Kindergarten is a very exciting year. Your child will learn and experience many new things. He/she will make new friendships, gain a deeper understanding of our Catholic faith as well as strengthen his/her literacy and numeracy skills.
We believe that you are your child’s prime educator. Our role is to work with you to educate your child in many areas. The goals are:
- to develop your child’s confidence in his/her ability to learn and grow
- to help your child to develop self-control and self-discipline
- to help your child to learn and practice personal and social responsibility
- to continue to develop the foundation of a solid Catholic Education for your child
In any classroom, there is a wide range of abilities and interests. We will challenge each child to work at his/her highest standard, and to put forth his/her best effort.
Expectation for each child:
- to respect, care for and listen to one another and by doing so, create a positive and cooperative working environment in our class
- to care for and respect the classroom and school environment. (i.e. clean up after centre time, put away materials neatly, be gentle with class library book
- to try to do their best in all that they do
- to show independence in caring for their personal items (i.e. to carry his/her own backpack, to bring letters back and forth from home to school, to dress himself/herself, to put on and take of his/her own shoes)
WAYS TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN THE SUBJECT AREAS
The Language Arts program is divided into 4 categories: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. We will be using the Read Well Program.
At home, you can help by reading to your child daily and encouraging your child to participate in the reading process. Visit the Public Library and ask the Children’s Librarian for books appropriate to the Kindergarten level. Books at this level should be repetitive and use several high frequency words.
To help the children become confident writers we will introduce the journal to them. Each week the children will be encouraged to write in their journal and draw a picture to match their writing. At this early part of the year, children will be encouraged to write any letters that they already know. The will be encouraged to try to put the first sound of a word with the understanding that it is acceptable at this stage if they don’t know the correct sound. At home, you can help by reviewing the letters and sounds of the letters with your child. Encourage him/her to write notes/messages to you. We also encourage you to take every opportunity to model writing to your child (i.e. writing a grocery list, writing a note to your child). Also, ask your child what letter of the week we are working on at school and review that sound with your child and think of words that begin with that letter.
Topics we cover include:
- Number Concept (one to one correspondence, counting, printing of numerals)
- Shape & Space – Measurement
- Shape & Space – 3D Objects
- Patterns & Relations
- Number Operations (addition and subtraction facts using concrete materials)
At home, you can help by encouraging your child to count orally to 100 by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s and by 2’s to 10. Practice printing the numerals (0 to 9). Play more/less math games using a deck of playing cards. Practice simple addition and subtraction facts using real objects (i.e. When giving your child a snack such as “Goldfish” give your child 3 at first and then give your child one more Goldfish…then ask your child how many Goldfish he/she has)
The key topics in Science include:
- Matter
- Forces/Motion
- Animals
- Plants
The main topics covered in Social Studies in Kindergarten are: Self, Families, School and Community. Students will gain a deeper understanding of class/school rules. They will learn about families. More specifically, students will learn about family members, changes that occur in families, and roles and responsibilities of family members. Students will be introduced to community workers and their roles. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of belonging to our country, Canada.
Alterum accommodare duo cu. Ius labore luptatum efficiendi ex, ne vim enim rebum honestatis, ad his consulatu pertinacia deterruisset. Te bonorum ancillae nec.
The children will develop a deeper understanding of our Catholic Faith. Our school wide theme this year is I Can Do All Things Through Christ and it is the goal of the Kindergarten program to help children understand that they can care for themselves and God’s creation. Throughout the year, we will look for ways to deepen our relationship with Jesus and put our faith into action. Children will listen daily to Scripture passages and each month students will learn and memorize a Scriptural verse from the Bible. We will attend Mass with the school on a regular basis.
This year, the children will also participate in a special program entitled “The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.” The main purpose of the program is to help the children deepen their understanding of their faith.
We encourage you all to pray daily with your child, attend Mass regularly on Sundays and take time to be with Jesus as a family. Prayers to learn include: Our Father, Hail Mary, Guardian Angel, Sign of The Cross, Grace Before Meals.
Students will participate in a variety of art activities including: mixing colours, painting, print making, crafts, creating pattern and shape designs and drawing figures. Students will also learn about various artists. At home, you can help your child develop his/her artistic ability by encouraging him/her to draw, colour, cut shapes and glue.
Students will have Music class twice a week.
Students will be introduced to the basics of computers. They will have computer class once a week.
Students will have gym 4 times a week with Mr. Campanile (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays). As part of the Daily Physical Activity requirement made by the Ministry of Education, students will also have gym class on Wednesdays. Your child will thus have 30 minutes of physical activity every day of the school week. Your child will keep his/her gym runners at school. Please ensure that your child has Velcro runners and that they are non-marking.
The key purposes behind Learning Centres are: for students to learn to cooperate with others, take turns, play fairly, communicate with one another, solve problems peacefully and experience a variety of different types of activities.
REPORTING AND ASSESSMEMT
In Kindergarten, a large part of the assessment done is based upon the observation of the students. There will be times where we will meet with students individually and conference with them in Reading, Math, letter knowledge, letter sound mastery and concepts of print. In addition, we will encourage students at different times of the year to do a self-evaluation.
There are 3 Formal Reporting periods during the course of the year. The first reporting period will involve a 3 Way Conference. The second reporting period will involve a Student-Led Conference. At each reporting period, students in Kindergarten will receive an anecdotal report card that outlines the child’s strengths, areas to work on as well as goals for the following term.
REMINDERS
Absentee Notes – Please fill out an absentee note on the school website (https://stjude.ca/absentee-note/) if your child will be absent, or email the office at office@stjude.ca.
Healthy Snacks – Please ensure that your child has a healthy snack for recess/lunch break. Healthy snacks include: fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, cheese and crackers. Students are to drink WATER only. Establishing healthy eating habits in the primary years will greatly benefit your child in future years.
Please explain to your child what snack is for recess break and which snack is for his/her lunch. Please make snacks manageable. Please use easy opening containers and ensure that your child has the utensils he/she needs. It is required that every child bring a water bottle to school.
NUT-FREE Zone – We have a number of students with nut allergies. Please refrain from sending any food with nuts.
Library Book Exchange is scheduled for Tuesdays. Please remind your child to return his/her library book on this day. Students will be given a Library Book Bag.
Special Person of the Day – Each child will have the opportunity to be the “Star Helper” of the day. The “Star Helper” will help the teacher prepare and present the calendar. He/she will bring the attendance folder to the office. He/she will bring a sharing item from home and present it to the class. A notice indicating when your child will be “Star Helper” will be sent home at least 2 days prior to his/her sharing day.
Rainbow Bags – Each child has received a Rainbow Bag. The Rainbow Bag will be used as a way to correspond with one another. If there are any notices, newsletters or reminder letters that need to be sent home they will be put into the Rainbow Bag and sent home with your child. Each day the child is to return the Rainbow Bag to school. Money for fieldtrips, Scholastics book order, letters to the teacher can be put into the Rainbow Bag. We will check the bags daily. We hope that this will help in keeping the lines of communication open between us.
Scholastic Book Orders – You are able to order books through Scholastics Canada. Each month we will send home a book order form with your child. If you are interested in ordering books, please complete the book order form and return it in an envelope with a cheque payable to Scholastic Canada by the date indicated. It is not mandatory for you to order books.
Care Day – Typically on the last Friday of the month students wear clothing to match the theme of the day. Please check the newsletter for details. This is also a noon dismissal day so teachers can meet to plan school curriculum.
School Newsletters – School newsletters are emailed out every Friday. Please subscribe to the school newsletter to keep abreast of upcoming events and school news.
School Uniform – Students are to wear their full school uniform each day. If it is a warm day, please put your child’s sweater in his/her backpack. Students are to wear black non-marking shoes. Girls are allowed to wear clips, hair bands and elastics in their hair. It is, however, required that the colour of their hair accessories match the school uniform (i.e. green, yellow, blue, red, white, black)
Birthdays –No food is allowed to be brought as a form of birthday celebration. This means no pizza, cupcakes, chips, candy, juice, pop, etc. There are many food allergies, food intolerances, and families may have different nutritional habits which may not align with the edible treats. Suitable alternatives are things like birthday pencils, erasers, bookmarks, etc. Alternatively, you could consider making a charitable donation in honor of your child’s birthday and notifying the classroom.