K/1 2009 Photo Gallery Click any image to make it bigger!
Language Arts- Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking
The early emphasis for Kindergarteners in language arts includes letter recognition, letter sound matching and the recognition of simple ‘consonant-vowel-consonant’ words. Reading skills taught include learning and practicing reading strategies and the development of an initial sight word vocabulary, Early ‘writing’ begins the learning and practice of correct letter formation, having teachers ‘scribe’ journal passages or news stories with increasing oral input by students. As the year progresses children will, according to their individual achievement and ability levels, begin simple independent reading and writing in a number of styles and genres. Speaking and listening skills include communicating effectively with others, understanding oral presentations, asking questions, sharing experiences, and speaking audibly and clearly to a group.
Our Grade One Language Arts program emphasizes experiences in speaking and listening, reading and writing. Many skills are taught through children’s literature books. Reading skills include learning and practicing reading strategies and enlarging sight word vocabulary, as well as recognizing short and long vowel combinations, common digraphs and consonant blends. Writing is a daily activity practiced in many subject areas. Students are taught to use the writing process: selecting a topic, planning, drafting, editing, revising, publishing and sharing. Our students are exposed to a variety of writing styles, including friendly letters, narratives, poems, factual accounts and journals. Students learn to spell by establishing strong sound to letter relationships, using inventive spelling and word patterns (families). Speaking and listening skills include communicating with others on a more complex level, retelling stories, responding appropriately to oral presentations, asking questions, sharing experiences, and speaking audibly and clearly to others.
Mathematics
The mathematics program for Kindergarteners stresses the use of manipulative materials to illustrate and reinforce various mathematical ideas and operations. The ideas of “more” and “less”, “greater than” and “less than” are introduced. Patterns (using both concrete materials and symbols) are stressed. Number recognition and counting to (but not limited to) 30 is a focus. Concepts of measurement, including time, volume, length and mass are investigated. Simple addition and subtraction to 20 is included, as are ‘story problems’ using these two operations. Geometric shapes, both two and three dimensional are included and simple fractions are discussed.
The Grade One mathematics program uses an investigative hands-on approach to learning designed to better enable students to make the transition from the concrete to the abstract. Manipulatives are used extensively throughout the program. Students explore concepts through small group work, individual tasks and group instruction. Some concepts introduced and developed in Grade One include: reading and writing numerals to 100; identifying place value of tens and ones; estimating the number of items to 100; addition and subtraction facts to 12; skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's; formal and informal measurement; fractional numerals; geometric shapes and solids; patterns and interpreting data from graphs and tables.
Science and Social Studies
In Grade One, Science and Social Studies skills and concepts are taught through themes which integrate into all areas of the curriculum. Our Grade One science program emphasizes the development of scientific thinking with many opportunities for hands-on learning. Students participate in experiments and investigations where they are encouraged and guided to explore, classify, predict, compare and communicate observations of the themes they are learning. Science themes include topics from Life, Physical and Earth science with specific themes including Living Things, Magnets, The Body and Weather. Social Studies topics offer opportunities for students to have a better understanding of themselves and others.
Cultural diversity is explored throughout the Social Studies curriculum through our study of surrounding countries. Students are encouraged to discover and appreciate cultural similarities and differences. In addition to geography and mapping skills, some of the themes include exploring urban and rural life, families, shelter, economics and family histories. continued...
