Kindergarten

Literature
Teacing Literature during the kindergarten ensures that students gain adequate exposure to a range of texts and tasks.. The Readers Workshop Model is the primary approach used throughout elementary literacy instruction.

In Kindergarten, Students will:

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.
With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Informational Text
In Kindergarten, Students will:

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Foundational Skills
Literacy instruction is focused on fostering students’ understanding and working knowledge of concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and other basic conventions of the English writing system. These foundational skills are not an end in and of themselves; rather, they are necessary and important components of an effective, comprehensive reading program designed to develop proficient readers with the capacity to understand texts across a range of types and disciplines. The Readers Workshop Model is the primary approach used throughout elementary literacy instruction.

In Kindergarten, Students will:

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding.

Writing
In Kindergarten, Students will:

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is...).
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.
With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favourite author and express opinions about them).
With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Speaking & Listening
In Kindergarten, Students will:

Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.
Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Language
In Kindergarten, Students will:

Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.
With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and
word meanings.
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

Math

Our aim is to have students develop a deep understanding of math concepts while ensuring computational proficiency, strategic competency and positive attitudes towards mathematics. The connection to real-world application is explicit. The instruction is a balance of direct instruction, hands-on exploration, open-ended projects and on-going practice.

In Kindergarten, Students will:

Count orally from 1 to 100
Count backward from 20
Recognize and writes numerals to 100
Construct numerals to 10 with objects
Compare two sets of up to 10 objects
Represent a number in multiple ways
Order objects using ordinal numbers; first, second, third, fourth, fifth, tenth.
Describe the joining of sets
Describe the separating of sets
Compare two sets: same, fewer, more
Sort objects into groups by attribute
Duplicate, extend and create patterns
Identify shapes
Use the positional words near, far, below, above, beside, next to, across from, and between to describe the location of an object
Name the days of the week in order
Tell time to the hour
Use comparative vocabulary in measurement settings
Collect, organize, record data

Science
At ALS, we believe that science is a way of making sense of the natural world and that it is our responsibility to prepare students to be scientifically literate in the 21st century.

Our science curriculum ensures that students are knowledgeable about the important concepts and theories of the three major branches of scientific study: earth, life, and physical sciences. Through inquiry-based instruction our students will be able to:

Think scientifically and use scientific knowledge to make decisions about real–world problems
Construct new knowledge for themselves through research, investigation and discovery
Become familiar with the natural world, and respectful of its unity, diversity, and fragility
Make informed judgments on statements and debates claiming to have a scientific basis
Reflect in an informed way on the role of science in human affairs