Kindergarten is the place where children learn what it
means to come to school, be a student, make friends, and to be
independent. Our goal as Kindergarten teachers is to create an
environment that meets the academic, social, emotional, and
developmental needs of all children. We go about this in a variety
of ways:
The classroom environment- Our classrooms are
comfortable with carpets, lamps, plants, and fabrics.
Meaningful print is located around the room and different genres of
books are available to students. Students also have access to
materials that encourage a 'hands-on' approach to learning!
An experience centered curriculum-
As we plan classroom
curriculum, we keep the background knowledge of our students in mind.
We strive to provide a 'being there' experience for each unit of study
so that students have an experience to connect all learning. Some
of these experiences occur in our classrooms, some occur within our
school grounds, and some occur away from our school.
Classroom Community-
Every student is viewed as a valued
member of our classrooms. We create positive communities of
learners by facilitating TRIBES activities, cooperative learning, play,
and positive behavior support systems.
Academic Integrity- We understand that Kindergarten students
need movement, variety, and high interest activities to reach their
maximum learning potential. Our goal is to structure activities
that are academically challenging, while developmentally appropriate.
We believe that Kindergarten students are often underestimated when it
comes to ability, so we are committed to giving them every opportunity
to excel academically. Each classroom has a structured two hour
reading block, which includes whole group instruction and literacy
centers. Our assessments drive our instruction and students are
seen daily for small group instruction for the skills that they need.
Some examples of Kindergarten literacy centers include: listening
center, library research, vocabulary center, letter shapes,
self-selected reading, sight words, rhyming, etc. We are proud of
the effort that each of our students display and love to hear them say
that learning is fun!
