Welcome to Kindergarten

 Every September, Wood Park School welcomes its kindergarteners to the “X” year. It is an X-citing time when we begin to X-pand our skills, X-plore our environment and X-tend our boundaries. We embark on a wonderful X-cursion of X-perimentation and X-amination. We will X-perience X-hilaration as we X-ercise our minds and bodies on our road to X-cellence.

    Throughout the year, the children participate in various character building activities. The Second Step program helps build appropriate social skills and self-esteem by giving the children the tools to recognize and deal with impulsive and aggressive behaviors. We create a sense of unity and compassion for one another through the activities such as our “Annual Kindergarten  Thanksgiving Feast.” 

    The children participate in the PARP (Parents As Reading Partners) program. Our “little” authors and illustrators also have the opportunity to create, develop and publish our own hard covered books through the Bare Book Program.  Our kindergarteners enjoy when the “Wee Deliver” Wood Park Post Office opens. We read and respond to mail we receive from our friends in other classes across the grades. We also look forward to participating in the second grade "Reading Buddy Program."

    We integrate a variety of field trips into our curriculum. Our trips to Sweet Brier and the Suffolk County Farm at Yaphank compliment and enhance our study of life cycles and farm life. The performance we attend in December introduces the children to live theatre, proper audience behavior and different versions of some favorite fairy tales. Our whale unit culminates at the Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor. Our trip to the Children’s Museum also reinforce curriculum areas.

 
Language Arts- 

    The kindergarten curriculum is based on a thematic approach to learning. Through exposure to rich literature, children learn about authors and illustrators while discovering ways to develop children’s concepts of print, recognition of capital and lower case letters, letter sounds, rhyming text and other literacy skills. From this exposure, children begin to develop reading and writing strategies. 

    The risk-free and print rich classroom environment motivates students to develop writing skills. Through journal writing and Writer’s Workshop, children develop our written expression with detailed illustrations and invented spelling. Listening and speaking skills are important components of the Language Arts program.

 
Math-                 

    Our mathematics curriculum takes both an integrated and hands-on approach using many varied math manipulatives. It is built on the premise that young children learn math concepts best through hands-on experiences with concrete objects. Manipulatives such as connecting cubes, counters, dice and pattern blocks involve students in the learning process and fives them a sense of discovery and empowerment. The concepts that are taught have literature connections, foster authenticity and meet the New York State Standards for Mathematics.

 
Science-      
    To expand our knowledge, kindergartners meet weekly in our Science Lab  where, with hands-on experience, we learn about the scientific method and the world around us.  We begin with our five senses and ourselves. We experiment with the many properties of water, discriminate between the living and non-living world and marvel at the wonder of growth by planting different seeds.

 
Technology-

     Computer software that corresponds to our new math program is being utilized during learning centers. These programs reinforce many skills and concepts taught within the classroom setting in a fun motivating format.

 

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05/07/2004