LCS Kindergarten

Reading
• Read to your child and have him/her retell the story to you.
• Stop mid way in a story and ask your child to predict the end.
• Ask your child to draw his favorite part of the story.
• Have your child look through magazines and highlight words he/she knows or write them on sticky notes.
• Have your child point the words as you read and say the words he/she knows.
• Have your child keep a journal and record in pictures and words what is happening at home.
• Ask your child to recite the alphabet and record it using lower case letters.

Math
1. Share books with patterned language such as: There Was an Old lady who Swallowed a Fly: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do you See: Little Red Hen and The Gingerbread Man, Three little Pigs. As you read pause and encourage your child to say the repeated parts. Ask your child how he knew what to say. You might explain that these books follow a pattern and that is why it is possible to know what to say next.
2. Listen to a pattern in music and clap to the beat. Listen to the pattern and repeat it, e.g. Clap! Clap! Tap! or Snap! Snap! Stomp!
3. Read a counting book together, invite your child to read the numerals on the page, count the objects and predict what number will be on the next page. Count the number of pages in a book before or after reading it.
4. Encourage your child to count as high as he/she can and help your child gradually count a little higher.
5. Count up, count down and practice counting forward and backwards to help your child become a nimble counter. Try starting at different numbers, e.g. Start at 14 and count forwards then count backwards.
Count down to zero like a rocket lift off or count along with timers and microwaves.
6. Use comparison words whenever the opportunity arises- at home, in a store, or on a walk. Making and describing comparisons helps your child develop a sense of size, quantity and other mathematical concepts: e.g. Rough and smooth, wide and narrow, tight and loose, thick and thin, long and short, low and high fast and slow, near and far.

Unit of Inquiry
Our next unit of Inquiry will be Materials. In preparation, ask your child to draw at least 2 objects in your home that are made from each of the following materials; wood, glass, metal, plastic, clay and fabric. In addition they could draw some items made from a combination of materials. Please help label the items and write what material they are made from.

Below is the link to another wonderful resource. It is a kid-friendly search engine, leading to great web resources pre-selected by librarians.

http://www.kidsclick.org/

Check out the special subject page for more ideas.

http://www.tomie.com/

http://tomiesblog.blogspot.com/

Timeline of your child’s life

Please design a basic timeline of your child’s life for use during our Unit on Personal Histories. We want this timeline to be as creative as you and your child decide. You can include photos, drawings, and artifacts (can be 3D) etc. You only need include 4-5 items, as we will add to it during class time. Please use the poster board provided. This is due by Monday, September 21st.

Possible events to include are:
• birthdays
• when siblings were born
• if/when your child moved to Ghana
• when your child traveled to other places
• trips, excursions, or festivals within Ghana

This information will help during our discussions and activities during our unit.

Thank you for your help,
The KG Team

Kindergarten Unit Letter
Duration: 5 weeks
Organizing Theme: Where we are in time and place
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.

Central Idea: Documenting our personal histories allows us to reflect on and celebrate where we have come from and how we have developed.

An Inquiry Into:

• Ways of documenting personal histories
• Personal change from birth to present
• Reflecting on past experience

Sample Activities:
• Create a basic timeline at home with parents – add significant events throughout unit
• Share an object from home that shows how they’ve developed or where they’ve been
• Think of things they can do now that they couldn’t do before
• Describe a place they’ve been to or a memory from their past

Main Assessments:
Pre-assessment:
• Discussion and recording pertinent comments about our own “Personal Histories”.

Summative assessment:
• Presentation of time line from birth to the present, in front of peers.

Questions:
What is a personal history?
What changes have you seen in yourself?
What can you do now that you couldn’t do before?
Where have you lived or visited?
What are the differences between where you have been/lived and where you are now?

Single Subject Plans:
Music:
The Music class will explore the Personal histories unit by exploring music from different stages of childhood. We will sing lullabies, traditional play songs, and other songs about different aspects of being a child. The songs will be from
various countries and in different languages. We will end the unit by having an African drumming and dance teacher come in to teach us music from where we all are now: Ghana.
Art:
Art: Textile Design
The students will look at works of art as a way to understand how history is recorded in art.
For the students to make this connection in a developmentally appropriate way, they will be exploring Ghanaian textile design processes like weaving, sewing, appliqué, tie-dye and batik.
They will assemble all these pieces into a decorated pouch that can be used to collect historical items.
Library/IT:
IT/library will support the unit by providing print and electronic resources for students to explore and experience different ways personal histories can be recorded. In addition, in IT students will continue practicing logging on, mouse control and starting applications. In library, students will practice book care, library manners as well as check out procedures. During read-alouds students will be encouraged to make connections to the central idea of the unit.

Concepts:

Causation: Why is it like it is?

Change: How is it changing?

Reflection: How do we know?

Transdisciplinary Skills:
Thinking – The students will be acquiring facts, ideas and vocabulary about their personal development.
Research – The students will be identifying what they want to know about their past, and asking compelling and relevant questions. They will be collecting, recording, organizing and presenting data in the form of a timeline.
Communication – The students will be listening to information about their past and that of others; giving oral reports and presenting visuals about their personal history.

Learner Profile and PYP Attitudes:
Inquirer – Students will find out new things about themselves and others.
Reflective – Students will think about what they can do now that they couldn’t do before.
Open-minded – Students will listen respectfully to their peers’ reports and presentations
Curiosity – Students will be encouraged to wonder and ask questions about their past.
Tolerance – The classes will celebrate our similarities and differences.

Vocabulary:

history personal before after
develop memory development change
celebrate difference record travel
place time grow past

cshukan@lincoln.edu.gh eosei@lincoln.edu.gh

Daily Times
Playground Supervision starts at 7:30am. The school day begins at 8:00am and ends at 2:30pm (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri) or 1:10pm on Weds. It is of the utmost importance to drop off and pick up your child on time. If you would like your child to go home with another family, please inform us in writing, so that when the time comes, we know where your child is going. It is not enough to mention these changes to a TA or Teacher at drop off time.

PE Uniform – Please have your child dressed in the PE uniform and sneakers on designated PE days. The shorts and t-shirt can be bought from the school shop.

Snack/lunch
Please provide a snack and lunch for your child. The food needs to be healthy and not requiring reheating. Candy or fizzy drinks in the child’s lunch box will be left there to be consumed at home. We enforce our rule not to share food.

Birthdays
We will acknowledge birthdays; if your child would like to bring in a small treat to share, we will do this at lunchtime, after the children have eaten their lunch from home. Please contact your child’s teacher in advance to check on arrangements. Please do not bring extra decorations or goody bags for the children, these should be given during a party at home.

Behavioral expectations
We made our classroom “rules”, we will continue to talk about how we should behave in the classroom and outside.
We live by the rules:
• We take care of ourselves
• We take care of each other
• We take care of this place
We push positive reinforcement and have different ways of rewarding super behavior and work: smiley faces and stickers. We will keep you informed of behavior that is not acceptable, by writing a note or making a phone call. We are all working together to make this a productive and successful year for your child and the whole class.

Routines.
During the first few days of school, we will be getting to know each other, and getting settled into our routines. The teachers will be spending a significant amount of time finding out where the children are in their learning, and what they need to work on. We will post the typical routines, when they have been established.

Unit of Inquiry
The year will be divided into six Units of Inquiry. The first unit is about “Personal History”.

Show and Tell
Each class will have a time for this, but please make sure that the item being shown is not a toy, and that it has relevance to what is being studied in school.
Please keep your child’s toys at home otherwise they could get lost, stolen, or be a distraction from schoolwork. Toys brought to school will be saved by the teacher and returned at the end of the day.

Home learning
The children in Kindergarten will not be given home learning apart from a reading book. Parents will be informed when we start sending the books home. The reading book will not be changed every day at the beginning of the year, and we expect it to be reread a few times. This is great practice for your child. Please keep the book in the plastic folder so it comes to school each day. See Parent Handbook.

Communication
If you would like to call us, please call the Principal’s Assistant, and she will give us a message to call you back at the earliest moment possible. We do not answer or make calls during class time.
The number is: 021 774 018 Ext.221
We check our e-mail at least once a day, but again, not during class time. This is a good way to keep in touch with us. Our addresses are: cshukan@lincoln.edu.gh; and eosei@lincoln.edu.gh.
Please feel free to contact us to arrange a meeting to discuss your child.

Blog:
There is a Kindergarten Blog: http://lcskindergarten.edublogs.org where we will post information about what is going on in the classes. We will post new information when appropriate and Mr Adjei (the IT teacher) will post any programs the children have used in class for use at home, so be sure to check the site regularly.

Items to provide for your child
• backpack or bag
• reusable/recognizable water bottle clearly labeled with the child’s name
• cap or hat
• change of clothes to be kept at school
• old t-shirt/apron to be kept at school for art lessons (labeled with the child’s name)

Field Trips
Parents will be informed when a field trip has been planned, and they must sign a permission slip for the child to be included. There will not be regular classes on that day for any child not participating on the field trip.