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Curriculum Information

Zoo Phonics

 

The Zoo-phonics® Multi-sensory Language Arts Program is a kinesthetic, multi-modal approach to learning all aspects of language arts.

Every aspect of the Zoo-phonics® Program has been field-tested and found to be effective

Educational research repeatedly supports the focus of phonics in early reading programs, as well as the educational benefits of pictorial mnemonics and kinesthetic approaches to learning that are unique to Zoo-phonics®.

The Zoo-phonics® Program fully involves the child’s eyes, ears, mouth and body as they learn phonemic awareness, the alphabet, and how to decode (read) and encode (spell/write).

• The Animal Alphabet helps children remember the shapes and sounds of the letters.

• Letter sounds are taught before letter names.

• Lowercase letters are taught before capital letters.

• The Body Movement for each Animal Letter helps “cement” the phonemic information into memory.

• The alphabet is taught sequentially, and as a whole entity, “a - z.” The alphabet is not fragmented.

• Short vowels are taught before long vowels.

• Phonemic patterns (at, bat, fat, sat, etc.) are taught first, rather than random word lists (of, it, then, was, etc.)

• The Zoo-phonics® curriculum is fully integrated with other subjects.

CraftPlus K-8 Writing Program

The CraftPlus K-8 Writing Program is correlated to the Common Core State Standards for writing. It supplies the missing middle of writing instruction: explicit skills-based content that informs the writing process and empowers young writers to attain desired rubrics.

The CraftPlus K-8 Writing Program teaches writing process skills, writing craft skills, and conventions using the writing workshop format. It uniquely combines a differentiated and scaffolded K-8 writing curriculum with a year’s worth of modeled, daily writing workshop lessons, assessments, and rubrics for all assessed genres. The spiraling curriculum is organized around organizational and composing writing Target Skills® and grade level-appropriate conventions skills. Writing process stages are incorporated.

In Kindergarten skills are introduced along a developmentally appropriate continuum to coincide with overall literacy learning.  Areas of writing genre that we will explore will be: Personal experience narrative, descriptive writing, informational, opinion and literature responses.

Handwriting Without Tears

The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multi-sensory tools and strategies for your classroom. The program follows research that demonstrates children learn more effectively by actively doing, with materials that address all styles of learning.

The Handwriting Without Tears® kindergarten program incorporates hands-on activities and multi-sensory teaching strategies that build good handwriting habits early. Your teaching will engage students, with music, movement, fine motor activities, and child friendly language. This program fits easily into our daily kindergarten routine in only 15 minutes a day.

Reading:  Guided, Shared and Independent

Reading is an astoundingly complex cognitive process. While we often think of reading as one singular act, our brains are actually engaging in a number of tasks simultaneously each time we sit down with a book. There are five aspects to the process of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency. These five aspects work together to create the reading experience. As children learn to read they must develop skills in all five of these areas in order to become successful readers.

Guided Reading -  focus on conventions and consonant digraphs; phoneme segmentation; chunks; fluency

Areas that are addressed during guided reading

1. identifying letters and letter sounds

2. identifying known words

3. pointing to each word as they read

4. spelling high frequency words

5. using high frequency words in writing

6. segmenting (separating) individual sounds in words

7. blending sounds together to learn to read unfamiliar words

8. reading with fluency

9. comprehending what they read

Everyday Mathematics

Everyday Mathematics is a comprehensive Pre-K through grade 6 mathematics program.

Everyday Mathematics is a research-based and field-tested curriculum that focuses on developing children’s understandings and skills in ways that produce life-long mathematical power.

The Everyday Mathematics curriculum emphasizes:

·         Use of concrete, real-life examples that are meaningful and memorable as an introduction to key mathematical concepts.

·         Repeated exposures to mathematical concepts and skills to develop children’s ability to recall knowledge from long-term memory.

·         Frequent practice of basic computation skills to build mastery of procedures and quick recall of facts, often through games and verbal exercises.

·         Use of multiple methods and problem-solving strategies to foster true proficiency and accommodate different learning styles.

Skills Practice: 

Sight word writing/building; letter sounds match; ending  letter sounds; number recognition and sequencing; handwriting; ;  Word Families; consonant digraphs (th; sh; ch; ph); Onset /Rhyme; Blending; Phonemic Segmentation; Subtraction; Place Value; Geometric Shapes

HOMEWORK: There will be homework for math and reading.  This may or may not occur every night. 

Math homework, (referred to as Homelinks-) will be sent home in their Friday folders.  You have all week to work on these- try to return them by Friday of the following week.  The homework directly correlates with the daily math lessons.  PLEASE try to refrain from doing the Homelink until after the lesson is complete- Refer to daily schedule for Homelink date!

Reading homework will become regular once I begin Guided Reading instruction.  The students will bring home reading books which they can practice reading with you and should travel back and forth between school and home on a daily basis.  You will receive explicit directions/explanations once it starts.