Welcome to Back to School Night!

Welcome to Back to School Night! Janney Elementary We are the Dynamic Ducks!

Meet the teachers • Ms. Logan Kapinus • Logan.Kapinus@dc.gov • Ms. Kelly Trussell • Kelly.Trussell@dc.gov

Important Websites: • Janney Elementary School • www.janneyschool.org • Our class website: • http://teacherweb.com/DC/janney/Kapinus/apt1.aspx

Kindergarten Curriculum • The kindergarten curriculum is designed to develop the following skills in each subject area • English/Language Arts (ELA) • Readers Workshops • Writers Workshop • Phonics/Word Study • Math Workshop • Social Studies • Science

Kindergarten CurriculumEnglish/ Language Arts (ELA) • Reader’s Workshop (RW) • RW is a program that teaches children to becomeindependentreaders by havingthem read books on a level that is ‘just right’. • Beginning in late fall, students choose books according to their interests and reading level. Through practice reading independently, with partners, with the teacher and in small groups, students develop their reading skills.

Kindergarten CurriculumEnglish/ Language Arts (ELA) • Reader’s Workshop cont (RW) • RW helps develop phonemic awareness, learning to recognize letters and corresponding sounds, increase their vocabulary base, identify sight and rhyming words and write their first and last names. • We practice using language that helps us explain our thoughts when reading, share information about our textsand insights into the story.

Kindergarten CurriculumEnglish/ Language Arts (ELA) • Independent Reading (IR or S.Q.U.I.R.T) • IR is private reading time during which students practice strategies and behaviors. • From the beginning of the year (until late fall) they practice storytelling skills using culturally diverse Emergent Storybooks. • If they may not be able to read books word for word the students are given strategies to start the reading process and are encouraged to approximate reading by using illustrations and learned reading behaviors. • Even when they are reading we are are working on strategies to dig deeper into the text and gain insight for deeper meaning and understanding.

Kindergarten CurriculumEnglish/ Language Arts (ELA) • What are emergent storytelling books? • Caps for Sale by Slobodkina • Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey • Owen by Kevin Henkes • Stellalunaby Janell Cannon • Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats • Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister • Bigmama’sby Donald Crews • Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Kindergarten CurriculumEnglish/ Language Arts (ELA) • Interactive Read Aloud: Using Emergent Storybooks • Children make predictions and connect texts to personal experiences. • Explore reading different types of texts such as Poetry, Non-Fiction, Fiction and Song Books. • Teachers model desired skills and strategies that students will practice during partner talk. Students learn to re-tell a story, as well as to orally answer questions about characters, setting and events. (First, Next, Last- I like __ bc__)

Kindergarten CurriculumWriters Workshop • Writers Workshop (WW) • Is a program that teaches children to become independent lifelong writers. • Students learn to observe and tell stories about their lives and the world around them. • During WW students draft, revise, edit, illustrate and publish narrative, opinion, and expository texts.

Kindergarten CurriculumWriters Workshop • Interactive Writing- Teacher and students ‘share the pen’ as they compose and write texts in a variety of genres. • Reinforces phonemic awareness and increases exposure to high frequency words taught during phonics and word study lessons. • Independent Writing- Students write stories from their life, as well as experiment with different genres of writing. Students learn to manage their writing by deciding when they are finished and to reflect on it by choosing pieces they will publish.

Kindergarten CurriculumPhonics/Word Study • Teachers provide instruction on principles related to the use of letters, sounds and words. (Process on writing chart) • Introduction of ‘Words We Know By Heart’

Kindergarten CurriculumMath • Math curriculum focuses on two critical area as defined by the Common Core Standards: developing and understanding of number sense by representing, relating, and operating on whole numbers, and describing shapes and space. • Students will be instructed on how to use language that helps explain their thoughts when looking at a math problem, share information about their plan to solve and insights into how we check our work.

Kindergarten CurriculumMath • How we solve problems in Math: • 1) Think • 2) Plan • 3) Solve • 4) Check • 5) Explain

Kindergarten CurriculumMath • Math Year at a Glance: • Counting & Sorting- Explaination and Resoning • Breaking apart numbers- Different ways to show our numbers • Geometry • Counting higher- 1-100 (1s, 2s, 5s, 10s) • Making Ten (Using tools like 10 Frames) • Measurement • Place Value • Add/Subtract to 10 (Equations)

Kindergarten CurriculumHomework • Not expected in Kindergarten. A tool to encourage thinking, practice and deeper understanding of what we do in class. • Starting next Tuesday 9-24-13 (Take Home Tuesday) you will be receiving a packet of homework activites that you have a week to work together on- if you choose to do so! Return back to school the following Tuesday (Red Folder). • Building blocks for future success. The process of homework is our foundation to start a successful career in school.

KindergartenField Trips! • October - Cox Farms • November- Building Museum • December- Seasons of Light/Nutcracker • January- Whole Foods • February- Postal Museum / Lincoln’s Cottege • March- College Park Aviation • April- Childrens Museum • May- tbd.

Kindergarten Rocks! • THANK YOU! • Few reminders: Please visit the cafeteria (after this session) to hear about what the Kindergartners are learining this year in: • Science • Social Studies • Performing Arts • Media • Music • Library

Welcome to Back to School Night!