Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a gateway through which your child passes into school life. It provides a learning environment that stimulates curiosity and eagerness for learning. The aim of any great Kindergarten is to promote social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth. The learning in Kindergarten is enhanced with education in the following areas: Physical Education, Music, Spanish, Art, Technology, Library classes. Please find below an overview of the OLM curriculum.

During the First Trimester, we will develop many new friendships as we learn and play together. Kindergarten will be a wonderful learning experience. We will work on writing our names with both capital and lowercase letters, and we will make our first attempt at writing on lines. Also, we will learn our phone numbers, the days of the week, and the months of the year. We will meet several letter people friends and learn about each letter. Then we will begin making our own yearlong alphabet books. Rhyming is a fun activity which is explored and enjoyed by all in kindergarten. We will learn our first sight words and add them to our classroom Word Wall. Our ELA topics will also include comprehension of text by identifying key details and characters. We will count syllables in words and work on sentence segmentation. We will also learn about nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

We love to create in kindergarten. We will write in our journals and make wonderful pictures. In math, we will learn how to write/recognize numbers 0-10 and compare numbers to 10.  The concept of 2D shapes will be introduced. Also, we will explore other math topics, including sorting and classification. In science/social studies, we will examine our world. We will learn about the fall, fire safety, Johnny Appleseed, and the first Thanksgiving. We will learn our telephone numbers and have fun with magnets.

In religion, we will learn that God gives us many gifts because He loves us. We will learn and recite our prayers and celebrate the saints. We will work together to find ways to keep the coming of Jesus as the focus of Advent. In addition, we will enjoy many activities related to the Christmas season and the birth of our Lord. We will be welcoming to each other as we learn each other’s names while appreciating our quiet and talking times. We will focus on Mary and our families as we thank God for all that we have been given.

During the Second Trimester, kindergarten students will continue to work on their writing. They will learn to write their last name as well as their first name in the correct form. Proper use of capital and lowercase letters will be emphasized, as well as the correct use of lines. We will meet several new letter friends. In addition, we will have lots of fun using our letters to build new words. Our sight word vocabulary will be growing as we add the new words to our Word Wall. Then we will use our sight words to build sentences. Our comprehension skills will include identifying the main topic, the plot, problems, and solutions so we can compare/contrast stories. We will learn about pronouns, plural nouns, and verbs.

In math, we will be exploring the numbers 11-20 through counting and comparison. The concepts of addition and subtraction will be introduced. 2D shapes will be reviewed, and 3D shapes will be introduced. We will introduce numbers to 100. In religion, we continue to grow together as we learn about God as our Creator. We will learn about the sacrament of Baptism. We will also explore using our senses as well as our hearts and hands to make good choices. In science/social studies, we will learn our addresses. We will also learn about some notable Presidents of the United States, as well as the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the famous children’s author, Dr. Seuss. We will also learn about states of matter and the season of winter.

During the Third Trimester, we will meet the remainder of our letter friends. We will continue to use our letters to build new words. Our sight word vocabulary will grow as we add more words to our Word Wall. We will be introduced to long vowel sounds. Also, we will work in our journals as we develop confidence in listening for letter sounds when we inventively spell new words. We will learn to build sentences that begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark. The children will identify story characters, setting, plot, main idea, key details, and problems/solutions. We will continue to work with adjectives.

In math, we will continue exploring numbers up to 100, learn to measure/evaluate data, and review the topics of addition and subtraction. We will have brief introduction to time and money. In religion, we will learn about becoming true followers of Jesus. During Lent, we will learn about ways to prepare our hearts through acts of kindness and sacrifice, as we get ready to celebrate the gift of Easter. We will also honor Mary and learn about and pray the rosary.

In science/social studies, we will explore the world of animals and insects. We will observe live caterpillars in our classroom and watch them become butterflies right before our eyes. Also, we will plant seeds, care for them, and watch them grow and change.