Early Childhood

The goal of our Nursery program is to instill in our youngest students a sense of discovery and awareness of God’s love and the world around them. Students will learn to play and share with others, coordinate actions and develop skills, and build positive attitudes about themselves and their relationships with others.

Our program includes a balance of quiet and busy activities including a period of “free play” where the children may choose their own activities.  Self-expression and creativity are encouraged through the use of building blocks, paints, crayons, and play-doh.  Students develop cognitive skills as they work with table games, puzzles, beads, and other manipulatives.  Gross motor skills are addressed through movement activities, and outdoor play.  During Circle Time, alphabet awareness, number concepts, colors, shapes, and seasonal and holiday activities are introduced and reinforced.  

Language Skills

• Follow simple instructions

• Ask and answer questions

• Describe experiences and events

• Describe the functions of objects

• Acquire basic knowledge of self and culture

• Respond to differences about similarities and differences of shapes and objects

• Develop a vocabulary for expressing observations

• Listen and respond to stories

• Alphabet Awareness

• Sequencing

Math and Sensory-Perceptual Skills

• Sort, match, and name a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes

• Classify pictures by categories

• Recognize similarities and differences in a variety of pictures        

• Retell the events of a story in sequence

• Comparing rote counting and rational counting

Motor Skills

• Perform hopping and jumping tasks

• Move expressively to music

• Follow a walking pattern

• Throw and catch a large ball

• Reproduce a rhythm pattern

• Manipulate equipment

• Discriminate by touching various textures, shapes, and sizes

• String beads

Interpersonal Skills

• Cooperate with others in the classroom by following rules, helping to establish rules, and by learning to modify rules when necessary

• Share and take turns

• Participate in classroom discussions and activities

• Help with tasks such as clean-up

• Express feelings related to events as they arise in the classroom

• Develop positive self-esteem

• Attend to tasks for increasingly longer periods of time

• Work independently

Religion

Students learn about the wonder of God and the joy of our Catholic Faith. Our religion book, Discovering God’s World, teaches students about God’s gifts of people, our world, ourselves, and our families. Students participate in activities that help them to realize that life is special and new life is all around them.  They learn to make the Sign of the Cross, pray the Our Father and Hail Mary. They read stories and participate in activities that teach religious values.  In addition, Seeds, the magazine, is utilized so our students can learn about Sunday’s Gospel each week.

Reading 

Our Reading Series is an interdisciplinary program designed for our Pre-K students. Students take part in a weekly book study, incorporating early literacy skills in vocabulary, story elements, retelling, problem/ solution, book handling, and roles of the author and illustrator. This is followed by an assessment of their progress. 

Fundations and Language Arts

Students develop oral language and early literacy skills which include listening, speaking, writing, reading, thinking, media, and language skills. The Fundations program focuses on the alphabet, phonological awareness, and letter formation.  Students also learn to recite the alphabet; identify upper and lower case letters; consonant sounds; recognize/print first name. Additional skills include answering questions about a story; and identifying sequencing of pictures and events within a story. Students are engaged in higher-order thinking skills such as cause/effect and prediction.

Handwriting

Our Universal Handwriting workbook focuses on visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination and basic skills for writing readiness. Correct grasp is taught to children as they develop their fine motor muscles. Students learn to use journals, beginning with pictures and later developing labels/writing.

Math

Students learn to recognize basic colors, shapes, and numbers 1-20. Students also learn patterns; sorting by color, size, and shapes; and graphing.  Basic addition and subtraction are introduced as well. Students learn to use several manipulatives to help develop conceptual mathematical ideas.

Social Studies

Students engage in seasonal activities to understand the meaning of the various seasons.  They also learn about our country, the president, our community, holidays, and traditions.  The Pledge of Allegiance is recited in the classroom every day.

Science

Students learn about themselves and the changing world around them.  They identify body parts, learn about their senses, emotions and good health habits.

Art

Students are given the opportunity for creative expression.  They create seasonal crafts using different media such as crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, and watercolors.  Lacing and beading are also activities used to develop fine motor skills.

Music

Students participate in singing songs, finger play, dramatic play, dance, and movement to music.

Technology

Newline Boards and 1:1 iPads are utilized to help animate and create interactive lessons in all disciplines.

Kindergarten is a year of spiritual, academic, and social growth!

Religion and the practice of our faith is what makes us unique as a Catholic School. Our students grow, share, and celebrate God’s love for them every day! Our Kindergarteners start and end each day with prayer, and attend monthly school Liturgies with their 8th grade Mass buddies. The Saints, the Church Seasons, the Liturgical Year and Holy Days are emphasized throughout the year.

English Language Arts

Kindergarten launches with the introduction of a variety of genres through engaging books. Students begin with identifying letters and the letter sounds through the Fundations phonics program, and increase their independence to identifying words and sentences within reading and writing. Phonological and phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming, syllabication and breaking a word into its sounds is done on a daily basis using Heggerty. The students engage in listening to and reading text and learn decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. With teacher guidance, they begin to learn how to retell a story and include details, main events, and setting. Students also identify the author, illustrator and text features. Since Kindergarteners are introduced to such a wide variety of written materials, they begin to compare and contrast across multiple texts. As writers, the Kindergarten curriculum offers opportunities to develop students’ ability to communicate clearly through talking, drawing, and writing. With prompting and support, students are able to state an opinion or preference, compose an informative text with information about a topic of interest, and narrate an experience in writing.

Kindergarten mathematics is about representing, relating, and operating on whole numbers, and describing shapes and space. Students will participate in hands-on experiences to learn and reinforce number sense, counting to 100, addition, subtraction, measurement and data, and problem-solving utilizing the Next Generation Learning Standards and our math curriculum HMH Into Math.

Social Studies

In Kindergarten, students study “Self and Others” while exploring various cultures, communities, and families. Students will learn about similarities and differences between children, families, and communities and about holidays, symbols and traditions that unite us as Americans and as global citizens. Students learn about respect for others, and rights and responsibilities of individuals.

Science

Our Kindergarten students use their five senses to observe plants, animals, insects, the seasons/weather, and the environment.  The children are given many hands-on opportunities to investigate, observe, and record their findings. The students will learn about the different properties of matter as they examine materials such as paper, wood, metal, cloth, and plastic. Our Kindergarteners are also given opportunities to learn about force and motion, including lessons on pushes and pulls, gravity, simple machines, and magnets.

Technology

Newline boards are utilized daily in the classroom, and each Kindergartener has his/her own Chromebook. Our students work with programs that enhance their reading, math, and keyboard skills, including iReady. iReady provides an individualized path for each child in order to meet the children where they are and help them grow in reading and mathematics.