Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-Kindergarten Syllabus

                                                                                                                                                 

 Pre-Kindergarten Syllabus   

 

 

 

 

Class P-02

Class P-01

Pre-K Happenings

Current Unit: Reduce,Reuse, Recycle

Next Unit: Buildings

Summary of Unit:

Reduce,reuse and recycling are important aspects of taking care of our planet. Our students have a good understanding of ways and why we need to take care of the Earth. We have explored the deep blue sea and the dense rainforest and now we are exploring trash right here in our own backyard.

We will explore the topic of trash while learning through hands-on experiences that support all areas of development and learning. Through this exploration the students will collect data, solve problems, expand their vocabulary, engineer projects using recycled items, and build on their math skills. 

 

At home you can:

  • Talk about the trash your family creates
  • Pose questions: How can we reduce trash? What can we recycle? What can we reuse in another way?
  • Go for a walk: notice trash/garbage trucks/garbage cans: have them be problem solvers
  • Make something out of recycle items
  •  Students holding their recycled art projects that they engineered. 

Reading: 

Students continue to engage with our daily Read Alouds. Before reading, pre-k students are introduced to new vocabulary words they will see in the book. Next, we take a story walk to preview the text. This helps students make predictions and connections to the story. During reading, we take pauses to ask high-order thinking questions which require students to use their background knowledge and critical thinking skills. After reading, students frequently engage in Turn and Talks to share something they’ve learned with a peer. The goal is to build dialogue and conversation between students while highlighting what they learned from the text. This unit we will be reading books all about water.  

 

At home you can:

  • Reread familiar books with your child and encourage them to use the picture clues and their past knowledge of the book to “read” the story to you.
  • Preview new or familiar books before reading. Look at the pictures (cover of the book) and make predictions about what will happen in the story. 
  • Encourage your child to make connections between books and their own life. How are they like the characters in the story? How are they different?
  • Some books to read:
  • 10 Ways I can reduce, Reuse and Recycle By:Elizabeth Weitzman
  • The Keeping Quilt By Patricia Polacco
  • Trashy Town By:Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
  • Gabby and Grandma Go Green By:Monica Wellington

Writing: 

Pre-kindergarten students are still learning a letter a week. We are almost all done with the introduction of all the letters, we have less than 5 left. The students have been practicing figuring out the beginning sounds of many words.    Additionally, most children are now writing their first and last names independently.   We will continue to encourage students to write their names using an uppercase letter for the first letter and then all lowercase letters to encourage proper writing form.

At home you can:

  • Have your child practice writing their first and last name.
  • Give your child a piece of ice and have them write letters using the ice on a dark piece of construction paper.
  • Encourage your child to label their drawings with known letter sounds. For example, “You drew a rainbow. What letter do you hear at the beginning of ‘rainbow’? Try to write the letter ‘r’ next to your rainbow drawing.”

 Picture of the letter n on dark paper using ice 

Math: 

During this unit, pre-k students will continue to identify patterns, extend, and create patterns on their own.   We will also be going over positional words again.  They will use themselves and objects to practice positional words.

 (up, down, above, below, next to , besides, over, under, in between, top, bottom) 

Students will also continue to practice their numbers 1-20 and of course if they can count beyond 20 please encourage them. Writing the numerals is essential as well. We practice writing the numerals using bottle caps, playdough

At home you can:

  • Make patterns using household items, such as: fork, spoon, fork, spoon, fork, spoon. 
  • Use a stuffed animal and have them place it next to them, under the table, on top of the table, above their head, below their chin.  
  • Go on a number hunt around your house.  Place the numbers 1-20 around your house and your child will have to find them. Let them practice identifying the numbers as they find them!
  • 1-20 numeral chart 

Music with Ms. Florio 

The students in PreK-1 started music class with Ms. Florio in the month of February. In music class, students will be distinguishing their singing voices from other voices (whisper, talk, sing and shout). Students will be practicing maintaining a steady beat with their body and on percussion instruments. The instruments used in music class are drums, glockenspiels, shakers, tambourines and other basic percussive instruments. The students have also created their own drums out of recycled materials to be utilized in class. On February 15th, they will be visited by artists from Music for Many who will perform for them with puppetry.   

 PreK1 dancing and singing with Ms. Florio    Singing with Joy from Music for Many during our in house trip 

Ms Florio                                                                                            Music for Many Ms. Joy

Gym/Gross Motor Movement

Students roll a large die and identify the number of dots they see. They then have the chance to call that many friends to join them on a line standing next to them. The students then recount their friends and say 

the name of the friend standing next to them. We repeat the activity several times. We also play an alphabet game where they stand on the letters of the alphabet in a circle on the rug and make the sounds of each letter and possibly say a word that begins with that sound. Students will say their own name if they’re standing on the letter that their name begins with.We also walk around the rug and sing the alphabet song. Freeze dancing is also practiced so students can move and then stop when the music stops while doing yoga or other age appropriate exercises such as jumping jacks, arm circles,hopping, or spinning.

 

Parent’s Voice

​​Mrs. Rodriguez :Elias has shared all he has learned about recycling and how he can reuse paper to save trees.

 

Student Voice:

My mommy sings me the lullaby Twinkle Twinkle little Star: Chrisline Prek 2

 

I like the number train toy. Look Mr. Allwood the train has red, green, blue: Sebastian Prek 2

Student Work:

 Math Activities: Sorting bottle caps and measuring with paper clips 

 Students conducting a melted crayon activity 

 Students looking for a recycle symbol on a cereal box  Student creating the letter f with popsicle sticks  Drums made from Quaker oatmeal containers  Students independent reading