LANGUAGE ARTS

The Junior Kindergarten Program provides children with learning opportunities that are varied enough to be challenging and engaging, providing relevance to their own lives and the world around them. The goal is to ensure students learn the fundamentals of language development, both oral and written. Students will explore sounds, rhymes, and language structures. Students will use language in all areas of learning as they participate in planned activities at various learning centres, communicating their thoughts, posing questions, and investigating ideas. 

The Junior Kindergarten language program is designed to introduce the students to the alphabet, letter identification, and identify upper and lowercase letters. The students will also learn to identify letter and sound relationships.

Each week there will be a pre-assessment of learning which will help the teacher to teach through differentiation. Each child will be challenged and accommodated according to their specific needs. This will not only help with learning, but also building the students’ confidence and a love for learning.

Reading:

The goal of the kindergarten reading program is to assist student

instil a love of reading, pique students’ reading interests, and assist them in gaining confidence and pride through reading.

• Students will aim to respond and understand stories and other reading material that are read aloud.

• Students will begin to use reading strategies to make sense of unfamiliar texts in print

• Students will begin to make sense of simple reading materials, recognize high frequency words and identify beginning, middle and end sounds in words.

Students will also be learning through interactive activities on the Smartboard, iPads and the MAC to help them with their reading skills.  There will be a classroom library with leveled books, pictures and story books that will be available for students to use at all times. The students will be given opportunities to work independently, in small groups and engage in whole class discussions, which will provide opportunities for guided reading and one on one interaction with the teacher. 

Parents as Partners – Reading Program:  The students will participate in the take home reading program, whereby each student will be given a short story to practice reading at home for additional reading practice. 

Jolly Phonics: The Kindergarten language program is designed to introduce the students to the alphabet including letter identification, both upper and lowercase letters, as well as learning the sound each letter produces. Each letter of the week will be introduced with a sound and action.  They will also be learning several blends such as ch, sh, th, ing etc. As we move along in the program, they will begin to put the letter sounds together to form words.

Morning Circle: Morning circle will be completed each morning using our SmartBoard. The goal is to outline what we will be doing each day and reinforce concepts such as the days of the week, daily schedules and weather.  Students will take turns assisting the teacher by helping by reading or writing different sections of the message to enhance their printing and sounding out abilities. The morning message will help students recognize different letters, sounds, words and blends. Each morning message will have a predictable beginning and end to help students recognize familiar words and sounds. Finally, morning circle will also draw attention to different subject areas;  as we start learning a new concept we will add it into our morning circle routine for consistent reinforcement. 

Oral Language:

The goals in oral communication are for students to gain confidence in communicating by speaking and listening to others for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts. Students will use language to talk about their thinking and to help problem solve.

• Students will explore sounds, rhythms, and language structures.

• Students will listen and respond to others for a variety of purposes

• Students will orally retell simple events and simple familiar stories in proper sequence.

• Students will participate in oral discussions where they can express their ideas and feelings.

Show and share: Once every week students will have the opportunity to bring in an item to show and share with the class. The Show and Share initiative will increase students’ level of confidence, improve their oral communication skills, and provide them with an opportunity to express themselves freely.  

Share Bear- JK Classroom Pet: Each week a student will be given the opportunity to take home our classroom pet. Our classroom pet is a stuffed animal that will be taken home with one student every Monday, and returned on Friday. There will be a journal in the bag that students will be encouraged to draw pictures in, or even take pictures of their adventures! Students are encouraged, but not required, to write a few words in the journal as well to describe their pictures. Each Friday the student will be asked to briefly share with the class what our stuffed animal got up to that week! 

Presentation skills: Once a month students will practice their presentation skills to prepare them for opening ceremonies and concerts. Students will practice entering and exiting the stage as well as effectively speaking into the microphone.

Writing:
We will be using a variety of resources to support the Junior Kindergarten writing program. The “Handwriting without Tears” program is an excellent resource for students who are learning to print. As students advance they will be introduced to “Explode the Code” language books. Students will be able to recognize letter-sound relationships and letter patterns so they can read independently by matching sounds together. Furthermore, students will learn how to print the letters of the alphabet and how to write their name. Students will also be using iPad Apps and games to help them with their printing skills. The goal is for the students to begin printing in their journals towards the end of the first term. Students will also practice printing numbers by using their individual number lines. Proper letter formation will be practiced and students can work on individual white boards while following a lesson. Students will also come up and practice writing individual letters and numbers on large chart paper, white boards or the smart board. They will focus on pencil grip, letter and numeral formation, as well identifying lowercase and uppercase letters. Each student will practice printing throughout the term and being able to recognize their name and sight words during games and writing centres.

READ ALOUDS

POETRY

Read alouds will play an important role in the Kindergarten program.  Through read alouds children will experience a variety of texts and authors. Through listening and engaging in the story, the students will learn how to recognize different parts of a story, identify and relate to characters and settings, as well as discuss and predict what may happen next in both familiar and unfamiliar texts. 

Using poetry is a fun and interactive way to help teach students about rhyming and letter sounds. It helps develop the students’ fluency and comprehension as capable readers, as well as develop the skill of appropriate expression. Each week a new poem will be presented to provide reinforcement for the sight word of the week. Students will be given the opportunity to do many interactive activities as well as communicate their understanding of the poem through drama and dance.

MATHEMATICS

The Junior Kindergarten math program begins with the calendar and daily counting practice each morning. Math lessons will be taught using related manipulatives (teddy bear counters, blocks, linking cubes, geo-boards, individual white boards). The lessons will integrate hands-on learning and real life examples to help students establish meaningful learning experiences.  

Number Sense and Numeration:

During our Number Sense and Numeration Unit, the students will explore counting and ordinal arrangement of numbers. The students will begin to learn about subtraction and addition of simple numbers.  Finally, students will work on identifying coins and coin values. 

Geometry: Throughout our geometry unit, students will work on identifying, sorting and classifying 2D and 3D shapes. Furthermore, students will compose and decompose 2D shapes while identifying shapes within our environment. 

Skip Counting: During our unit on skip-counting students will use a variety of math centres and manipulatives to practice counting by 5’s and 10’s up to 100. 

SCIENCE

The Junior Kindergarten science program encourages students to take risks, ask questions, and become active thinkers while connecting lessons to students’ everyday lives using hands on experiences. The Kindergarten science and technology curriculum is designed to build on children’s natural curiosity and sense of wonder. 

Students will learn that science is all around them in everyday life.  

What is Science?: 

Science begins when you ask a question about what you see happening and changing around you. By paying attention to things we see, hear, smell, touch and taste, in the world around us,

Seasons: During this unit, students will learn the characteristics which make up our four seasons. Using a variety of hands on activities, students will explore changes that occur in daily and seasonal cycles. Furthermore, students  will conduct investigations about apples, pumpkins, and the life cycles associated with autumn. This will be explored through exploration, observation, experimentation and hands on activities. 

The Sky: Our unit on the sky will answer the essential question: “what is in the sky?”. More specifically, this unit will conduct simple investigations which will lead students to explore gravity, patterns of day and night as well as the clouds, sun, stars and moon.

ART

The Junior Kindergarten art program is a very hands-on program where students will learn new terminology while exploring a variety of mediums. In term 1 students will be introduced to a variety of tools, materials and processes to create art forms. Students will learn and practice the importance of spatial awareness and the importance of adding details in their pictures to make their art seems more realistic. 

MUSIC

(Mr. Poaps)

In the junior and senior kindergarten music program, students will explore different types of music and create different types of music using simple percussion instruments and found percussion instruments. Students will focus on developing a sense of rhythm and interacting with others creating a classroom ensemble. 

DRAMA

(Mrs. Wilson)

During this term the kindergarten students will be studying numerous dramatic elements. The students will begin the term by practicing facial movement and identifying facial expressions. Additionally, the students will practice movement and emotion shown through bodily stance. 

FRENCH

(Mme.  Grovum)

The Junior Kindergarten program will introduce students to oral French with a specific focus on the letters of the Alphabet in French, their corresponding sounds and beginning sounds of specific sight words.  Students will be introduced to theme vocabulary: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas as well as the French names for basic shapes. The emphasis is on oral and aural comprehension and developing the student’s ear for the French language.  Students will learn through song, poetry, guided group reading and learning centres.
 

PHYSICAL 

EDUCATION

(Mr. Fretz)

In term one physical education, students will focus on activities and games to promote and develop movement skills and concepts as well as encourage independence and group teamwork. The fundamental movement skills will relate to stability, locomotion, and manipulation.  Students will take part in organized games and sports to develop and increase their body awareness, spatial awareness, movement direction(e.g., forward, backwards, sideways, diagonal, up, down, left, right), level (e.g., high, medium, low), pathway (e.g., zigzag, straight, curved, wavy), plane (e.g., frontal, horizontal, vertical, sagittal) and extensions (e.g., near, far).  In term one, students will participate in active games and activities to promote the fundamental movement skills.  Students will also be introduced to basic rules and concepts in soccer, handball and sport running.

HEALTH

(Mr. Fretz)

In health this term, students will begin to demonstrate an understanding of the effects of healthy, active living. They will investigate the benefits of nutritious practice and discuss appropriate personal hygiene that promotes personal, family, and community health foods.