Saint Paul's Lutheran School Kingsville, MD
Mr. Skip Osbourn
Integrated Language Arts: The children will be surrounded by a literature-rich environment: quality children's books, charts, poetry, magazines, as well as the reading series Treasures (copyright 2007) from MacMillan/McGraw Hill, our Word Wall, and the Word Bank program.
Treasures is a thematic program that provides the most up-to-date instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, high frequency/sight words, as well as learning to read. Each Friday, the kindergartners will visit our school library to select a book whose title coordinates with the letter and sound we are currently studying, or relates to our science theme.
Social Living: Weekly Reader and the "Faith Alive" program from Concordia Publishing House will be used to stress the importance of family, friends, church, community, school helpers, and holidays.
Science: Scott Foresman's Discover the Wonder science series will be used to teach about the human body (senses, growing, keeping healthy and clean, nutrition, etc.), living vs. non-living things, plants and animals, and ecology. Physical science will include the concepts of matter, color, shape, size, light and heavy objects, sound, heat, light, movement, and magnets for fun. Earth science will teach about the planet earth, day and night, and the weather.
Math Readiness: The text Mathematics Advantage, K-level from Harcourt Brace and Company will be used to teach sorting, classifying, matching, counting, numbers and sets, 0 through 20, shapes and parts of shapes, money, measuring, time, and addition and subtraction.
Physical Education: Kindergarteners will learn to develop large muscles, small muscles, and eye-hand coordination. They will also be taught the need for a healthy body, the importance of fair play and good sportsmanship, how to move their bodies creatively, and how to listen and follow directions.
Writing Readiness: Writing and reading readiness will be integrated across content areas. The children will be exposed to various types of writing including books, letters, cards, invitations, story writing, and newspapers. They will discover the importance of writing as a means of communication, learn to print their first and last names, as well as all lower and upper case letters of the alphabet. Each child will learn to copy or write "near point" (from a paper next to him or her) and "far point" (from a distance). All students will keep a Writing Journal, learn to write from dictation including words, phrases, and simple sentences.
Religion: Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10:14-15) The kindergartners learn right from the beginning that they are Jesus's little lambs and how precious they are to our Lord! Our religion studies include how God made the world, Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, His death and resurrection, and more. Our weekly memory verse has a key word in it that begins with the same letter and sounds we are working on in reading. Children learn to pray for others, sing and praise our Lord, and learn that when they reach out to help others, the are serving our Lord from their hearts.
Music: Children will explore rhythms, beats, and rests; musical instruments will be used to enjoy singing and listening to music to praise our Lord. The students will participate in spring and Christmas musicals and learn to move their bodies creatively to music. Mrs. Zieroth, our choir director, will teach the class. Students will attend Tiny Tots concerts at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
Art: Children will learn to express themselves creatively through various art materials, learn to manipulate art tools, and participate in the Picture Parent art program.