Kindergarten Curriculum Overview

Kindergarten incorporates critical experiences that are developmentally appropriate to nurture your child spiritually, academically, socially, and physically.

At the beginning of each school year, students are tested utilizing Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) to determine the course of curriculum for each individual child for the upcoming year. Testing is done again in the middle and end of the year to determine if we are meeting the needs of each student.

Using students’ DIBELS benchmark assessments, we focus on creating differentiated curricula and custom learning programs for each child.

Kindergarten is taught based on Diocese of Phoenix Curriculum Guidelines that include the guidelines below:

Religion

Textbook: Blest Are We, RCL Benziger

  • Explore creation
  • Understand God’s Family and our place in His family
  • Explore prayer as communication with God
  • Explore Sacraments and Liturgy
  • Meet Jesus as both man and God
  • Meet Jesus’ Family
  • Participate in service projects
  • Attend and participate in All-school Mass
  • Gospel value – gentleness
  • Understanding of holiday celebrations around the world

Language Arts

Textbook: Benchmark Advance

  • Know the names of upper and lower case letters
  • Associate letters with letter sounds (alphabetic principle)
  • Recognize and produce rhyming words
  • Understand how print is organized and read
  • Orally blend sounds into words
  • Identify letters, words, and sentences
  • Identify beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words
  • Use short vowels in combination with consonant sounds
  • Use strategies to make predictions about the text
  • Use context clues to understand the meaning in print (pictures, story language, patterns)
  • Retell a story (beginning, middle, and end)
  • Make connections between literature and own experiences
  • Understand story language and vocabulary
  • Determine cause-and-effect relationships
  • Distinguish between real and make-believe
  • Writing or handwriting
  • Write words and numbers legibly
  • Write a basic narrative story with pictures
  • Listen attentively and express ideas clearly in speaking
  • Literature Studies including Johnny Appleseed, Three Little Pigs, Turkey in Disguise, The Mitten, and Dr. Seuss selections

Mathematics

Textbook: Saxon Math Level 1, Houghton Mifflin

  • Count to 100
  • Count by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s
  • Write the numbers 1 – 50
  • Name the days of the week and months of the year
  • Identify shapes
  • Understand and create simple graphs
  • Explore concepts of probability
  • Sort and classify objects
  • Use mathematical vocabulary
  • Understand the one-to-one correspondence of numbers
  • Explore addition and subtraction

Social Studies

Textbook: My World Interactive, Pearson

  • Know the days of the week and months
  • Recognize a globe
  • Recognize the United States on a map
  • Identify ways seasons affect lives
  • Demonstrate ways to help the environment and community
  • Know that in the United States, people vote for a leader
  • Demonstrate the ability to make responsible choices
  • Describe how each person is special and unique
  • Recognize that all people have needs and wants
  • List jobs people do to make money

Science

Textbook: Elevate Science, Pearson

  • Explore the concept of observation
  • Communicate observations
  • Incubate and Hatch Chicks
  • Measure objects
  • Understand yesterday, today, and tomorrow
  • Follow instructions
  • Distinguish between natural and man-made objects
  • Identify that matter has color, shape, and size
  • Identify characteristics
  • Recognize living and nonliving things
  • Observe the four seasons
  • Observe different weather conditions
  • Observe the local environment
  • Explore the concept of recycling
  • Identify simple machines
  • Understand the life cycle of animals and plants

Technology

Our classrooms are equipped with 1:1 Chromebooks and a OneScreen touchscreen. We used the following technology-based programs in various subjects:

  • IXL (reading and math)
  • Accelerated Reader
  • Chromebooks used during math and reading
  • Understand how to use a keyboard to enter data
  • Use interactive and skill-building software
  • Recognize and locate letters and numbers on a keyboard
  • Use drawing software to create pictures
  • Navigate through a multimedia presentation
  • Use internet sites to play appropriate learning games, color pictures, etc.
  • Demonstrate correct care and use of the computer
  • Identify the computer as a device that helps people work and play
  • Use of Media Room to create videos

Discipline with Purpose Skills

  • Listening
  • Following Instructions
  • Asking Questions
  • Sharing
  • Social Skills

Student Learning Expectations (LASER Skills)

  • Life Long Learner
  • Active Catholic
  • Self-Aware Individual
  • Effective Communicator
  • Responsible Citizen

Enrichment Classes

  • Physical Education
  • Library
  • Music
  • Spanish
  • Art

Diocesan Standards