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Angela Lang
alang3@cherrycreekschools.org
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Leslie Shedd
lshedd@cherrycreekschools.org
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Kathy Dock
kdock2@cherrycreekschools.org
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Tiffany Stienmetz
tsteinmetz@cherrycreekschools.org
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Elane Marr
emarr@cherrycreekschools.org
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Stacey Shwayder
sshwayder@cherrycreekschools.org
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Becky Clawson
Para-educator
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Sally Brown
Para-educator
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Homeria Chaichian
Para-educator
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Bobbi Briceno
Para-educator
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Our goal for Kindergarten is to instill in our students a love of school, and to foster their independence. We strive to work with each child at his or her own pace and help them develop a positive attitude toward learning and a strong self image. We expect students to be responsible for their belongings, their behavior, and their school-work. We encourage the classes to become communities that care for each other and work together. We work in both large and small groups. We also have an incredible support staff that enables us to differentiate our instruction to meet varying student needs.
Our Kindergarten Schedule is as follows:
9:00-9:10 DEAR, Attendance, Lunch Count
9:10-9:55 Language Arts/Social Studies
9:55-10:40 Specials/Centers
10:40-10:55 Recess
10:55-11:05 Daily Message, Class Books
11:05-11:45 Math/Science
11:45-11:50 Clean-up/Dismissal
12:40-12:50 DEAR, Attendance
12:50-1:00 Daily Message, Class Books
1:00-1:40 Language Arts/Social Studies
1:40-1:55 Recess
1:55-2:40 Math/Science
2:40-3:25 Specials/Centers
3:25-3:30 Clean-up/Dismissal
Our Kindergartners participate in the following programs: reading, writing, math, science, social studies, handwriting, physical education, art, music, technology, library, and centers.
We use the “Handwriting Without Tears” program for handwriting. This developmentally based, flexible, and engaging program is an easy, effective way for children to develop good handwriting skills. The students work on worksheets, use engaging hands-on materials, and sing and dance to lively music to inspire active learning. You should see us boogie while learning correct letter formation! This program also helps reinforce letter recognition for both capital and lower case letters.
Our reading program is a literature-based program with leveled books for reading. We incorporate phonics during instruction time, specifically using the FAST reading program. The students are also asked to learn to recognize and write 33 high frequency sight words by the end of the year.
We encourage the students to see themselves as authors by writing in journals that are sent home once a month. We do lots of modeling and scaffolding for the kids on how to sound out a word, and later put those together to write a sentence beginning with a capital and ending with a period. We also literature response activities after listening to a story to work on story concepts such as characters, setting, problem, solutions, re-tell, and connections.
Our school math program is Everyday Math. This program provides lessons, activities, and games that integrate mathematics into children’s daily life in the classroom. The units that this program covers are measurement, money, geometry, numeration, patterns/functions, clocks/calendars, graphing and operations. There are also many opportunities for teaching mathematics that are inherent in our everyday routines. Our calendar time encompasses adding, subtracting, tens/ones, telling time, counting, tallying, graphing, patterning, and problem solving.
Social Studies Units covered include safety, friendship/problem solving, drug education (health), farm and family traditions, maps & globes, and Africa. Science Units include Characteristics of Living Things, Exploring With the Senses, Looking at the Earth and Sky, Pushes and Pulls, and Body Parts.
We feel very fortunate to teach in a school with outstanding community support, and we value having parent volunteers in our classrooms. We have monthly communication with parents through our Cottonwood Courier. We also send notes and reminders of upcoming activities home in the student’s Daily Kindergarten Folder.
Students have a homework folder with activities to complete Mondays-Thursdays with parent assistance. The purpose of this homework is to help foster strong work habits and to help students gain responsibility. These homework assignments reinforce what we are working on in class. A Homework Folder will be sent home at the beginning of each month with a calendar full of assignments and a reading log for the month.
Annual Kindergarten Activities to Look Forward To:
- Gingerbread Man Hunt
- Merry Andrew Afoot (Play and Drama Workshop)
- Thanksgiving Feast
- Winter Party and Valentines Party
- A field trip to the Denver Stock Show
- African Drummer
- A field trip to the Denver Zoo
- Spring Fling
- Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony