Daily Schedule and Curriculum in Kindergarten
8:45-9:00 Morning Meeting: The special helper updates the calendar, the weather chart, and how many days we have been in school chart. We sing the “7 Days in the Week,” “What’s the Weather Like Today?” and “Temperature” songs. 9:00 Reading Core: In our homeroom class, we read a story together and practice reading skills such as retelling a story, making text-to-self connections, making predictions, and answering questions about a story using evidence from the text. We utilize the Making Meaning curriculum (https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/making-meaning) as well as additional DPS and teacher-created material. 9:30 Reading Flooding: Students may move to a different teacher’s classroom during this time. Students are grouped by ability, and we regroup students many times throughout the year as students make progress. Students engage in independent reading, small guided reading groups, and station time. Stations include partner reading, library, fine motor, word work, writing, listening to a story, big book, pocket chart, computers, iPads, and whiteboards. 10:30 Writing: During this time we learn to identify the parts of a sentence (“go green subject,” “purple peaks for vivid verbs,” “watermelon what” object, and “pink [prepositional] phrases make the sentence sweeter”) and engage in Writing Workshop. Students practice writing sentences with proper capitalization and punctuation, and illustrating pictures to go along with the sentence. We utilize the Writing Alive curriculum (http://writingalive.com/grades/K/Kindex.html) as well as additional DPS and teacher-created material. 11:00 Recess/Lunch: Students have 45 minutes for lunch and recess. During inclement weather, students watch an age-appropriate video in the Early Childhood Education room. 11:45-11:55 Rest and Read 11:55 Calendar/Math: Students learn all about numbers and other mathematical concepts (shapes, comparing, measuring, addition and subtraction, etc.) through the use of whole group instruction and then practice the concept or skill in partners or individually (often game-based). We utilize the Engage NY. curriculum. 12:40 Skills: During this time, we work on phonemic awareness (hearing, identifying, and manipulating individual sounds). We utilize the Houghton Mifflin Alphafriends curriculum (http://www.eduplace.com/marketing/prek/support/components/alphafriends.html) to study each letter in depth for a week. We practice identifying and writing each letter as well as labeling pictures and stretching and writing words (sounding out words) that begin with each letter. 1:10 Snack and Recess: The special helper brings a snack for the class. Weather permitting, we eat the snack outside and have recess afterwards. In inclement weather, we eat the snack in the classroom and participate in a movement activity. 1:30 Science/Social Studies: We rotate between Social Studies and Science so that students can focus on each unit in-depth. We utilize the Social Studies Alive! Curriculum (http://www.teachtci.com/programs/elementary/social-studies-alive-textbook/me-and-my-world) which focuses on friendship, community, and people around the world. For Science we use standards based DPS and teacher-created material. Some of our science units include, but are not limited to, the 5 senses, animal super senses, fall, bats, the sun and energy, plants, rocks and minerals, force and friction, etc. We sometimes use the platooning model in which each teacher focuses on a different topic within a unit, and each class rotates to every teacher for instruction. 2:05 Specials: Students rotate between Technology with Mr. Carter, Art with Mrs. Loehr, Music with Mrs. O’Lane and Physical Education with Mr. Auday. 2:45 Centers: Students have a choice of which center they would like to participate in based on alphabetical order, starting with the special helper. Options include Science, Art, Math Games, Whiteboards, Library, Blocks, Legos, iPads, Computers, Writing, Noun Hunt, Mimio (interactive whiteboard), Play House (which we decorate thematically), and Puzzles. Additional Information Differentiation: In order to meet the needs of each student, we differentiate the curriculum. We provide scaffolds for students who need additional support and increase the difficulty for students who need an additional challenge. Behavior Management: We follow the school-wide model of providing students with an Edison Earning for showing the character traits of being community-minded, aware, responsible and respectful, empathetic, and safe. When students receive an earning, their earning gets entered into a monthly raffle to earn a prize. When students are not following the Edison CARES character traits, such as when they are talking out of turn or being rude to another student, they are asked to reset. This means that they put their head down at their table for one minute to take a quick break. This is not seen as punitive, but merely a chance for students to think about their behavior. If a student receives 3 resets within a day, they will get their name on the board. This means that the student will miss 5 minutes of center time. Bathroom and Drink Policies: In order to prevent students from missing important learning time, students are asked to use the bathroom and get drinks during work period, and not during instruction time. However, students will of course be allowed to use the bathroom during instruction time in an emergency. |