The kindergarten approach to teaching language arts is designed to develop a desire to read, teach skills, which will lead to competence in reading, and foster the ability to understand and express ideas clearly. Instruction is research-based and systematic. It is a balanced literacy program consisting of: phonemic awareness, phonics, whole language experience, and outstanding literature in a variety of genres.

Reading

• Comprehension strategies: comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, making predictions, critically evaluating, drawing conclusions , interpreting illustrations, recalling details

• Using prior knowledge to understand a story

• Making connections while listening to a story

• Responding creatively to a story

• Retelling the words of the text with intonation and phrasing

• Identifying story elements of characters, setting, problem, and solution
• Sequencing a three-part story using pictures

• Recognizing a variety of literature genres: fairy tales, folk tales, fiction, multicultural, biography, non-fiction, poetry

Word Study

• Understanding that a word is made up of letters

• Phonemic awareness skills: onset and rime, blending phonemes, segmentation, rhyming words, counting and tracking sounds and words, counting word parts

• Naming upper and lower case letters of the alphabet

• Consonant letter sound correspondence for initial and final sounds

• Reading high frequency words,

• Blending sounds to read words with a consonant/vowel/consonant pattern

•  Segmenting sounds to write words with a consonant/vowel/consonant pattern

• Using previous experience to understand vocabulary

• Recognizing that s on the end of a word means more than one

Writing

• Contributing to a group writing process through sharing ideas for a class story, idea mapping, and drawing pictures

• Understanding that a sentence expresses an idea

• Being aware of ending punctuation

• Expressing an idea through dictation

• Generating topics and content for writing

• Using precommunicative, semi-phonetic, transtional, and/or conventional writing to express an idea

• Using developmental spelling to write personal narrative, expository (informational) writing,and to respond to literature

Information Research and Study Skills

• Using visual information such as interpreting illustrations, utilizing graphic organizer

• Understanding research skills for formulating a question, time management, and organization

Language Development and Communication Skills

• Listening attentively to a speaker
• Listening for a purpose
• Using appropriate body language for listening
• Listening to and following single step oral directions
• Listening to and following multi-step oral directions
• Listening to a variety of oral presentations such as stories, songs, poems, and personal accounts
• Speaking on topic
• Raising hand before speaking
• Speaking with appropriate voice, volume and tone
• Providing information to answer a question
• Responding appropriately to comments by others

Basic Early Literacy (BELS)

The Reading Specialist at Avoca West teaches basic early literacy skills in each kindergarten classroom once a week for a thirty minutes throughout the school year. The curriculum consists of phonemic awareness activities, letter-sound correspondence skills, word family sorts, making words, and sight word vocabulary.