph and compare information. GEOMETRY: • Describe objects in the environment using shape names and describe the relative positions of these objects. • Identify shapes as two or three-dimensional and correctly name shapes (circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, cubes, cones, cylinders and spheres). • Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes in different sizes and orientations.

SOCIAL STUDIES THEME: WHO AM I? In Kindergarten, students begin their introduction to United States history through the study of important American holidays and symbols. They explore and compare Jewish and American holidays, learning about the people and events celebrated. Kindergarteners are exposed to basic concepts of geography, civics, economics and global awareness of giving back to others.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS WE WILL EXPLORE: • Who am I in my community? • What does it mean to be a member of a community? • How can I be a good citizen?

UNITS OF STUDY: • Identify the national holidays in America and and describe the people and/or events celebrated • Geographical understanding of what a map and globe represent • Identify American symbols and National Monuments • Demonstrate an understanding of good citizenship Over the course of the year, students will develop the following skills: • Describe national holidays such as: Columbus Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day. • Identify American tributes and symbols such as the: Pledge of Allegiance, Star Spangled Banner, Bald Eagle, and National Monuments. • Describe the diversity of American culture by explaining the customs and celebrations of various families and communities. • Explain that a map is a drawing of a place and a globe is a model of Earth. • State the phone number, street address, city, state, zip code and country in which we live. • Explain how rules are made and why they should be followed. • Describe examples of positive character traits exhibited by good citizens such as honesty, patriotism, courtesy, respect, pride and self-control. • Explain how money is used to purchase goods and services.

SCIENCE Students study life, physical, earth, and environmental science at The Epstein School in each grade. In Kindergarten each strand will focus on a specific topic. Life science will focus on plants and animals. The physical science unit will focus on light and force. During the earth science unit, students will learn about soil and rocks. Throughout each subject of study, students will be challenged to ask questions, solve problems, be creative, and to collaborate with their peers. STEAM learning experiences and design challenges to solve situational problems will occur throughout the year as well.

LIFE SCIENCE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION: • How do plants and animals develop and survive? PHYSICAL SCIENCE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS: • Where does light come from and why do we need it? • How do forces operate to cause push and pull? EARTH SCIENCE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION: • What is in the soil and how are rocks made?

Students are expected to use the following skills to demonstrate understanding of the essential questions for each branch of science. Throughout the year, students will develop the following skills: • Ask questions, make observations, and gather information to define a simple problem that can be solved through development of a new or improved tool • Plan and carry out investigations • Analyze and interpret data • Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information

HEBREW LANGUAGE At Epstein, students experience an exceptional Hebrew language program that allows students to experience and use Hebrew as a living language. The program is based on the proficiency approach, that aims to assist learners in developing their ability to communicate with native speakers. This approach allows us to select the most suitable material or teaching methods that will maximize the learners’ language acquisition process.

We follow the Hebrew Proficiency Guidelines (developed by The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages—ACTFL) that identify four main phases of language acquisition: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Superior. Assessing along these lines and with the tools, creates a path for our students to move from one stage to the next. Throughout the year, students are developing their speaking, listening comprehension and phonological awareness skills: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: • Identifies the beginning and the ending sounds of words • Segments a word into syllables • Segments a word into sounds • Name the letters • Has control on sound and symbol correlation LISTENING COMPREHENSION: • Understands memorized words and phrases • Understands familiar context such as—family, home and school • Follows basic instructions and directions WRITING: • Has control on sound and symbol correlation • Writes his/her name SPEAKING: • Speaks using the learned vocabulary and phrases about everyday life—days of the week, numbers, colors, objects in the classroom, clothing, weather, family members, food and names of common animals

These skills will be achieved through the following units: • Who am I? • Me and my body • My family • Winter is coming • My favorite vegetables and fruit • I am happy! It’s Purim! • Spring is here • Animals I love

JEWISH LIVING & VALUES THEME: WHO AM I?

HOLIDAYS: Students will learn and celebrate each Jewish holiday as they occur throughout the year. Our students will also experience Israeli culture with holiday-specific stories, songs, games, and art. We will focus especially on deepening students’ understanding of key holidays in each grade. In Kindergarten, students will concentrate on: • Rosh Hashanah • Hanukkah • Pesach JEWISH VALUES: Throughout the year, students will explore these core Jewish values: • B’Tzelem Elohim — Each person contains a holy spark • Tza’ar Ba’alei Chayim — Kindness to animals TEFILAH: The study of Tefilah (prayers) aims to allow students to participate in different services and rituals and to understand Jewish thought and values. Throughout the grades, students engage in a conversation with prior generations, which helps them to form their Jewish unique identities.

PARASHA (WEEKLY PORTION): Following the yearly cycle of Torah reading, every week students study a portion of the Torah. The Torah is an important text and teaches us a way of life. A weekly value associated with each parasha allows students to focus and put an emphasis on a skill or attribute. This allow the students, throughout the grades, to reflect on themselves, their choices, and their social-emotional skills that are developed through the Tribes program.

JEWISH HISTORY Throughout the year, students will explore these enduring understandings that complement their learning in Social Studies: • I am an American Jew. • My name tells a story of my family. • I celebrate holidays that are American and Jewish. • I speak English and Hebrew. • Stories from the Torah can teach us values. • All people are sacred and have rights. • Shabbat is a day of rest for all peoples.

ISRAEL Experiencing, celebrating, and learning about Israel is a fundamental part of the students’ life at Epstein. We aim for students to understand the unique connection between Israel and Jews around the world. Through big ideas and critical thinking questions, we engage the students in Israel’s history, culture, and character. Throughout the year, we will introduce the following units of study.: • Israel is the Jewish homeland. • Israel is a country that has many places that are special. • Jewish time and space separate holy from secular.

335 COLEWOOD WAY NW | SANDY SPRINGS, GA 30328-2956 | EPSTEINATLANTA.ORG