Mrs. Rojas’

Kindergarten

2015-2016

School Year

• I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. from Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University in Elementary Education.

• I have been teaching Kindergarten for 31 years. 29 of my years teaching has been in Kyrene and 23 at Esperanza!

Tonight I will take you through our daily schedule as I talk about each curriculum area and other important information you will need to know.

4 days a week

This everyday routine incorporates many skills of our curriculum.

Opening teaches many different skills, including but not limited to: technology, math, number recognition, calendar knowledge, oral language, chants, poems,

and Spanish.

5 days a week

Harcourt Trophey Series is our adopted teaching resource

Includes six essential components

The Six Essential Components of our Reading

Program:• Phonemic Awareness- some skills included in this area are: initial/final sounds, blending sounds, rhyme recognition, syllable segmentation

• Phonics- Knowledge of letter-sound relationships and decoding

• Reading Aloud- reading aloud to students contributes to their motivation, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, sense of community, enjoyment, and a lifetime of love of literature.

• Vocabulary- the more words students acquire, the better chance they will have for success in reading, writing, and spelling.

• Text Comprehension- focuses on listening comprehension in learning to read and the transition from listening to reading comprehension.

• High Frequency Words- First 25 for kindergarten along with some extra words found in our Harcourt Reading Series

Students come to school with diverse experiences and language backgrounds, therefore the Harcourt Trophies reading series also allows for differentiated instruction in order to reach all learners.

Cooperative learning (guided reading groups, instructional focus groups-IFG and literacy work stations)

Ashlock

Daily, explicit, systematic lessons to improve student’s fluency in letter/sound recognition, blending and decoding words, and reading high frequency words. These quick daily lessons also work on phonemic awareness skills.

Engage NY(Core Knowledge Language Arts)

• Designed to help students build background knowledge and vocabulary critical to listening and reading comprehension and oral language skills.

• Rich vocabulary words, asking and answering questions based on text

• Social Studies and Science standards are integrated into the Engage NY lessons.

Engage NY Units• Nursery Rhymes• The Five Sense• Stories• Plants• Farms• Native Americans• Kings/Queens• Seasons/Weather• Columbus/Pilgrims• Symbols/Patriotic• Colonial Towns/Community Workers• Earth• Presidents

Language Arts Common Core State Standards

• Focus on: Reading Development

-Students will be able to provide key ideas and details from text-Understand the structure of various kinds of text-Make comparisons within and between texts-Understand the concepts of print-apply decoding skills-read common sight words-read appropriate texts

Language Arts Common Core State Standards

• Focus on:Speaking and Listening

Development-Students will be able to demonstrate listening comprehension-present knowledge and ideas orally

Writing and Language Development

-Students will be able to draw, dictate, and write to create different types of text-engage in the writing process-use appropriate writing conventions and vocabulary-participate in projects to recall or gather information

4 days a week Writer’s Workshop (written and developed by Lucy Calkins)

This writing program teaches the complete process of writing from developing writing ideas and topics to making revisions. It includes poetry, non-fiction writing, and personal narratives. Involves phonetic writing and prompt writing.Writing is integrated into other subject areas

• 1-2 days a week

• Promotes letter forms that are rhythmical and easy for students to master

• Provides a variety of print experience- letters, numbers, sight words, name

• Needs practice at home too!! 

Please make sure you read the menu to see if your child likes the choices for lunch (menu is on-line also) Lunch Prices- $2.50 for students .50 for milk & juice .35 for waterYou may pay on-line for your child’s lunch at: www.myschoolbucks.com or you can access this directly from the Kyrene School District home page

Teaches how to play safe

Becomes involved in sports

Interaction with peers

Problem solves

4 days a week Focus on specific authors throughout the school year

Discuss elements of literature (author, illustrator, characters, setting,

title, etc.)

5 days a week Kyrene has adopted a combined math series:

1. Investigations in Number, Data and SpaceThis is a two-part approach to the learning of mathematical content along with reaching all students needs.

Investigations in Data and Space:

• An activity based math resource acting as a replacement approach. It encourages students to think creatively, develop critical thinking skills and get a deeper understanding of the math and how to apply it. Your children will constantly be encouraged to reason mathematically, develop strong problem solving strategies and represent their thinking using models, diagrams and graphs.

• -free and guided exploration• -hands-on activities and games• -use of concrete materials and technology

Integrated Hands on activities and experiments Builds experience base for older grades

Introduction to formulating predictions, questions, and hypothesis based on observations

Builds higher level of thinking skills

Integrated into Engage NY UnitsOur kindergarten social studies program focuses on these units: Being a good citizen, our country, workers, where we live, time, and stories of the past. The adopted resources focus on using examples of real

citizens of good character and a wide variety of rich literature and informational text. -

1 day a week

Harcourt Health and Fitness is a program that helps students develop positive behaviors and attitudes that will lead to a lifetime of good health. In order to achieve that goal, students need knowledge, life skills, good character, and consumer skills. The chapters focus on: growing, staying healthy, caring for you teeth, healthy foods, being active, safety,

feelings, family life, and a healthy community.

1 day a week Teach basic parts of the computer Locate keys on the keyboard Log on and off computer Go in and out of programs Using the Pixie 4 program, students are

able to create different projects (slide shows, pictures, etc.)iPads & Laptops in our classroom as well!

P.E. = Thursday Music = Friday Art- Wednesday Library = Tuesday Computer Lab = Monday

District guidelines state ten minutes a night, three nights a week

Homework will begin coming home this week

Homework focuses on practicing skills that have already been taught in class

Occasional extra home involvement activities

 

Will assess frequently or as needed

Conferences will be first and third quarter

(3rd quarter is student-led conferences)

Report cards will go home after second

and fourth quarter  

• Character Clips- displays positive behavior choices along with negative behavior choices.

• The character clip calendar stays in their binder so that you can see and discuss daily with your child.

Character Clip Colors• Green- “Ready to Learn”- All students begin their

day on green• Blue- “Warning/Reminder”- made a choice that

was inappropriate for the classroom learning environment. Everyone in life needs reminders from time to time.

• Yellow- “Refocus Desk”- continued inappropriate choices and needs to refocus at separate desk for 5 min.

• Orange- “Partner Teacher Refocus”- after having refocus time in the classroom, continued to make inappropriate choices. Needs to refocus in another classroom for 10 min. (notification sheet comes home and phone call home)

Character Clip Colors• Red- “Office Referral”- student was consistently

making choices that affected our learning environment and could not demonstrate desired behaviors. Student will be sent to the office and parents will be notified.

• Purple- “Super Shark”- means your child has consistently demonstrated positive behavior choices for that day.

• Pink-Off the Chart! – means that your child demonstrated positive behavior the whole day!

• Remember and reinforce to your child that green is a great day!

S.H.A.R.K.• Esperanza has a school wide positive

behavior intervention plan• S.H.A.R.K. stands for Safe, Honest, and

Respectful Kids• The S.H.A.R.K. matrix defines the

behavior expectations in each common area of the school

• Please go over the S.H.A.R.K. matrix found in your packet with your child at home to reinforce what is being expected at school.

Character Counts• Esperanza also uses a school wide

philosophy to teach children how to demonstrate “good character”. It is called Character Counts and it focuses on six character traits which are:

• Be Trustworthy• Be Respectful• Be Responsible• Be Caring• Be Fair• Be a good Citizen

• Throughout the school year, I will be teaching the children what each of these traits mean and how their behavior choices can affect their character. I will emphasize these character traits through role playing and modeling. You can also incorporate these character traits (using the same language) with your child at home.

Special days and we want to celebrate them with your child

State Dept. forbids any unhealthy snacks/treats

You may bring a book to donate to our school library

Invites will need to be mailed or emailed and not distributed in class.

You may sign up tonight and I will send notice when the time gets closer

Parents are invited to attend on that Friday morning to celebrate with their child

  

You can easily reach me at my school email:

nrojas@kyrene.org

Classroom Phone Number (after/before school hours only)- 480-

541-2913

Or you can write on your child’s Communication Log.

1. Go to Kyrene Home Page

2. Go to Schools

3. Click on Esperanza

4. Click on Classrooms

5. Click on Mrs. Rojas

Snack- If you send a an individual snack to school for M, T, Th, F (please be sure that it is a healthy snack. (Fruit is a great choice too!) Please do not put it in your child’s lunchbox. Keep it separate. Thank you!

Binders and backpacks Transportation changes Class directory - please use for birthday party invitations, set up play dates, etc.

Classroom (we will meet next week to schedule and discuss volunteering)

PTO-Contact them to see how you can help/volunteer at our school!

Volunteer in our Classroom!

for taking the time to attend Curriculum Night!

I look forward to working with you and your child this year. It is going to be a

wonderful year filled with exciting learning activities!

To access facts about the Kyrene curriculum go to:

www.kyrene.org