Curriculum | Lower School | St. Anne's Episcopal | Denver

• Write short books with pictures and words on each page.
• Use phonetic spelling and form complete sentences.
• Begin using basic writing conventions, including capitalization, spacing between words, and punctuation (proficiency is not expected).
• Types of writing will include narrative, informative, and opinion pieces.

In kindergarten art, young artists primarily create through drawing, painting, and creating different types of 3-D sculpture. They often learn about various artists and their styles and try to implement different pieces of those styles throughout their own work. Another important attribute to a growing artist is practice of the proper use of tools and strategies to create different effects in their artwork.

Most importantly, the young artists are encouraged to experiment with different processes and try new things to explore their creativity and voice through art. This may include showing feelings or an idea through color or lines. Working in a more representational or realistic way vs. abstract are all things artists learn, practice, and create during their time in class.

Kindergarten focuses on daily lessons that provide direct, explicit, multisensory, and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonics to give students a firm foundation in the subskills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading. The primary goals of the word study program include:

• To help students build robust phonemic awareness skills with an understanding that words are made out of a sequence of sounds and that we can isolate individual sounds and distinguish them from one another (phoneme segmentation)
• To teach students how to use phonemic awareness skills to read and spell;
• To help students understand the alphabetic principle, or the idea that letters represent sounds;
• To build students’ automaticity with letter-sound relationships;
• To help students decode simple closed-syllable words with accuracy and automaticity;
• To help students read a set of high-frequency words with accuracy and automaticity;
• To build students’ phonics knowledge related to consonant digraphs and consonant blends, and to provide strategies for reading simple two-syllable words.

Kindergarden Math Focus

• Number names and the counting sequence
• One-to-one correspondence for counting objects and comparing numbers
• Addition (putting together/adding to) and subtraction (taking apart/taking from)
• Working with numbers 11–19 to build a foundation for place value
• Describing and comparing measurable attributes
• Classifying objects and counting objects in categories
• Identifying, describing, and working with shapes, including skills to analyze, compare, create, and compose them

Kindergarten Science Focus

Kindergarten science offers hands-on activities that allow students to explore the world and understand the basic processes that shape it. Key areas of focus include:

• Approaching the environment scientifically
• Understanding how force impacts motion
• Exploring how ecosystems affect organisms
• Studying weather

Students develop scientific skills such as measuring, observing, comparing, asking questions, and critical thinking.

Kindergarten Social Studies Focus

The kindergarten social studies program emphasizes:

• Basics of geography, history, civics, and economics
• Identifying map characteristics
• Learning the history of our country and major holidays
• Exploring how people worldwide celebrate important holidays
• Studying important historical figures
• Promoting positive interactions, recognizing membership in family, neighborhood, school, and team
• Discussing traits of an active and helpful classroom member
• Following class rules

Kindergarten Music Curriculum

The kindergarten music program focuses on developing each child’s ability to sing, dance, and play rhythm instruments with peers. Skills taught include:

• Keeping a steady beat
• Matching pitch vocally
• Moving and responding to music

St. Anne's Physical Education Program

The goal of St. Anne’s physical education program is to engage students in developmentally appropriate movement experiences that focus on both learning to move and learning through movement. In Developmental Level One, kindergarten students participate in a daily program that includes:

• Fundamental movement and physical fitness
• Locomotor, non-locomotor, rhythmic, and manipulative skills through exploration and simple games
• Learning basic wellness concepts and practicing sportsmanship

This foundation promotes an active and healthy lifestyle.
 

Introduction to the Bible, Church Calendar, Chapel, and World Religions

In the first three years at St. Anne’s students begin to develop awareness of the Bible as a special book that contains important stories about God, people, character, miracles, and mystery. Relying on Godly Play, story-telling, and exposure to imagery, objects, and sacred spaces, young learners visit and revisit major narratives and characters of the Hebrew Bible. In the seasons of Christmas and Easter, students learn the story of Jesus of Nazareth and his ministry. We respectfully use other celebrations in world religions as an entry point into learning about them. All faiths are approached with reverence, and while we often turn to mindfulness and prayer to learn the rhythms of gratitude and care, no one way of practice is elevated above others and always remains invitational.