Kindergarten AT- A - G L A N C E
The Kindergarten Journey Kindergarten at Echo Horizon is a safe, nurturing space for joy, exploration, discovery, invention, and collaboration. Our experienced teachers encourage children to ask questions and test ideas; express their vision using blocks, Legos, crayons, paint, or other materials; play with and try out their creations; and reflect on their experiences. The subjects taught at Echo Horizon are multidisciplinary and interwoven, so that children learn important concepts in relation to each other and the larger world. We scaffold this content throughout the year so that students continue to build on their foundation of learning. As they learn and grow, our young scholars develop their abilities to express themselves, solve problems, and collaborate.
OUR K TEAM
ELIZABETH NELSON DEVIN PALTY JENNIFER MASCOLO URSULA ARIS
www.echohorizon.org
In Kindergarten, we focus on characteristics such as self-awareness, curiosity, and resilience throughout the school day. The learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom—it happens through play, at pickup, on field trips, and at events. We purposefully weave reflection into the day to help students deepen their understanding of themselves and their importance in the community. - OUR KINDERGARTEN TEAM
CURRICULUM
HABITS OF MIND
HIGHLIGHTS
• Based on Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and California State Frameworks • Subjects are considered through Essential Questions, which are designed to support and connect big ideas and concepts • Language Arts: phonics, sight vocabulary, printing letters and numbers, beginning writing skills, continued reading development, inference and prediction skills • Math: Singapore Math curriculum focusing on number concepts, counting, and patterning • Science and Social Studies: thematic units with many hands-on learning opportunities • Technology: integrated daily by teachers across disciplines • i2 Time: experiential learning in centers of Inquiry and Innovation • STEAM, coding, robotics, specialist classes
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Kindergarten students explore the neighborhood, city, and the world we live in, all while building relationships and developing a strong sense of community. Our field trips are designed to deepen children’s understanding and connect their classroom learning to the real world.
Self-Awareness Self-Regulation Mindfulness Independence Friendship Kindness Collaboration Curiosity Resilience Decision-Making Interdependence/Community Gratitude
SPECIALIST CLASSES • • • • • • •
Gardening Program i2 (Inquiry and Innovation) Library Music Performing Arts Sports and Wellness Visual Art
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Pumpkin Patch Bob Baker Marionette Theater LA Zoo Tree People Author Visits
• Use eye contact as a listening and speaking skill to focus attention on speaker and connect to listeners • Ask and answer questions to seek help, obtain information, or clarify what is not understood
LANGUAGE
Kindergarten BENCHMARKS
• Form regular plural nouns orally (with support) • Understand and use question words (who, what, where, when, why) • Capitalize the pronoun “I” and the first word in a sentence • Spell simple words phonetically • Use most frequently occurring prepositions (in, out, on, off, by, with) • Use words and phrases acquired through conversations and reading
SINGAPORE MATH
PROGRAM
NUMBER SENSE & OPERATIONS
• Academically rich and stimulating curriculum with hands-on experiences • Creative, innovative, exploratory projects designed especially for our youngest learners • iPads and computers are used to support and enhance learning • Emphasis on social skills including sharing, cooperating, and listening • Focus on social and emotional development • Age-appropriate critical and creative thinking skills, including observation, prediction, and analysis • Motor skill development
• Compare two or more sets of objects and identify size comparisons • Recognize, name, and order objects up to 30 • Use concrete objects to show answers to addition and subtraction problems • Use estimation strategies in computation and problem solving • Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into tens and ones and begin building equations
HUMANITIES BENCHMARKS READING • • • • •
Recognize and produce rhyming words Use pictures and titles to make predictions about text Understand that words are read from left to right on the page Identify characters and major events in a story Identify main topic, key details, and basic similarities and differences between two texts (with prompting and support) • Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet • Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words, and identify long and short sounds of each vowel • Recognize and generate consonant sounds
WRITING • Use a combination of drawing, dictation, and printing to express ideas and writing to compose stories • Blend two to three phonemes into recognizable words
OPERATIONS & ALGEBRAIC THINKING • Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, or expressions • Decompose numbers less than ten into multiple equation pairs • Set up a math problem by determining approach, materials, and strategies needed and explain the reasoning used with concrete objects and/or pictorial representations
MEASUREMENT & DATA • Identify time of everyday events (to the nearest hour) • Make precise calculations and check the validity of the results in the context of the problem • Explore shapes, patterns, and graphs and use simple picture graphs to represent and analyze data
GEOMETRY • Identify common objects and describe their common geometric features • Identify, describe, and extend simple patterns by referring to their shapes, sizes, or colors • Identify, sort, and classify objects by attributes and point out which object does not belong to a particular group
SPEAKING & LISTENING • Initiate and continue a conversation through multiple exchanges • Demonstrate understanding of text read aloud or information presented through media by answering questions
3430 McManus Avenue • Culver City, CA 90232 T: (310) 838-2442 • F: (310) 838-0479 • TTY: (310) 202-7201 www.echohorizon.org