Kindergarten Sylla
READING
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching the Reading Workshop | Students learn to read and look at books by themselves and with a partner. Students learn how reading workshop “works” by learning and practicing routines. | – Students learn how to take care of our books and the classroom library.
-Students develop ways to share books and to stay focused during reading time. |
| Emergent Story Books | Students learn to retell books that are read aloud multiple times. They learn to use a “storyteller” voice to make the story come alive. | -Students learn that stories have different parts (characters, setting, problem, solution.)
-Students begin to notice the craft and structure elements of books to help in their retellings. |
| “Just Right” Books | Students learn to use multiple sources (pictures, letters, syntax,) to read words in books. | -Students will be matched with books that are “just right” for them.
-Students will learn different strategies to figure out an unknown word. |
| Features of Nonfiction | Students learn how fiction and nonfiction books differ and how as readers, we read them differently. | – Students learn to use features of non-fiction books to gain information.
– Students investigate topics that interest them. |
| Character Study | Student learn strategies for getting to know the characters in their books. | – Students notice and think about how characters change in a story.
-Students will infer how events in a story make a character feel. |
| Who am I as a reader? | Students reflect on everything they have learned in kindergarten and make plans for the summer. | – Students share their favorite kinds of books to read.
-Students think about how they want to grow stronger as readers. |
| Poetry
(To be done throughout the year during shared reading.) |
Students listen to and read a variety of poetry. | -Students investigate different traits of poems. (rhyming, repetition, onomonopia.)
-Students will create representations of poems through art and drama. |
WRITING
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching Writing Workshop | Students learn that “writing” is many things including drawing.
Students learn how writing workshop “works” by learning and practicing routines. |
– Students learn how to work independently for longer periods of time.
-Students learn how to share their writing work. -Students learn that “writing” is a process that takes more than one day. -Students learn that everyone is a writer because we all have stories to tell and share. |
| Writing Like a Scientist | Students learn that they can write about things they observe in the real world. | – Students will learn to use all five senses to explore objects and write about them.
– Students will learn to label and begin to use sight words to create pattern books. |
| The Bread Study | Students learn that writers write for many reasons.
Students learn there are many kinds of writing including lists, signs, and letters. |
– Students learn to “stretch” words to help spell.
– Students learn to create pictures that match the words. – Students learn to use finger spaces. – Students learn to use neat handwriting – their Personal Best. |
| Personal Narratives | Students learn that personal narratives are stories about their own lives.
Students learn that stories are composed of characters, setting and action. Students learn that stories have a beginning, middle and end. |
– Students learn to create stories with action, feelings, and characters.
– Students learn to tell stories orally with details in sequence. – Students use transition words and orally tell a sequenced story across 3 fingers. – Students use the word wall to aid their spelling. |
| Nonfiction – Persuasive Writing | Students learn about different kinds of nonfiction writing.
Students learn to persuade others through writing. Students learn that to persuade others, they need to have strong reasons. |
– Students look at their lives and plan to change things through persuasion.
– Students make signs and letters to persuade others. |
| Nonfiction – “How To” | Students learn that they can teach others by describing step-by-step what to do.
Students learn to plan out their writing. |
-Students teach others about things they are passionate about and know how to do well.
-Students write for a specific audience. |
| Nonfiction – “All About” | Students learn that nonfiction writers teach information to their audience.
Students learn they are already experts on at least one topic. |
– Students learn nonfiction writing is organized.
– Students learn nonfiction writing has many features that make it special (glossary, table of content, etc.). |
| Fictional Storytelling | Students use story elements such as character, setting, problem and solution to write a fictional story across three or more pages. | -Students learn to plan the parts of a story before they begin writing.
-Students learn to add details such as characters’ feelings and speech bubbles or dialogue. |
MATH
Standards for Mathematical Practice
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching the Math Workshop- Routines | Students will build a community of mathematicians through the introduction of routines. Students will explore math manipulatives and games. | – Students will participate in routines such as the calendar, days of school, growing number line, and attendance.
-Students will build norms for talking and listening in the classroom. |
| Counting and Comparing | Mathematicians will have many meaningful opportunities to develop strategies for accurate counting. Students will also compare two (or more) quantities to determine which is more, and order quantities from least to most. | -Students compare quantities as they decide which number has more, which handful has more, or which name has more letters.
-Students develop concepts of greater than, fewer than, and equal to. |
| Beautiful Stuff (Classification) | Mathematicians will bring to school bags of “beautiful stuff” of things that they find in and around their homes. Students will have multiple opportunities to sort and count their beautiful stuff. This unit is meant to give students opportunities to sort and classify objects and to provide purposeful experiences with counting quantities. | -Students work with a partner to sort a collection of items in different ways. For example, sorting buttons by color and then by size.
-Students will organize large collections of items to help them count with accuracy. |
| Geometry | Mathematicians will create, identify, describe, compare, represent and build with 2-D and 3-D shapes. | -Students will use geoblocks to explore the relationship of two-dimensional to three-dimensional shapes.
-Students will compose and decompose shapes using pattern blocks. |
| Early Number Sense 1
Understanding Part/Whole Relationships |
Mathematicians will explore part-whole relations in the context of a “sleepover”. The rekenrek is used as a tool to act out the story of 8 children, moving up and down bunk beds. Mathematicians will develop an understanding that 8 (or any amount) can be named in many ways. | – Students will work extensively with the rekenrek (math rack) as a model of the situation.
– Students will play part-whole games. |
| Early Number Sense 2
Understanding Part/Whole Relationships |
Mathematicians will investigate the number of combinations of red and green apples to ten. Mathematicians will work towards finding all the unique combinations, and recording their solutions. | – Students will play part-whole games, such as “Part-Whole Bingo”.
-Students will work to compose and decompose numbers to ten. |
| Story Problems-
Early Addition and Subtraction |
Mathematicians will begin to make sense of the operations of addition and subtraction as they act out stories. They will play games that involve combining and decomposing quantities. | – Students will use manipulatives, drawings, tools and notations to show strategies and solutions.
-Students play math games involving early addition. |
| The Number System- “Taking Inventory” | Mathematicians will develop strategies for organizing, counting, and keeping track of large amounts. They will begin to consider grouping as a way to count more efficiently. During their inventory work, students will explore the place value patterns that occur when making groups of ten. | -Students will take an “inventory” of class materials.
-Math Congresses give students the opportunity to discuss and share their work. -Students will play games involving combinations and ten and multiples of ten. |
| Just Right Games Con’t | Mathematicians will have further opportunities to use the strategies developed throughout the year. Students will play “just right” games that are matched to their mathematical development. | -Students will learn new games and revisit earlier games.
-Students will play games involving comparing, adding, subtracting, and finding equivalences. |
SOCIAL STUDIES
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| All About Me | Students learn to appreciate diversity in our classroom and school.
Students learn that people are unique. Students learn that we are learners. |
-Students explore how we are all alike and different.
-Students learn that we all have needs and wants. -Students discover that there are different ways to learn and to show what we know. |
| Our Classroom and School Community | Students learn that we all belong in school.
Students learn we are responsible for ourselves and others. Students learn that we have respectful ways to interact. Students explore our school building and the many members of our school community. Students understand that it takes many people working together to make our school run. |
-Students learn schoolwide signals, agreements and norms.
-Students engage in social learning (problem solving, taking turns, sharing, listening, initiating play, etc.) -Students explore maps of our classroom and our school. -Students visit and interview different members of our school community. (Custodian, nurse, cafeteria workers.) |
| Families | Students explore and share what makes their family special.
Students learn to appreciate family diversity. Students learn that our identity derives from our family (culture, values, environment, traditions, etc.) Students participate in an in-depth study of bread. |
-Students bring in photographs of family members to share about through writing and drawing.
-Students compare their families with others in their class and identify similarities and differences. – Through field trips and shared experiences, students will learn about different kinds of bread. They will explore how bread plays a role in their family culture. |
| The Neighborhood | Students investigate the many people and places in our school’s neighborhood. Students participate in an in-depth study of restaurants. | -Through multiple field trips students learn first hand about different places in our neighborhood.
-Students create their own restaurant for families and the school community to attend. |
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching the Reading Workshop | Students learn to read and look at books by themselves and with a partner. Students learn how reading workshop “works” by learning and practicing routines. | – Students learn how to take care of our books and the classroom library.
-Students develop ways to share books and to stay focused during reading time. |
| Emergent Story Books | Students learn to retell books that are read aloud multiple times. They learn to use a “storyteller” voice to make the story come alive. | -Students learn that stories have different parts (characters, setting, problem, solution.)
-Students begin to notice the craft and structure elements of books to help in their retellings. |
| “Just Right” Books | Students learn to use multiple sources (pictures, letters, syntax,) to read words in books. | -Students will be matched with books that are “just right” for them.
-Students will learn different strategies to figure out an unknown word. |
| Features of Nonfiction | Students learn how fiction and nonfiction books differ and how as readers, we read them differently. | – Students learn to use features of non-fiction books to gain information.
– Students investigate topics that interest them. |
| Character Study | Student learn strategies for getting to know the characters in their books. | – Students notice and think about how characters change in a story.
-Students will infer how events in a story make a character feel. |
| Who am I as a reader? | Students reflect on everything they have learned in kindergarten and make plans for the summer. | – Students share their favorite kinds of books to read.
-Students think about how they want to grow stronger as readers. |
| Poetry
(To be done throughout the year during shared reading.) |
Students listen to and read a variety of poetry. | -Students investigate different traits of poems. (rhyming, repetition, onomonopia.)
-Students will create representations of poems through art and drama. |
WRITING
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching Writing Workshop | Students learn that “writing” is many things including drawing.
Students learn how writing workshop “works” by learning and practicing routines. |
– Students learn how to work independently for longer periods of time.
-Students learn how to share their writing work. -Students learn that “writing” is a process that takes more than one day. -Students learn that everyone is a writer because we all have stories to tell and share. |
| Writing Like a Scientist | Students learn that they can write about things they observe in the real world. | – Students will learn to use all five senses to explore objects and write about them.
– Students will learn to label and begin to use sight words to create pattern books. |
| The Bread Study | Students learn that writers write for many reasons.
Students learn there are many kinds of writing including lists, signs, and letters. |
– Students learn to “stretch” words to help spell.
– Students learn to create pictures that match the words. – Students learn to use finger spaces. – Students learn to use neat handwriting – their Personal Best. |
| Personal Narratives | Students learn that personal narratives are stories about their own lives.
Students learn that stories are composed of characters, setting and action. Students learn that stories have a beginning, middle and end. |
– Students learn to create stories with action, feelings, and characters.
– Students learn to tell stories orally with details in sequence. – Students use transition words and orally tell a sequenced story across 3 fingers. – Students use the word wall to aid their spelling. |
| Nonfiction – Persuasive Writing | Students learn about different kinds of nonfiction writing.
Students learn to persuade others through writing. Students learn that to persuade others, they need to have strong reasons. |
– Students look at their lives and plan to change things through persuasion.
– Students make signs and letters to persuade others. |
| Nonfiction – “How To” | Students learn that they can teach others by describing step-by-step what to do.
Students learn to plan out their writing. |
-Students teach others about things they are passionate about and know how to do well.
-Students write for a specific audience. |
| Nonfiction – “All About” | Students learn that nonfiction writers teach information to their audience.
Students learn they are already experts on at least one topic. |
– Students learn nonfiction writing is organized.
– Students learn nonfiction writing has many features that make it special (glossary, table of content, etc.). |
| Fictional Storytelling | Students use story elements such as character, setting, problem and solution to write a fictional story across three or more pages. | -Students learn to plan the parts of a story before they begin writing.
-Students learn to add details such as characters’ feelings and speech bubbles or dialogue. |
MATH
Standards for Mathematical Practice
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| Launching the Math Workshop- Routines | Students will build a community of mathematicians through the introduction of routines. Students will explore math manipulatives and games. | – Students will participate in routines such as the calendar, days of school, growing number line, and attendance.
-Students will build norms for talking and listening in the classroom. |
| Counting and Comparing | Mathematicians will have many meaningful opportunities to develop strategies for accurate counting. Students will also compare two (or more) quantities to determine which is more, and order quantities from least to most. | -Students compare quantities as they decide which number has more, which handful has more, or which name has more letters.
-Students develop concepts of greater than, fewer than, and equal to. |
| Beautiful Stuff (Classification) | Mathematicians will bring to school bags of “beautiful stuff” of things that they find in and around their homes. Students will have multiple opportunities to sort and count their beautiful stuff. This unit is meant to give students opportunities to sort and classify objects and to provide purposeful experiences with counting quantities. | -Students work with a partner to sort a collection of items in different ways. For example, sorting buttons by color and then by size.
-Students will organize large collections of items to help them count with accuracy. |
| Geometry | Mathematicians will create, identify, describe, compare, represent and build with 2-D and 3-D shapes. | -Students will use geoblocks to explore the relationship of two-dimensional to three-dimensional shapes.
-Students will compose and decompose shapes using pattern blocks. |
| Early Number Sense 1
Understanding Part/Whole Relationships |
Mathematicians will explore part-whole relations in the context of a “sleepover”. The rekenrek is used as a tool to act out the story of 8 children, moving up and down bunk beds. Mathematicians will develop an understanding that 8 (or any amount) can be named in many ways. | – Students will work extensively with the rekenrek (math rack) as a model of the situation.
– Students will play part-whole games. |
| Early Number Sense 2
Understanding Part/Whole Relationships |
Mathematicians will investigate the number of combinations of red and green apples to ten. Mathematicians will work towards finding all the unique combinations, and recording their solutions. | – Students will play part-whole games, such as “Part-Whole Bingo”.
-Students will work to compose and decompose numbers to ten. |
| Story Problems-
Early Addition and Subtraction |
Mathematicians will begin to make sense of the operations of addition and subtraction as they act out stories. They will play games that involve combining and decomposing quantities. | – Students will use manipulatives, drawings, tools and notations to show strategies and solutions.
-Students play math games involving early addition. |
| The Number System- “Taking Inventory” | Mathematicians will develop strategies for organizing, counting, and keeping track of large amounts. They will begin to consider grouping as a way to count more efficiently. During their inventory work, students will explore the place value patterns that occur when making groups of ten. | -Students will take an “inventory” of class materials.
-Math Congresses give students the opportunity to discuss and share their work. -Students will play games involving combinations and ten and multiples of ten. |
| Just Right Games Con’t | Mathematicians will have further opportunities to use the strategies developed throughout the year. Students will play “just right” games that are matched to their mathematical development. | -Students will learn new games and revisit earlier games.
-Students will play games involving comparing, adding, subtracting, and finding equivalences. |
SOCIAL STUDIES
| Unit Name | Description | Highlights |
| All About Me | Students learn to appreciate diversity in our classroom and school.
Students learn that people are unique. Students learn that we are learners. |
-Students explore how we are all alike and different.
-Students learn that we all have needs and wants. -Students discover that there are different ways to learn and to show what we know. |
| Our Classroom and School Community | Students learn that we all belong in school.
Students learn we are responsible for ourselves and others. Students learn that we have respectful ways to interact. Students explore our school building and the many members of our school community. Students understand that it takes many people working together to make our school run. |
-Students learn schoolwide signals, agreements and norms.
-Students engage in social learning (problem solving, taking turns, sharing, listening, initiating play, etc.) -Students explore maps of our classroom and our school. -Students visit and interview different members of our school community. (Custodian, nurse, cafeteria workers.) |
| Families | Students explore and share what makes their family special.
Students learn to appreciate family diversity. Students learn that our identity derives from our family (culture, values, environment, traditions, etc.) Students participate in an in-depth study of bread. |
-Students bring in photographs of family members to share about through writing and drawing.
-Students compare their families with others in their class and identify similarities and differences. – Through field trips and shared experiences, students will learn about different kinds of bread. They will explore how bread plays a role in their family culture. |
| The Neighborhood | Students investigate the many people and places in our school’s neighborhood. Students participate in an in-depth study of restaurants. | -Through multiple field trips students learn first hand about different places in our neighborhood.
-Students create their own restaurant for families and the school community to attend. |