Kindergarten

The kindergarten student begins to develop an understanding of the elements of fiction and features of texts. They expand on their knowledge of the alphabet to express their ideas through the written and spoken word. They learn about family and traditions, celebrations and holidays. They use their skills of observation and begin to develop an understanding of change regarding weather, seasons, and animal behavior. In mathematics, students need to develop a solid foundation in number sense; fluidity and flexibility with numbers, and the sense of what numbers mean. Performance Tasks include: The Gingerbread Baby; Mystery Creature Project; "Just Right" Book; Weather Report and Graphing; Billy Goat Bridge Challenge

English Language Arts
Monomoy kindergartners interact with literary and informational texts to develop an understanding of the elements of fiction and common textual features. Students begin to use their knowledge of the alphabetic principle through manipulation of words, letters, syllables, sounds and patterns. Students use reading, writing, drawing, questioning and conversation to share information about themselves, their ideas and the information they have acquired through reading.

Social Studies
At the preschool and kindergarten level, learning in history and social science is built on children’s experiences in their families, school, community, state, and country. Children listen to stories about the people and events we celebrate in our national holidays and learn why we celebrate them. They also become familiar with our national symbols. The purpose of the pre-K-K curriculum is to begin the development of their civic identity. Discovery of self and other are the essential themes of kindergarten. Students begin their studies of societies and groups by learning and practicing ways to describe themselves and the people they know best.

Mathematics
In kindergarten, instructional time focuses on two critical areas: (1) representing, relating, and operating on whole numbers, initially with sets of objects; and (2) describing shapes and space. Students use numbers to represent quantities and to solve quantitative problems. Students describe their physical world using geometric ideas.

Science and Technology/Engineering
Reasons for Change In kindergarten, students build on early experiences observing the world around them as they continue to make observations that are more quantitative in nature and help them identify why some changes occur. Students begin to learn to use these observations as evidence to support a claim through growing language skills. They learn that all animals and plants need food, water, and air to grow and thrive and that the fundamental difference between plants and animals is a plants ability to make its own food. Students build their quantitative knowledge of temperature in relationship to the weather and its effect on different kinds of materials. They observe that the amount of sunlight shining on a surface causes a temperature change and they design a structure to reduce the warming effects of sunlight. They investigate motions of objects by changing the strength and direction of pushes and pulls. They provide examples of plants and animals that can change their environment through their interactions with it. In kindergarten science students begin to identify reasons for changes in some common phenomena.

The Unified Arts
One of the primary goals of the unified arts instruction is to develop and expand children's natural abilities of perception, movement, interpretation, and appreciation of the forms, sounds, and language of creativity. The curriculum is designed to encourage a positive attitude and, perhaps, a lifelong interest in all of the unified arts disciplines. By participating in active experiences, working collaboratively with classmates and teachers, and presenting their work to the larger community, our students gain the technical and aesthetic foundation to be culturally literate citizens of the world.

Visual Arts
Art classes focus on young children’s natural abilities to perceive, create, and appreciate the visual arts, while developing a positive attitude, and perhaps, a lifelong interest in art. Painting, collage, clay, drawing, sculpture, and fiber art projects often relate to the themes that the children are studying in other areas of their curriculum. The children’s work is often displayed in hallways and galleries around the school.

Music
Music instruction in the primary grades is based on a comprehensive, sequential, experience-based program used to develop basic musical skills and to teach the reading and writing of music. From lullabies, childhood chants, folk songs, singing games and dances, to the art music of master composers, students sing, move, listen, and respond to an ever-increasing repertoire of music, from which musical elements and concepts to be learned are derived.

Wellness
The elementary physical education program provides opportunities for students to express themselves through movement. Classes focus on fine and gross motor skills, balance, spatial awareness, flexibility, endurance, strength and coordination. Activities are lively and fun, making use of a wide variety of equipment, ranging from bean bags to beach balls, whiffle bats, scoops, and foam paddles. The four most important areas for student learning are; skill development, personal responsibility, fitness, and sportsmanship.

Technology
The essential questions in the early elementary technology classroom are: How can students use technology responsibly and safely? How can students effectively use keyboarding hardware and software? How can students use technology for research, problem solving and innovation? and How do students use technology to communicate?