Full Day Kindergarten

1. Full Day Kindergarten Teaching for understanding requires time November 2012

2. Kindergarten is…. • a critical year for all children. It is a year of transition from preschool programs or home to their first formal schooling. • the start of a child’s educational journey. • a time for laying the foundation for life long learning.

3. Core Beliefs About Kindergarten • Young children learn best through discovery, exploration and active learning, including structured and unstructured play. • The process of learning for children at this age is as important as performance standards and products. • The kindergarten environment must support a natural approach to learning where children are encouraged to ask questions, think, choose, analyze, interact, problem solve and take risks • The curriculum must be balanced to include: • opportunities for choice and student initiated activities • small group and individualized instruction • “workshop” instruction • in-depth study of concepts • personally relevant curriculum • Integration of: art, music, physical education and library media • Development of the “Whole Child” • social/emotional development • motor development through outdoor activity and physical movement

4. What does a kindergartner need to know and be able to do?

5. COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS- LITERACY • With prompting and support asks and answer questions about key details in a text. • With prompting and support retells familiar stories, including key details. • With prompting and support identifies the main topic and retells key details of a text. • With prompting and support, identifies characters, settings, and major events in a story. • Asks and answers questions about unknown words in a text. • Identify the front cover, back cover and title page of a book. • With prompting and support name the author and illustrator and define the role of each. • Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding • Foundational Skills- Concepts About Print • Follows words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page. • Understands that words are separated by spaces in print • Identifies all upper and lowercase letters in the alphabet • Identifies sound associated with each letter in the alphabet • Recognize and produce rhyming words • Count syllables in spoken words • Blends and segments onset and rimes of words

6. Common Core State Standards in Writing • Expresses ideas using pictures • Expresses ideas by writing beginning sound heard • Expresses ideas by writing beginning and ending sound heard • Expresses ideas by writing beginning, middle and ending sound heard • With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to publish writing • Participates in shared research and writing projects • Speaking and Listening • Participates in conversation with peers • Asks and answers questions to get help, information or to understand more clearly • Describes familiar people, places, things and events with prompting and support • Expresses thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly

7. Common Core State Standards in Math • Know number names and the count sequence • Counts to 100 by 1’s • Counts to 100 by 10’s • Writes numbers from 0-10 • Writes numbers from 11-20 • Count to tell the number of objects • Given a number 1-20 can count out that many objects • Demonstrates understanding of math vocabulary and terms such as greater than, less than. • Understand addition and subtraction • Solve addition and subtraction word problems • Fluently add and subtract within 5 • Describe and compare measurable attributes • Describe measurable attributes of objects such as length and weight • Compare two objects identify which object has “more of” • “less of” • Classify objects • Classify and sort objects • Identify and describe shapes • Squares, circles, triangles • Rectangles, hexagons, cubes • Cones, cylinders, spheres • Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes • Model shapes by building shapes (clay, sticks) and drawing shapes • Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes

8. A look at a typical half day Kindergarten “mile wide, inch deep”

9. Typical Half Day Program • 8:55-9:25- Morning Routines including arrival, morning meeting and phonics- (30 minutes) • 9:25-9:45-Mathematics (20 minutes) • 9:45-10:25- Special (Art, Music, PE) (40 minutes) • 10:25-11:05- Instructional time must include math, writing, literacy, social studies and science (40 minutes) • 11:05-11:15- Read Aloud (10 minutes) • 11:15-11:30- Recess (15 minutes) • 11:30-11:35-Dismissal transition (5 minutes) Total minutes=160

10. A look at a full day Kindergarten “inch wide, mile deep”

11. Typical Full Day Program • 8:55-9:25 Arrival-Morning Meeting (30 min) • 9:25-10:05 Special (40 min) • 10:10-11:00 -Readers workshop including mini-lesson, independent read, buddy read, conferencing and small group instruction. (50 min) • 11:00-11:40 -Writers workshop including mini-lesson, conferencing and share (40 min) • 11:40-12:40 –Lunch and Recess (60 min) • 12:40-1:10 -Science/Social Studies (30 min) • 1:10-1:40 -Math Centers including mini-lesson (30 min) • 1:40-2:40 –Developmental Play Centers (60 min) • 2:40-3:10- Science Social Studies (30 min) • 3:10-3:20 –Dismissal (10 min) Total minutes=380

12. Why Full Day Kindergarten? • The learning process takes time. • Allows for longer blocks of uninterrupted instructional time. • Offers more time to progress though a curriculum that has changed and increased as evidenced by mandates such as the Common Core State Standards. • Enhances opportunity to provide a better balance of active and quiet periods to support a developmentally appropriate environment for learning. • More opportunities to spend time engaged in active, child-initiated activities. • Supports individualized pacing and workshop approach. • Curriculum/instructional improvement efforts will be more closely aligned with other grades. • Emphasizes the process required to reach mastery of standard. • Offers more opportunities to build stronger relationships-Teachers with students, teachers and parents, student to student. • Deeper and more thorough exploration of concepts. • More differentiation of instruction.

13. A Final Thought A Full day Kindergarten program allows teachers to be fully engaged in the social world of the classroom and be intentional in their interactions and instruction. With the many differences among—and wide age range of—kindergartners, teachers need to be responsive to developmental, individual, and cultural variation. Thoughtful, sensitive teaching promotes a joy of learning and prepares children for further academic challenges.