Ms. Shelby Thiner
Welcome to Kindergarten!
Hello! Welcome to SJV and welcome to kindergarten!
In kindergarten at SJV we learn a lot and we have a lot of fun too!
We start off our mornings with morning meeting and prayer. On Wednesday mornings we attend Mass. We have Mass partners with the 6th graders. The kindergarteners sit with their Mass partners and learn how to participate in Mass. The kindergarteners enjoy spending time with their Mass partners during Mass and during special events at school.
After our morning meetings, we go right into math. We start off the year recognizing and working with numbers. Once we have mastered numbers, we then move into solving simple addition and subtraction problems with pictures. We then learn about measurement. When we are done with measurement, we learn about classifying objects and positions. We then move on to learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We finish the school year learning about time to the hour and money (coins).
Once we are done with math, we move into reading. We start off the year learning/reviewing letters and letter sounds. When we have almost completed working with letters and letter sounds, we move into learning sight words. We start off with learning one sight word a week. Then we move to two sight words a week. Lastly, we end the school year with learning six sight words a week. While learning our sight words, we also start learning how to sound out words. Throughout the school year, the kindergarteners also learn how to make predictions about what our stories will be about, how to summarize our stories we are reading, the main idea of our stories, the story structure, and comparing and contrasting our stories. As a kindergarten class, we also spend a lot of time learning about phonics and grammar. Besides whole group reading lessons, we also have small group reading lessons. We use Daily 5 as part of our small group reading lessons.
After Daily 5 we move into social studies and science. The first half of the school year we spend on social studies and the second half of the year we spend on science. In social studies we learn about citizenship, the current and past leaders in our country, wants and needs, goods and services, parts of a map, traditions, and history. In science we learn about plants, animals, Earth, weather, matter, and a little bit of simple machines.
In the afternoon we do handwriting and religion. We use the D’Nealian handwriting series for handwriting. In religion we learn about God, God’s creation, Jesus, Jesus sharing God’s love with us, baptism, followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary, Advent, Lent, Christmas, Easter, and All Saints Day.
The kindergarteners have phy. ed. every day, music every Tuesday and Thursday, library every Wednesday and art every Friday. Every week each kindergartener also gets the opportunity to bring an item from home to share with their classmates. Throughout the school year the kindergarteners get the opportunity to lead an Advent and a Lent prayer service and at the end of the school year they get to lead one Mass. Besides everything we cover in kindergarten, your kindergartener will also get a little bit of playtime each day at the end of the day.
As being a part of SJV, your child will have many opportunities to bond with their classmates and other students in the school through whole school activities and weekly Mass.
My goal every year for my students is that by the time they leave my classroom, I have taught them everything I could teach them and I was able to get them to their fullest potential as a kindergartener.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for choosing us at SJV to educate your child.
