KG Program

Houghton Mufflin Program:

The core of the Houghton Mifflin curriculum features high-quality literature, child-centered themes and a flexible lesson structure that specifically develops critical early literacy skills, such as oral language, listening comprehension, vocabulary, phonological awareness, print awareness and alphabet knowledge. The program also teaches mathematics on a daily basis, and incorporates activities to address social/emotional development, physical development, science, social studies, music and art.

Houghton Mifflin PRE-K is a hands-on, minds-on curriculum that is based on scientific research. Aligned with key Pre-K learning goals, it provides children with the foundational skills they need to succeed as lifelong learners.

LESSONS:

Young Minds Preschool specializes in helping children establish a strong educational foundation that will enhance the probability of education success and personal confidence. With proven philosophy centered on instilling positive self-esteem, focus is on the development of the whole child:

• Socially
• Emotionally
• Cognitively
• Physically

At Young Minds Preschool, we take great pride in fostering children’s love for learning. Children who become confident have the greatest potential for success in school and in life.

The curriculum includes ten engaging and child-centered themes that will spark imaginations and a love of learning:

Welcome to School! My Family, My Community My Five Senses Seasons All Around Animals Everywhere Construction Zone In the City, In the Country Let’s Move! Growing and Changing Ready for Kindergarten!

At age 3, children are engaged in activities that encourage them to explore the world. The big ideas of the lessons include:

• Using My Senses
  Children learn about their five senses.
• Outside My Door
  Children use their senses in daily experiences.
• We’re Detectives!
  Children investigate nature.
• Weather Report
  Children talk about different kinds of weather.
• All Year Long
  Children learn how weather affects the environment.
• Seasons Change
  Children discover how and why the seasons change.
• I Love Animals
  Children share what they like about animals.
• Animals We Know
  Children see and discuss familiar animals.
• Animals on Land and Sea
  Children learn about animals in the wild.
• I Can Build
  Children explore making and building things.
• Build with Me
  Children work together to solve a problem.
• Everybody Builds
  Children plan together to accomplish a big job.
• Country Life
  Children learn about life and animals on a farm.
• The Busy, Busy City
  Children find out about the bustle of city life.
• To Market, To Market
  Children discover how products get to market.

ScottForesman Reading Street Program:

Scott Foresman Reading Street Reading Comprehension Program for Grades K, is designed to help teachers build readers through motivating and engaging literature, scientifically research-based instruction, and a wealth of reliable teaching tools. The reading program takes the guesswork out of differentiating instruction with a strong emphasis on ongoing progress-monitoring and an explicit plan to help with managing small groups of students. In addition, Reading Street prioritizes skill instruction at each grade level, so teachers can be assured they will focus on the right reading skill, at the right time, and for every student.

Program Components

• Student Edition
• Teacher’s Edition
• Leveled Readers
• Trade Books
• Big Books
• Decodable Readers

Student and Teacher’s Edition

Two of the most important components are the Student and Teacher’s Editions. The Student Edition features quality, authentic literature organized around unit concepts. Students also practice their higher-order thinking skills and complete writing assignments that prepare them for tests.

The Teacher’s Edition includes research-based core instruction that is systematic, explicit, and focused on priority skills. To help address the diverse needs of the students, differentiated instruction for below-level, on-level, and advanced learners is also provided.

Assessment

1. A critical component that distinguishes Reading Street is the assessment. The program outlines a four-step assessment plan that helps ensure that the students make adequate yearly progress.
2. Diagnose and differentiate the students’ needs as the four steps are followed.
3. Monitor the students’ progress as they advance through the program with the help of resources like Monitor Progress boxes, weekly assessments, and shared reading notes.
4. Assess and regroup students according to their performance levels at various milestones, such as the end of a unit.
5. Perform summative assessment through Unit Benchmark and End-of-Year Assessment tests that help guide students to advanced reading levels.

Leveled Readers

The Leveled Readers allow students more opportunities to practice the same skill, strategy, and vocabulary as the main selection. Students will also benefit from another conceptually coherent reader at an appropriate level. Choose between three levels: On- Level, Strategic Intervention, and Advanced. Leveled Readers are available for English Language Learners as well, and they’re available online in SuccessNet through the Leveled Reader database.

Trade Books and Big Books

Trade books that extend students’ reading and concept development are also used in Reading Street. Each unit in the program has an On-Level, Strategic Intervention, and Advanced trade book to support all reading abilities. Similarly, Big Books that develop concepts and oral vocabulary and can be used to monitor listening comprehension skills are also used.

Decodable Readers

The Decodable Readers provide focused phonics and blending practice for each phonics skill. These are available in kindergarten through Grade 3. These can be used as resources to provide fluency practice for students. All vocabulary and phonics skills are retaught in these readers, so students have a higher chance of achieving one hundred percent accuracy.

Phonics and Word Study

The Phonics and Word Study component provides additional resources and activities to help teach phonics. These resources include

• Sound Spelling Cards that can be used to introduce each sound spelling in the phonics lessons. Each card includes an instructional routine with a spelling generalization, a photograph to represent the target sound, and a list of spellings for the sound.
• Alphabet Cards that can be used to help students develop letter and word recognition skills to connect sounds to letters. They are available in both English and Spanish, so use them to help English Language Learners transition from Spanish to English.
• The Phonics and Spelling Practice Book that provides additional written practice with phonics and word study.

Language Arts

The Language Arts component includes useful resources to assist with instruction. They include

• Grammar Transparencies, which help provide weekly grammar instruction and guided practice in the classroom.
• Daily Fix-It Transparencies, which help with daily proofreading, spiral review in context, and with connecting grammar, spelling and writing.
• The Grammar and Writing Practice Book, which contains daily grammar and writing practice, as well as a cumulative review.

English Language Learners

English Language Learners benefit from the differentiated support given in Reading Street. Notice that some of the additional resources include big visuals in poster format and weekly readers that connect to the anthology. There are also sources for working with these children and their families with story summaries in many different languages.

Grade K English Standards:

Standards are the expectations for what students should know, understand, and be able to do; standards represent educational goals.

Reading: Literature

• 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, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
• 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.

Reading: Informational Text

• 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.
• With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
• Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Reading: Foundational Skills

• Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.
• Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.
• Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.
• Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
• Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

• Recognize and produce rhyming words.
• Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
• Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
• Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.
• Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

• Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
• Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
• Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
• Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Writing

• 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 favorite 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

• Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
• Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
• Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
• 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

Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

• Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
• Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.
• Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/ (e.g., dog, dogs; wish, wishes).
• Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).
• Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).
• Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.
• Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).
• Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.
• Write Words.
• Write Rhyming Words.

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.

• Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).
• Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.

With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

• Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
• Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).
• Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at school that are colorful).
• Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.
• Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

2-Alpha K Math

Alpha Math for Grade K2 is a comprehensive, CCSS-based approach to teaching math readiness skills to children in their first and second years of Kindergarten..

K2 has five volumes that each cover one of the five K2 CCSS math domains. They continue teaching numbers and delve deeper into addition and subtraction, measurements, and identification of shapes.

Key Features

• One Common Core math domain per volume
• Opportunity to connect math instruction to themes and other subjects
• Math flash cards for enriched learning experience
• Exercises and tips to support School-Home connection and parental involvement
• Step-by-step, scaffolded teaching instructions to gradually introduce concepts and plan lessons with ease
• ExamView assessment generator for creating, assigning, and scoring tests, quizzes, and more
• Available both online and offline on eAlpha, your dynamic and interactive Learning Management System

KG3 Alpha Math Student Books