Kindergarten Curriculum

Curriculum follows California Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards

Students enter Kindergarten with varied life experiences, social skills, and different levels of physical, emotional, and intellectual development. In Kindergarten, students are assessed in the beginning of the year to develop instructional objectives both in class and with STAR testing. This assists in differentiating instruction to meet the needs of students

Religion

In Kindergarten, the children will continue their faith journey begun at home with their parents. Children at this age are beginning to develop a relationship with God. They learn about prayer and talking to God. They are starting to grow in an understanding of who they are in relation to God. Our curriculum follows the Diocese of San Jose Religion Outcomes, which are aligned with the National Benchmarks and Standards. Religion is incorporated in every aspect of our school life.

English Language Arts

Kindergarten students learn the foundational reading and English Language Arts skills that pave the way to become lifelong readers, writers, and confident communicators. Reading is the most important skill students develop during their early academic years, and the optimal period of time for such learning is from Kindergarten through Third Grade. Instruction is focused on guiding children through the alphabet and its role in reading. Students will learn foundational skills that will lead to phonological awareness and beginning skills to comprehend, describe and analyze what they are reading, use key details to understand text, and ask and answer questions based on text evidence. Students will use decoding, word blends, word recognition, spelling, and eventually writing in the reading process. Use of long and short vowel sounds, high frequency words, sight words, vocabulary words, rhymes and poems are introduced in order to pave the way for early independent reading and writing skills.

Math

Students are introduced to the relationship between numbers, quantities, counting, representing and comparing numbers. Kindergarten students learn number names as they count up to 100 by ones, tens, fives and twos. Students learn math vocabulary and symbols, comparing numbers, addition and subtraction, word problems, algebraic thinking, identifying and composing geometrical shapes, and use of mathematical reasoning.

Social Studies

In Kindergarten, students begin to learn the basic concepts about government, citizenship, geography, economics, and history. Through a variety of activities, students learn about their place in the world and the people in it. Students will learn about citizenship as it relates to their classroom community. They will learn about their larger neighborhood community as well as culture and families.

Science

Students in Kindergarten develop an understanding of key concepts through hands-on lab experiences to help them make sense of the world around them. The performance expectations in Kindergarten help students formulate answers to questions such as, What happens if you push and pull an object harder? Students will also learn about animal and plant life. They will develop an understanding of what plants and animals, including humans need to survive as well as seeing the relationship between their needs and where they live.