Curriculum Night

Posted is the entire presentation given on Wednesday, September 24. Please review as needed.

Welcome to Room Thirty-One

Curriculum Night
2008-2009

Agenda
“Thoughts at the Bottom of the Beanstalk”
Getting to Know Mrs. Kurkinen
Review of Procedures
Philosophy of Kindergarten Education
Love and Logic Management Philosophy
What We Do and What We’ll Learn
State Benchmarks
Assessments
Exceptional Students
Curriculum and its Application
Daily Schedule
Volunteering
Fall Conferences



Your Child’s Teacher
Taught kindergarten - fourth grade.
Lived to two orphanages.
Taught in seven countries.
Studied applied linguistics, international literacy and curriculum development.
Authored three curriculum units.

Parent Communication
Home Folder
Email: mkurkine@pps.k12.or.us
Kurkinenkingerdarten.blogspot.com
BigTent Calendar
Occasional Newsletter

Kindergarten Procedures
Home Folders
Transportation
No toys at school
Daily Reading
Lunch / Snack
Birthdays and Parties
End of the Day

Kindergarten Philosophy
All students are respected and competent.
Students take responsibility for their learning, their possessions and their actions.
The facilitation of learning is modeled, shared and individualized in order to allow each child to reach their full potential.
Assessments are used for instruction, not as a product.
Kindergarten fosters a love a learning that will last throughout a child’s educational career.

Management Philosophy
Love and Logic; Faye and Faye
Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood
Give choices
Empathy with Consequences
Natural vs Logical consequences
Management vs Discipline
School Policy
One warning
Time out
Sent to another room
Sent the the office
Think Sheet
Signed by parents and returned

What We Do All Day
We learn to be citizens of a community.
We learn to take responsibility.
We learn how to learn.
We learn to try.
We learn reading, writing and arithmetic too!

State Benchmarks
Children will read at a level 4 DRA
Children will be able to write five complete sentences, with punctuation.
Children will be able to count, sort, define and infer mathematically.

Assessments
Concepts of print
Letter name and sound
Reading Level
High frequency words
Rhyming
Blending
Unset
Whole
Spelling
Holistic piece

Route counting (1,2,5,10)
One to one correspondence
Numbers
written and read
Estimates
One’s Addition/ Subtraction
Shapes
Function:
Calendar
Clock
Graph

Exceptional Students
Special Education
Teacher refers students to be assessed as needed.

Curriculum
Literacy
Reading Street
Whole Group
Leveled Reading Groups
Kid Writing
Individual autographical samples
REACH
Workstations Record Keeping
Response Sheets
Mathematics
Everyday Counts
Calendar
Arithmetic
Patterning
Graphing
Investigations
Work Centers
Engineering
Application

Daily Schedule
8:05 Path to Learning
8:10 Shared Literacy
8: 35 Individualized Kinetic Mathematics
9:10 Snack/Break
9:20 Modeled and Shared Mathematics
9:40 Modeled and Shared Writing
10:00 Individual Writing
10:30 Choice Modeled Reading
10:40 Lunch
11:05 Recess
11:25 Kindergarten Science Groups
11:55 Silent Reading
12:00 Writing Workstations/ Reading Groups
1:00 Snack/ break
1:15 Thematic Work
1:45 Shared Reading
2:10 End of day Procedure


Tuesdays
8:10 Music
8:35 P.E.

Wednesday
8:45 Library

Fridays
12:20 - 12:45 Kinder Sing
12:45 -1:30 Family Friday
1:45- 2:10 Reading Buddies



Help at Home
Responsibility
Chores
Personal objects
Communication read and discussed
Library checkout on themes
Read daily
Ask them to read everyday print

Names on all possessions.
Shoe tying
Invite classmates over
Keep sick children home when sick
All meds accounted for in office
Volunteering
Workstations and Centers
Reading Individually
Lunch/ Recess
Field Trips
Celebrations
Copying / cutting
Laminating
Filing
After-school organizing
Scholastic Orders

Parent-Teacher Conferences
November 20, 24, 25

Sign Up Tonight!
School policy restricts any rescheduling outside set dates

The Trouble with T

By the third week of school Kindergartners are just comfortable enough to begin expressing their insecurities. "I can't", "It's too hard", and "Why do I have too" begin to rumble in the background. To address the issue students write the word 'can't' on yellow strips. We talk about this word and why it keeps us from doing the job of learning. Together we realize how much we CAN do and how we can being to try. Once Mrs. K rips the T off her strip everyone follows suit and soon the T is literally under our feet. After a good emotional triumph we set our CAN to work making a class poem of what WE CAN DO! Our work will soon be up in the hall of all to see.

More Oreo

Kindergarten couldn't decide what Oreo liked most: apples, carrots, guinea food or hay. Educated guesses were given, "Mrs. K once told me she really likes apples", "She squeeks the most when the refrigerator opens...we keep the fruits and veggies in there"," She needs her food the most".

We learned how to write our inquiry and graphed our data as our experiment took place.

Given the choice, would Oreo eat her food, hay, apple or carrot?
Why did she go to her food first?
Does she know where the other food is?
Is she going to the food closest to her or is she choosing it?


After much debate of the scientific method, Kindergarten decides that we will need further research. However, our hypothesis was written and sign by all those involved.

Apples to Apples

Kindergarten embarked on our first thematic unit of study, Harvest!
We kicked off our learning with a famed tale of a "house with no doors, no windows, and a star inside". The children were awe struck with Mrs.Kurkinen's ability to implant the five pointed figure in the center of her apple. After a very scientific discussion, we decided that every apple holds its seeds in a star formation... the reason why is still lost on humanity.


Kindergarteners use pattern block paper to recreate the star in the center of their paper apples.

After stuffing the scraps of the project between two congruent shapes, the kindergartners enclose the apples.

Getting to Business

There comes a time, not usually this early in the year, when five-year-olds buckle down and get to work. Shown here is our greatest achievement to date; thirty-five minutes of absolute quite. Nothing but a faint sound of pencil skratching can be heard.

Acting Out

I hear, I forget
I see, I remember
I do, I understand
-Chinese Proverb

Students work together to enact the life-cycle of a plant. Starting as each and every part of a seed, (seedcoat seen above) then they grow to encompass the web of life.

"Super Science" is off to a great start.

Shock and Awe

When Mrs. Kurkinen lost her camera charger she began using her laptop to document kindergarten happenings. These children were working well pair-reading... They lost that ability when the screen showed proof of their performance.

Oreo

Oreo is adjusting well to the routines of Kindergarten. We have as well, using our time to finish our work... and then visit the pig. Only once has the pig escaped following a perfect kindergarten performance of Stop Look and Listen, a clapping game used to gain student attention. Once the class earns another, she'll find her way to the carpet once again.

Oreo can earn points at home as well. Simply RSVP to the invitation on BigTent and Oreo can be yours for the weekend! (click Fridays on our calendar)

Recording Literacy

Literacy training begins with recording actual events. Students write or draw autobiographical tales during Writer's Workshop. Mrs. Kurkinen models the thought process by writing about what she did after school, or how she felt about the fire drill on Wednesday.


Students receive a specific amount of drawing time to get their ideas on paper, then must spend the remainder of Writing Workshop putting letter sounds on the page. In the month of September students may write one of four ways; scribble writing (where no discernible letters are present), lettering (where a stream of known letters are written), Kid Writing (where sounds phonetically make sense and create words) or adult writing. In October, scribble writing will no longer be a necessary choice. By the end of kindergarten all students are expected to write five sentences in Kid Writing with many sight words spelled correctly. Punctuation and vowels included.


By the look on Isaac's face, it will be a breeze.

Constructing Learning

Room Thirty-One learns how to learn by using hands-on manipulatives. Each day, children are given a new math tool to explore before we begin to use them academically. This enables students to investigate the properties of our materials before being instructed to use them in a particular manner.

Teachers love it when children choose to use math manipulatives during their "choice learning". Once or twice a week students receive a brief moment of free time. More often then not, they choose to further past investigations.



While building with pattern blocks, students get the chance to walk about the room and view the work of their peers. This allows them to use the blocks in new ways and learn how to compliment their friends.


Symmetry and patterning occur naturally when children explore these tools.



And if at all possible, wheels will be added.

Our Firsts

Our first week of school has brought many firsts. Kindergartners have quite a lot of responsibilities in Room Thirty-One. Before school begins they must take their lunches, home folders, and coats out without any aid. Once they sign in by turning their picture, they are ready to flip a chair and begin their handwriting practice.


Moms and dads crowed in our classroom to help us begin our day. After five days of practice, kindergarteners get they day started by putting away their personal belongings, flipping a chair and getting to work on their handwriting without any direction.



Kindergarten learns how to be safe on the playground after meeting all of thier peers.



Andrew takes the lesson to heart and checks out hopscotch.

New friends are made by 9:15am.