Ms Skiles' Kindergarten
Where learning is fun!
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Social Emotional Learning
We spend a lot of time learning how to identify feelings and be a good friend in our class. LES uses Second Step lessons to teach these skills which are practiced in morning meetings, centers, and throughout the school day.
Play
Playing is a key part of young children's growth. We have recess daily, and we also have play centers at the end of the day where children can build with blocks or toy animals, play games, or use their imagination in the kitchen center. Â This gives the kids a chance to practice their social skills and learn to solve problems.
Reading, Writing, and Math
In kindergarten, the children begin reading and writing! In the first half of the year, we learn to recognize and write all of our upper and lower case letters. We also play "word games," which is really something called phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with the sounds in words -- from rhymes, to beginning and ending sounds, to blending sounds together and "chopping" them apart orally.
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As the year progresses, we start reading books with patterns and picture clues, learning sight words, and finding out how to blend the sounds of 3-letter CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. The students begin writing words by stretching them out and writing the letters for the sounds that they hear.
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It is a year of amazing growth!
Kindergarteners learn to count up to 100! We focus mainly on the numbers from 0-20. Those "teen numbers" are hard! We also learn basic addition and subtraction. Geometry includes 2D and 3D shapes, and we also explore measurement and graphs.
About Ms Skiles
Hello! My teaching career has taken me along many varied paths! I hold a BS in Early Childhood Education and an MS in Reading and Language Arts. In addition to being certified as a PK-6 teacher, I also have certifications as a Remedial Reading Specialist, Reading Consultant, and Administrator. I have taught grades K, 1, 2, 5, and 6 as well as conducting professional development for teachers as an educational consultant. Over the years, I was a remedial reading teachers, principal (hated it!), and reading consultant. But nothing makes me happier than being a classroom teacher. I love to teach kindergarten because I want to help my students get off to a great start in their schooling!