Ms. Christine Dulley & Mr. Gerry O'Brien
Teachers
Teachers
Kindergarten
Welcome to Kindergarten! We are delighted to partner with your family this year to explore, discover, create, and enjoy learning. The St. Ignatius kindergarten room is a "happening place." Children are happy, busy, creative learners. We have a strong academic focus, but who children are, and how they are feeling while learning is even more important than what they are learning in the curriculum. We strive to create a comfortable, joyful environment for young children where they are free to learn while they contribute to a caring and cooperative classroom spirit.
Daily Schedule
As a full day kindergarten program, we enjoy literacy, math and religion activities in the morning. After lunch, we have science/social studies, and choice time. We are fortunate to attend P.E. with Mr. Brobeck 5 days a week, music with Mr. MacKenzie 3 days a week, library with Mrs. McDermott 2 days a week, and use technology with Mr. Auer 2 afternoons each week. Mr. O’Brien is our full-time instructional assistant!
Curriculum
Religion
The focus is on our wonderful selves, our senses, belonging to the faith community of the Church, Baptism, celebration of the Church liturgical year and feasts, informal prayer, readings about the life of Jesus, our call to be followers of Jesus, participation in school Mass celebrations, and songs and role-playing. The kindergartners participate in service outreach collecting canned food for the parish food pantry while learning about Jesus’ message of helping others
Math
In math, we use manipulatives such as unifix cubes, pattern blocks, and a variety of fun counters to practice math concepts. Additionally, we integrate math songs and games. In kindergarten, we focus on general number sense, recognizing, writing, and sequencing numerals, oral counting, skip counting, 2D and 3D shapes, graphing, patterns, sorting and classifying objects, addition, subtraction, place value and nonstandard measurement. As we discover the wonders of math, we look for real life application of math in our lives.
Language Arts
We use a literature based series, which we supplement with the best in authentic children's literature. We also use a strong phonics approach to help the children decode and encode words. We explore rhyming, alphabet, sounds, letter formation, comprehension, creative thinking, blending sounds into words, reading and writing words, sentences, and stories. Language Arts includes games, songs, poems, listening activities, group stories, journal writing and much more! To produce excited readers, it is assumed that parents are reading stories aloud to their children each day. We want to foster a passion for reading!
Science and Social Studies
In science we study plants, animals, weather, matter, movement and many other day-to-day science moments of discovery and wonder. In Social Studies we study ourselves, our uniqueness, our senses, homes, and feelings. We also learn about special holidays and special Americans. The backdrop of science and social studies is an appreciation of God's awesome love.
Fine Motor
Throughout the year, your child will have opportunities to grow in their fine motor development to improve numeral and letter printing and using scissors.
Choice Time
The time we spend in Choice Time is a very valuable. The activities are most often open-ended and allow children to use their skills and creativity. We look for these objectives at choice time:
Decision making about the activity choice
Social growth and interaction
Fine motor skill development
Seeing a project from beginning to end
Responsibility for choices and the clean up of those choices
A chance to be creative, to take a risk, and to try something new
Independence and pride in their creations
Ability to problem solve
There is no chance of boredom in Kindergarten! There are so many opportunities to grow and explore! The children spend this time working on art projects and paintings, creating with play-dough, completing puzzles, building with block-type materials, enjoying books, and working on writing! We have a rotating imaginative play center that changes monthly based on seasons and our curriculum. Additionally, this is also an ideal time for working one-on-one with the teacher.
Daily Schedule
As a full day kindergarten program, we enjoy literacy, math and religion activities in the morning. After lunch, we have science/social studies, and choice time. We are fortunate to attend P.E. with Mr. Brobeck 5 days a week, music with Mr. MacKenzie 3 days a week, library with Mrs. McDermott 2 days a week, and use technology with Mr. Auer 2 afternoons each week. Mr. O’Brien is our full-time instructional assistant!
Curriculum
Religion
The focus is on our wonderful selves, our senses, belonging to the faith community of the Church, Baptism, celebration of the Church liturgical year and feasts, informal prayer, readings about the life of Jesus, our call to be followers of Jesus, participation in school Mass celebrations, and songs and role-playing. The kindergartners participate in service outreach collecting canned food for the parish food pantry while learning about Jesus’ message of helping others
Math
In math, we use manipulatives such as unifix cubes, pattern blocks, and a variety of fun counters to practice math concepts. Additionally, we integrate math songs and games. In kindergarten, we focus on general number sense, recognizing, writing, and sequencing numerals, oral counting, skip counting, 2D and 3D shapes, graphing, patterns, sorting and classifying objects, addition, subtraction, place value and nonstandard measurement. As we discover the wonders of math, we look for real life application of math in our lives.
Language Arts
We use a literature based series, which we supplement with the best in authentic children's literature. We also use a strong phonics approach to help the children decode and encode words. We explore rhyming, alphabet, sounds, letter formation, comprehension, creative thinking, blending sounds into words, reading and writing words, sentences, and stories. Language Arts includes games, songs, poems, listening activities, group stories, journal writing and much more! To produce excited readers, it is assumed that parents are reading stories aloud to their children each day. We want to foster a passion for reading!
Science and Social Studies
In science we study plants, animals, weather, matter, movement and many other day-to-day science moments of discovery and wonder. In Social Studies we study ourselves, our uniqueness, our senses, homes, and feelings. We also learn about special holidays and special Americans. The backdrop of science and social studies is an appreciation of God's awesome love.
Fine Motor
Throughout the year, your child will have opportunities to grow in their fine motor development to improve numeral and letter printing and using scissors.
Choice Time
The time we spend in Choice Time is a very valuable. The activities are most often open-ended and allow children to use their skills and creativity. We look for these objectives at choice time:
Decision making about the activity choice
Social growth and interaction
Fine motor skill development
Seeing a project from beginning to end
Responsibility for choices and the clean up of those choices
A chance to be creative, to take a risk, and to try something new
Independence and pride in their creations
Ability to problem solve
There is no chance of boredom in Kindergarten! There are so many opportunities to grow and explore! The children spend this time working on art projects and paintings, creating with play-dough, completing puzzles, building with block-type materials, enjoying books, and working on writing! We have a rotating imaginative play center that changes monthly based on seasons and our curriculum. Additionally, this is also an ideal time for working one-on-one with the teacher.