READING
In teaching reading, I have two goals: 1) to give your child the skills necessary to be able to ready, and 2) to instill in your child a love for reading! In order to achieve these goals, we will use creative writing, phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, and reading, reading, reading!! I will need your help at home, as well. The more your child reads and is read to, the better s/he will become. Please keep in mind that reading is FUN! If we have that attitude, the children will "catch" that attitude. Attached is some information on beginning readers and how to help them at home.
Reader's Workshop is divided into 3 areas:
1. Shared Reading: This is usually a big book that is read and reread all week. Each day we concentrate on a specific area such as punctuation, sight words and story elements.
2. Read-A-Loud: Usually a different small book is read every day. After discussion, we focus on a comprehension strategy.
3. Guided Reading: Once your child's reading level is determined, I will form small groups of 4-6 children that will meet with me. During these small groups, targeted lessons are introduced such as rhyming, word families or sight words. Also, during guided reading the students will be reading to me and each other from appropriate level books. Groups are changing constantly, your child may be in one group one week, but in another group the following week.
Humble ISD has adopted a new form of reading assessment called Istation and is done on the computer. The assessment will be given monthly and will cover Listening Comprehension, Phonemic Awareness, Letter Identification and Vocabulary. The children will have access to play Istation at home. If you would like more information about Istation you can visit the website
PHONICS / SPELLING
Our program is a developmentally appropriate way of introducing children to phonics and spelling. Wewill have lessons that will enable our students to attend to, learn about, and efficiently use information about sounds, letter, and words. Our school wide spelling program is Words Their Way. It is a comprehensive program in which the children use sorting techniques to manipulate and analyze words and letter.
WRITER'S WORKSHOP
Studies have proven there is a strong link between writing and learning to read. Therefore, ESE has incorporated Writer's Workshop into our daily routine. I teach my students, "If I can say it, I can write it. If I can write it, I can read it." We are authors in kindergarten! I will praise every attempt your child gives during Writer's Workshop, even scribble like letters, and I would ask that you do the same at home. We do not worry so much about how to spell the word as much as we want them to get their ideas on paper. They will be writing personal narratives, all about books, how-to books, research books and poems.
MATH
Our math program incorporates hands-on exploration to 'discover' math. Your child will use manipulatives in our classroom along with some paper and pencil to learn about math concepts such as patterns, more/less than, longer/shorter than, heavier/lighter than, adding to, taking away, etc. We will be working on various math strategies to help solve problems. Our morning calendar also covers a large portion of our math curriculum. We study counting (forwards and backwards), place value, more than / less than,order, sequence, patterning, coins and 2D and 3D shapes!
HANDWRITING
Our handwriting program is Handwriting Without Tears. It is a comprehensive handwriting program that goes through the 5th grade. It is proven to help children develop their fine motor skills while teaching them to form letters correctly. We will be teaching your child to begin his/her name with an uppercase letter and then continues the rest of the name with lowercase letters.
GUIDANCE / DISCIPLINE
At ESE, we use a program called PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System). We like to recognize students when they are making good choices. Your child may receive Ernie Bucks from any staff member here at ESE. Ernie Bucks are collected in our classroom for trips to the treasure box and other various prizes.
In our classroom management plan, we incorporate consistent and positive guidance, which cuts back on the need to use discipline. However, there are times when students continue to make poor choices and discipline must be used. In those cases, we believe that "The best discipline is when no one knows it is happening." We use logical and natural consequences when determining discipline. Our ultimate goal is for your child to attain self-discipline. We will help your child figure out a better choice, give him/her ownership of the problem and have him/her choose a solution to the problem.
TRANSPORTATION CHANGES
It is extremely important that you notify the school as soon as possible if your child's transportation home changes. You may do this by sending a note to me or by calling the front office at 281-641-3100.
CONCLUSION
We hope your child will have a wonderful Kindergarten year filled with academic achievements, friendships and of course, fun! Over the course of the school year, your child will reach academic milestones that will transform him/her into an active reader and writer. Please save a few pieces of work from the first week of school and compare it to work that is brought home in May; you will be amazed at their progress.