Dear Parents,

Welcome to Kindergarten! This year we will learn many things.

Religion: With our religion program the children participate in daily prayers, worship, and devotions. Kindergarten attends monthly Mass and participates in one of the school Masses.

Reading: The students will learn all about the alphabet; upper and lower case letters, what they sound like, beginning and ending sounds and also vowels. By the end of the year most students will be able to sound out simple words.

Writing: We do a lot of writing in kindergarten. We begin with the basics of writing left to right, top to bottom. We have a daily journal time where they hear a story and then create a sentence (focusing on space between words, punctuation).

Math: The students will learn a great deal about number sense. We will learn ordinal numbers by playing a favorite game in kindergarten, the Bus Game. They will put numbers to 10 in sequence and identify and write numbers to 100. We will introduce simple addition and subtraction as well as recognizing time on the hour and half-hour.

The calendar is a daily part of kindergarten. We learn about the days of the week, months of the year, and count the days we've been in school, with a special event on the 100th day. On the 100th day of school, we celebrate by counting 100 snacks, doing 100 exercises, preparing 100 ingredients for soup and many other fun activities.

Science: We will learn about physical science by studying different materials and their physical properties. In Earth science we will learn that the earth is composed of land, air, and water. Recycling is a big topic in kindergarten. We recycle paper and plastic products in the classroom.

Social Studies: Each morning we recite the Pledge of Allegiance. We learn what is means to be a Christian citizen and make responsible choices at home, school, and in our community. We develop an awareness of people and their related jobs at school. This is done during the first week of school. We walk around our campus looking for the Gingerbread Man. We make stops along the way, meeting the principal, the school secretaries, the librarian, custodian, and our pastor, Father Jim.

Physical Education: We will learn motor skills, balance and ball skills through many games.

Fine Arts: We will develop creative expression and participate in analysis and interpretation of art.

The concept of music is introduced and we will learn about beat, structure, tempo and tone. The students develop creative expression through a variety of songs and music styles, rhythmic games and use of some instruments.

Kindergarten participates in a multitude of classroom events. Besides the tour with the Gingerbread Man and the 100th day of school, we also celebrate Chinese New Year with a dragon parade and the many traditions preparing for Lent, Dr. Seuss's birthday and eating green eggs and ham, and in the spring we watch butterflies grow in the classroom.

I look forward to teaching your child.
Alice Gonzalez