Mrs. Rignall’s

Kindergarten

2014-2015

School Year

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

• I have been teaching Kindergarten for 15 years. All of my years teaching have been 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, and poems.

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.

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 (opinion, personal narratives, etc)-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. Individual Journals- involves phonetic writing and prompt writing

Writing is integrated into other subject areas

• 1-2 days a week• D’Nealian- see my web page for letter examples

• 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 $3.00 for adults You may pay on-line for your child’s lunch at:

www.mylunchmoney.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 (characters, setting, title, etc.)

Making connections such as: Text to self, text to text, and text to world

5 days a week Kyrene has adopted a hands on math series called Investigations in Number, Data and Space

This series is an innovative 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

Math Common Core Standards

Focus on: (Please read handout at home)

• Counting and Cardinality (counting objects, comparing numbers, knows number names, count sequence)

• Operations (adds and subtracts numbers)

• Measurement and Data• Numbers and Operations-Base 10

(work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value)

• Geometry (identify and describe shapes as well as analyze, compare, create, and compose

shapes).• Mathematical Practices

2 days a week 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

Explore these Science Units:1.) Life Science- living things/non-living

things, five senses, and human body2.) Physical Science- magnets and

properties of objects3.) Earth and Space- weather, earth

materials, and conservation4.) History and Nature of Science-

people and jobs in science

2 days a week Mrs. Rojas will be instructing the children in Social Studies

Harcourt Social Studies- Our World, Now and Long Ago

Our kindergarten social studies curriculum focuses on these topics: American history, world history, civics/government, geography, economics (Being a good citizen, our country, workers, where we live, time, and stories of the past).

Our S.S. program incorporates a wide variety of rich literature and informational text.

Second Step

• Violence prevention program that teaches children social skills in three main areas:

1. Empathy 2. Impulse Control/Problem Solving 3. Anger/Emotion Management

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 3 program, students are able to create different projects (slide shows, pictures, etc.).

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

Homework calendar will begin coming home this week

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

Occasional extra home involvement activities

Helps your child get into a homework routine.

 

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.

• 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.

Energy Bus for Kids• The Energy Bus is a philosophy of life

about staying positive even when challenges arise. We all want to be part of a positive team in our classroom. We are going to learn and grow together as a class and it’s going to be a fun, meaningful ride.

• Five Rules of the Energy Bus:1. Create a Positive Vision2. Fuel Your Ride With Positive Energy3. No Bullies Allowed4. Love Your Passengers5. Enjoy the Ride

• Throughout the school year, I will be teaching the children what each of these Energy Bus rules mean through role playing and modeling. You can also incorporate these rules (using the same language) with your child at home.

• For more information visit the Energy Bus website at: www.EnergyBusKids.com

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 classroom library

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:

nrignall@kyrene.org

Classroom Phone Number (after/before school hours only)- 541-

2912

Office Phone- 541-2800

• Directions to access my class webpage:

1. Go to Kyrene School District homepage2. Click on Schools 3. Click on Esperanza4. Click on Classrooms5. Click on Mrs. Rignall

Please check the website frequently for newsletters, important dates, and other information.

My webpageMy webpage

Snack- Please send a snack to school for M, T, Th, F (if sending snack in a lunch box, please be sure that your child is aware of it).

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

Classroom (we will meet in September to schedule)

PTO (special events)

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 and the Common Core Standards go to:

www.kyrene.org