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The Wilkinson School: Curriculum"This school is not just an educational institution. Wilkinson establishes an environment in which knowledge and creativity are valued. We present this gift to our children in an atmosphere of patience, sensitivity and sincere love." - C.H. |
Room 1In Language Art this year the kindergarten students will be focusing on learning upper and lower case letter recognition, sound/letter association along with identifying and name initial letter sounds. We will also be focusing on rhyming words, sight words and word families. The children will also begin learning to print upper and lower case manuscript letters. As the year progresses the children will learn to decode words and write simple sentences using phonetic spelling. In first grade, the students will focus on spelling/vocabulary, phonics instruction, writing and oral language. There will be a large focus this year on improving penmanship, introduction of more enriching vocabulary and use of more descriptive words in writing and with verbal speech. The children in the first grade will begin to focus on the appropriate use of singular and plural nouns, as well as contradictions. They will also be working on distinguishing between declarative, exclamatory and interrogative sentences. Theses subjects are taught and practiced daily. Students progress according to their ability level. Daily students participate in story time, partner reading and individual silent reading times. Many hands-on activities and games are used to encourage, challenge and reinforce learning that takes place. Writing 6+1 Trait® Writing - Beginning Writer This year our beginning writers in Room 1 will introduced and instructed in the 6+1 traits of writing: Ideas and Content, Organiztion, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Conventions. The traits of good writing are there from the start. Beginning writers will build strong foundations by using trait language to discuss literature and respond to storytelling, drawing, and writing. A picture full of detail indicates keen observation and attention. That's Ideas. Sequential pictures reflect a growing sense of Organization. Voice might first show itself through speaking and storytelling. By stepping back and recognizing that writing includes thinking, listening, reading, planning, talking, drawing ... we open our eyes to all sorts of possibilities and the beginning of fabulous writers. Math Throughout the year, kindergarten students are introduced to the concept of numbers 1-30, through writing, counting, comparing and sorting objects. Students learn to count to 100 with an emphasis on the 100th day of school activities. Students discover colors and shapes develop patterns and explore problem-solving methods. We also learn how to tell time and use tools of measurement. Lastly, students will be exposed to addition and subtraction through the use of manipulative. Our first grade students begin the year reviewing addition and subtraction and quickly are introduced to place values and double-digit addition and subtraction. We also review money sense, telling time and measurement with advanced instruction in all areas. Students will explore story problems and develop critical thinking skills. Students are also encouraged to memorize math facts in addition and subtraction. We play lots of math games to enrich and challenge students learning. Social Studies In kindergarten and first grade, our Social Studies program develops individual, social and cultural awareness. It prepares students to be responsible citizens, exposes them to cultural observances and celebrations, and allows them to make the vital connection among past, present and future. Students will learn how they relate to others from the past and present. Through our study of the Wilkinson school Core Values, Life skills and classroom rules students learn to share, take turns, respect the rights of others and learn be responsible for themselves and their possessions. Students will learn to make choices and to accept responsibility for those choices. They will recognize that school is a place to work and learn, they will learn the role of rules in their school and classroom, and they will demonstrate responsible civic behavior in class. Students will come to appreciate their uniqueness and worth as human beings. The emphasis this year is the American Southwest studies and all of themes mentioned above will be covered through the American Southwest. Room 1 will cover the following concepts: -World Geography and Maps skills -History of American symbols -Characters from the American Southwest -Citizenship -Changes: Then and Now Art Students in Room 1 study art created by artists and groups of people as well as each other's art. Students express their thoughts and feelings towards art through drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics and discussion. Students will be exposed to different ways of creating art and experiencing art through a variety of methods that are at their level. Students use a variety of materials such as different types of paints, chalks, watercolors, crayons, markers, and pastels to create their art. Students will have lessons on color and value, shapes, and lines as well as texture and forms. Spanish Spanish curriculum in Room 1 consists of basic Spanish. Through music, songs and games students learn the basics of Spanish. The Spanish alphabet, numbers 1-20, colors, months and days of the week, colors and shapes are some of the basic things students will be learning in the first few months. Students practice greetings, answering to greetings and introductions. They also focus on basic questions and say short statements. In order to master the Spanish accent, students will concentrate on basic vocabulary through out the year. A big help at home is to encourage your child to practice what he has learned in class. Physical Education Physical Education in Room 1 consists of a variety of elements. Our main focus is on helping student’s build self esteem and learn good sportsmanship. Students are introduced to several group or team sports and activities. To help students with their basic motor skills we practice a variety of warm-up and movement exploration activities. Students are also coached in understanding the importance of being a team player. As part of our PE program students will also participate in 40-mile club and hikes to Quarry Park and other areas in our school surroundings. Our overall goal is to make this program as fun and enjoyable as possible for each student so they can enjoy physical education and look forward to playing with their teammates. * List of texts used and materials will be provided upon request. Recommended Reading Students are encouraged to read at home with family and friends. Here are compiled Book Lists for both Kindergarten and First Grade.
Room 2We will be beginning your child’s school day with a daily Morning Meeting. It is a great way to build community, set a positive tone, increase excitement about learning, and improve academic and social skills. Morning Meeting will take around thirty minutes. During the greeting session, students will learn many skills such as turn-taking, courtesy, patience, eye-contact, and self-control. After greetings, there will be a group activity, involving reading poetry, singing a song or playing a math game. These activities will unite the class, reinforce academic skills, and help the children to learn how to cooperate and solve problems. Finally, we will look at the day’s schedule. We will often review and practice a reading, punctuation or math skill before closing the meeting. The exercises will consist of one of the following: 1 Students will be expected to correct a misspelled and poorly written sentence. 2 Students will be expected to participate in solving a math problem of the day. 3 Students will be given a chance to share something about themselves. Morning Meeting will value the children in the class and emphasis that school is a safe place where all children’s feelings and ideas are important. We’d love to have you visit a Morning Meeting. It is an positive and exciting way to start our day in Room 2. Language Arts The language arts curriculum for the Room 2 Class will be divided into different themes focused on the various types of writing. We will start with poetry in September and finish the calendar year off with personalized letters, thank you notes, etc. and other writing formats while working on paragraph structure. January and February will feature non-fiction story writing in preparation for Young Author’s Night. During the months of March and April will tackle writing for fiction. The year will be punctuated with comic strip writing in May and June. Students will be reading cross curricular materials that coincide with the writing themes for the year, beginning with various types of poetry, non fiction and fiction pieces. We will also be studying various authors/themes in some of the books we read, which will relate to our Social Studies theme of the Hopi Indians. In Room 2, providing multi-level and individualized instruction in Reading, Writing, Spelling/Vocabulary, and Oral Language is essential. Our approach in Reading and Writing balances the benefit of whole word and whole language learning with that of direct, explicit instruction in phonics and the structure of English, including the major vowel patterns, prefixes, suffixes, and roots. The goal of reading comprehension is achieved through both guided instruction in reading as well as independent silent reading. Reading groups will offer further individualized attention. Children are helped to master skills which enable them to build vocabulary, identify main ideas, arrange elements of a story in sequence, identify and interpret time and place, recognize mood, draw conclusions from details, identify speaker and listener, understand the author’s purpose in writing the passage or story, and learn other techniques to deepen comprehension and literary appreciation. Writing is a central theme to our Room 2 curriculum. Children will focus on developing their writing skills and processes through the practice of both unguided journal writing done independently each day and bi-weekly guided expository writing which progresses through the stages of brainstorming, rough draft, editing, final copy and publishing, (some of which will be allocated to the homework packets that will mirror our thematic units.) Children are led to deepen their writing skills and reach towards mastering a rubric for evaluating their writing, which includes idea development (develops ideas clearly and fully with details, descriptions and anecdotes to explain and clarify information), organization (organizes ideas logically in paragraphs with effective instruction and conclusion), language usage (lively, descriptive language with precise verbs, specific nouns, varied sentence length, and type), and mechanics (few errors in punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing, complete sentences without run-ons and fragments). They will be making use a writing journal that is designed for their grade level, which is comprised of an evaluation section for self-evaluation, a spelling dictionary, and other various tools to help build their writing skills. Room 2 children will also participating in a concentrated study of writing skills including a focus on penmanship, use of dictionary and thesauruses to assist in developing descriptive writing pieces, creating informational reports with a central question in mind, summarizing and paraphrasing. They will also be introduced to completing multi paragraph essays covering introduction, supporting ideas, and a conclusion. As part of the weekly homework packet, students will be expected to read for at least twenty minutes a night, study their weekly spelling words, complete worksheets strengthening language arts and math skills, practice handwriting and finish work not completed in class. Book reports and writing assignments will be assigned at the beginning of each month. Mathematics The Room 2 math program consists of multi-level individualized instruction in the areas of number, measurement, geometry, patterns and functions, statistics, and probability, logic and algebra. Our goal is to equip our students for success in math thinking and math computation. We challenge our students with advanced math concepts and with math games intended to exercise mathematical thinking. At the same time we emphasize memorization of math facts and drill in the basic operations of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. There will also be a heavy focus on problem solving skills. Students will work in level specific groups to master their math skills. Math tests will occur and the end of every unit and periodically to strengthen basis skills and reinforce skills already learned. Spanish The class will be doing a variety of activities to make the learning process faster and easier. Students will play a variety of games, sing songs and participate in listening exercises by listening to stories in Spanish from tapes or by Ms. Maria reading to them. Students are encouraged to borrow books from the library to help them get familiar with Spanish words. As the student's Spanish vocabulary expands they will also begin to string words together and create short sentences. Repetition is the key. The more the students practice their Spanish the easier it will be for them to remember words. Each quarter is focused in a review of the previous material covered and increasing the student's vocabulary by introducing new words and subjects. Our lessons will include: Colors Numbers 1-100 Shapes Greetings Time Foods Days of the week and months Alphabet and vowels 1. Classroom materials 2. School equipment 3. Review of introductions and responding to introductions 4. Make requests: May I get water 5. Provide basic information: I go to Wilkinson School 6. Express likes/dislikes: I like banana ice cream • List of texts used and materials will be provided upon request. Expectations Students will be expected to follow The Wilkinson School way of treating everyone with empathy. They will be asked to respect and car for themselves, to respect and care for others and to respect and care for our environment. Students will be expected to be well-mannered and to follow through with all their responsibilities. Students will be expected to read books of their choices twenty minutes a night. Homework will be distributed on Monday and should be returned on Thursday. Homework will consist of homework packets or book reports. Homework will be utilized to bolster the themes and curriculum of each month. Support for student’s struggling with homework will be offered both at lunch and after school. There will be an emphasis on writing this year that will be reflected in the homework packets, book reports and young author projects. Students will be involved in publishing their ongoing writing projects. Closing Each day will culminate with silent reading and reflection on the day’s activities. A journal will be kept to record something that was learned that day. Other topics will include a chance for acknowledging successes and determining ways to improve. Parents are expected to be active participants in their child’s learning by supporting them at home, by helping them with homework, by being visible on campus so that children know the expectations at home and school are consistent, by helping them with all school projects and by being an active part of the Wilkinson School family. Attached is a suggested Reading List of books for your children to read with you throughout the school year:
Room 3Language Arts The language arts curriculum in classroom 3 will incorporate all areas – reading, writing, and oral – on a weekly basis through a variety of tasks and concepts. In reading, we will focus on the decoding of words, with the younger students focusing more directly on word roots and the older students on context and connections between words. This will include reading comprehension tasks in which students will answer both simple and inferential questions and write about texts in a paragraph, essay format. The reading texts will include current news articles, poems, expository texts, short stories and novels, with further focus on the difference between these. Writing tasks in classroom 3 will be of both a narrative and expository nature. The younger group will identify and utilize basic literary concepts: plot structure, characterization, setting, etc., in composing short stories. They will also construct expository texts, focusing their skills on sequencing and overall flow. The older students focus will be of a more structural and conceptual nature, developing the overall thesis of the compositions and using a variety of sentence and paragraph structures. The oral portion of classroom three will be of a more general, comprehensive, and continuous nature. Appropriate communication and public speaking skills apply to individuals of all ages and will be exercised in kind. Students will have opportunities to practice their interpersonal and persuasive communication on a daily basis through classroom discussion. They will also speak extemporaneously for their peers on a regular basis, practicing their focus, pacing, and brevity. They will also give presentations based upon other classwork, including interpretive, descriptive, and persuasive speeches. Along with each of these general areas, there will also be a focus on grammar and the English language. Students will be encouraged to find clear and expressive methods of communication. They will receive a consistent exposure to the rules and structure of the English language. This is an area that extends into reading, writing, and speaking, and, thusly, will be taught through each. Mathematics As the students are at different ability levels, they will be working either in small groups during a portion of the math period. This time will allows them the opportunity to learn new concepts together, then work at their own pace, with benchmarks set by the classroom teacher, and receive direct instructions on specific problems. The younger students will begin the year with work on fractions and decimals. This may be new work for some and review for others, providing an opportunity for some students to polish and solidify their skills by practicing and providing assistance to their peers. The students will eventually move into basic geometry and basic algebra concepts through the interpretation of various problems. Older students, who have already begun work with concepts in Algebra, will continue working in the Key Stages math texts. There will also be occasional mathematics projects that will involve the skills of each of the students in solving a larger problem. These have potential to include work in other content areas, such as speaking and writing in language arts. During these projects, the students at different levels will work together on a common goal, allowing them the opportunity to put their newfound knowledge to work. Visual Arts Visual arts is a medium that exists across content areas. Utilizing, interpreting, and appreciating visual media is a comprehensive skill that will play a role in their language arts and mathematics courses. The visual arts curriculum will provide students the opportunity to reverse the roles and create tangible works of their own. This creative aspect will have two functions. On some occasions, the art will be an opportunity for the students to express their thoughts and feelings through a new medium, sharing them with their peers. On others, the creative process will focus on specific artistic or content area tasks, like use of light and dark, color schemes, or the visual manifestation of the setting in a story. Often, the visual arts projects will involve both of these functions, through mediums such as photography, watercolors, paint, and graphic arts. Physical Education Wilkinson School places a strong emphasis on being fit for life. With this ideology, we firmly believe in taking the children out on hikes to many of the most beautiful locations in this country that are located right here in our “back yard.” We take frequent hikes to the Quarry Park, and the beach, along with our annual hikes to Big Basin and Montara Mountain. Included in this curriculum is also an emphasis on learning new sports and being a team player. this year the students will be learning how to play lacrosse and field hockey, and also participating in soccer, basketball, baseball/softball, and ultimate Frisbee. We also have a 40Mile Club, in which the children complete laps around the school on the track where every ten laps is one mile. Students are successful by exhibiting a willingness to be healthy and work together as a team to learn new sports or continue to build skills in already familiar sports. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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