Name: Melissa Fitz Gerald

Grade Level:Kindergarten

Contact Information:

Mrs. Fitz Gerald  may be contacted at: 336-5332  ext. 522.

Curriculum

The kindergarten program emphasizes the development of social and academic skills.  Thinking, problem solving and organizational skills are important elements of the total educational program.  This program is centered on the standards established by the school district, the state of New Hampshire and the federal government.  My goal for each student is to experience success at his or her level and to build self-esteem and a sense of community. Below you will find a brief description of some of the things your child will be learning throughout the year.  Weekly notices will be sent home throughout the year informing you of what the class has been working on that week. This weekly notice will also include some suggestions for activities that you may want to do with the child at home. These activities will allow the child additional practice with the skill and they will be excited to share all that they have been learning with their family.  This excitement is what creates a confident and successful learner.

Reading:

Throughout the school year the class will be learning how to recognize upper and lower case letters, identifying sounds associated with the letters, identifying synonyms and antonyms, organizing words by category, identifying characters in a story, self selecting reading materials and discussing the aspects of a story.  Literacy activities will be guided by the work of Fountas &  Pinnell, the Literacy Collaborative and Wilson’s Language Basics/Fundations.

Written Communication:

The class will continue to learn how to express an idea using pictures and letters, use pictures to create a story, naming or labeling objects or pictures, using phonemic awareness and letter knowledge to spell independently.  These skills will slowly be incorporated into their creative writing which is completed on a daily basis.

Oral communication:

The class has been learning how to follow simple verbal instructions and directions, listening and responding to different styles of literature, understanding that communication is verbal and nonverbal, waiting for their turn to speak and speaking clearly and distinctly.

Math:

The class has been discovering and beginning to understand the magnitude of numbers through investigation using the Every Day Math series.  Activities are diverse in nature and will connect numbers to their daily lives. 

Social Studies:

The class will be distinguishing the differences between needs and wants, identifying the characteristics of money and introduced to globes and maps as they begin to understand that the world is interconnected. This program is enhanced by using the Silver Burdett Ginn social studies series.

Science:

The class has been making observations and exploring materials using all of their senses. They will continue to learn how to ask questions about their environment, suggest plans on how to explore their environment and predict how changing one part of their exploration will affect the outcome. This program is enhanced by using the Harcourt science series.

Second Step:

The class has been learning about their own feelings and how to understand how others may be feeling.  This school wide initiative teaches the children appropriate ways to communicate with each other and handle difficult situations on their own.

Homework Policies:

In my weekly newsletter News from Kindergarten you will find suggested activities to do with your children at home.  These activities are not required, but are encouraged, in order to reinforce the skills that are being taught at school.  Since many kindergarten children want to have homework I have a homework bin located on my desk.  This bin contains extra practice activity sheets for the children to complete at home.  This also is not required to be returned to school, it is merely to keep them motivated about all that they are learning.  It is a huge success! Most children take home something every night and many return it to school the following day. 

Classroom Procedures:

As a teacher, I believe that it is my role to model strong communication skills.  These skills are represented as I speak to students and handle situations in the classroom.  However, it must be extended beyond those walls and displayed in conversations with fellow teachers, parents, and community members.  Strong, positive communication is the best means by which to solve problems and reach agreements. Children need to witness this type of communication and begin to use it in their own lives to deal with situations they encounter.  These skills are not things that come naturally; they must be taught and practiced.  This being said, please see the expectations matrix that follows. During the first week of school the entire class reviewed the matrix in order to decide if there was anything they felt should have been changed or added.  We practice and role play the appropriate behaviors as a class in order for the children to feel comfortable in different situations. During the creation of the expectations I followed a few simple guidelines.  I kept the expectations few in number, stated what students should do as opposed to what they should not do and made sure they were easy to understand. You may find that some of these strategies would work well within your own household.    In order to ensure that these expectations are clearly communicated it is my responsibility to address all situations in a clear and concise manner with the students. I encourage strong communication between myself and parents regarding the expectations of the children.

Mrs. Fitz Gerald’s Kindergarten Classroom

Behavior Matrix

Created 12/16/07

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