Mrs. Herman

Religion/ Spiritual Goals:
Our spiritual goals in kindergarten are to develop a desire to pray and perform acts of kindness towards others. We will begin to understand God’s love for us. He speaks to us through the good people and things in our lives.

Reading:
Our reading readiness program includes the Scott Foresman reading series, which I will supplement with letter of the week characters and activities by Frog Street Press. Skills to be covered this year include but are not limited to letter recognition, sound and letter association, alphabet recitation, recognizing rhyming words, sight words, color words, sequencing story events, understanding word meanings, parts of a book, etc.

Math:
We use the William H. Sadlier math series in kindergarten. We have a morning math meeting each day during calendar activities and hands-on group activities later in the morning. We will focus on identifying basic shapes, recognition and matching sets for numerals 1-20, creating and continuing patterns, counting to 100 by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s, making and reading graphs, using vocabulary of ordinal numbers, telling time to the hour, identifying pennies, nickels, and dimes, counting coins to $1.00, and simple addition and subtraction.

Handwriting:
We will be working on the basic strokes of manuscript writing. We begin the year with identification of shapes, letters, and numerals. Identification of capital letters is first, then learning the basic strokes, and finally naming and writing of both capital and lowercase letters.

Science:
We are using the Scott-Foresman Science program. This program is set up in to four units of study: Life Science, Earth Science, Physical Science, Space and Technology. The lessons are primarily hands-on activities and will include observation and discussion.

Physical Education;
The children will be working with Mrs. Medigovich for gym class. She will focus on games and exercises that work on large and small muscle development, health, and safety.

Music:
We will focus on beginning skills in music. The students will have opportunities to sing a wide range of songs as well as learn how to play simple instruments while keeping the beat.

Art:
We will work on beginning techniques and encourage individual expression. Throughout the year the children will paint, cut, glue, etc.

Academic Goals:
The main goals of the kindergarten curriculum are to prepare the children for first grade. We work on appropriate use of school materials, listening and participating in group discussions and activities, following multi-step instructions, following school rules, maintaining positive relationships with teachers and classmates, and building a positive attitude toward school.

Social Goals:
At Our Lady of Grace School we focus on developing an accepting and respectful attitude toward others. The children build relationships that are hinged on non-judgmental attitudes, love for one another, and respect for others’ rights. In kindergarten we will focus on maintaining positive relationships, working our problems out without hurting others physically or verbally and sustaining play activities with others for an extended amount of time.