KinderStart® Curriculum

KinderStart® Curriculum

Have you found yourself those first couple months of kindergarten completed FRAZZLED!? You know your students need the basics {rhyming, single sounds, syllables, alphabet, name work, color words, sentences}, but you are spending hours hunting down engaging activities to teach the skills? Or, you are teaching the skills but you just don't feel like the students are "getting it?" KinderStart steps in and covers both of these! KinderStart covers all the above skills and more... most of all KinderStart is systematic and allows for mastery in the skills!

KinderStart® is a very versatile 8 week Kindergarten starter curriculum created by a teacher for teachers and contains 40 daily lessons! The program is designed to give kindergarten students an 8 week introduction to skills in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, and oral listening. You can find success in using this program in your whole-group instruction, intervention groups, RTI groups, guided reading, or as a resource for non certified staff members assisting in the classroom. The program is based upon a slotted thirty minutes of instruction. However, this too is versatile as you can limit or extend this time frame to best fit your classroom needs.

You have so many great programs...how/when will YOU use this program?

I will use this program the first 8 weeks of school! I will use this program during my school-wide intervention block. We do not switch our students until the 9th week of school so this will be done whole-group and all students will be to benefit!

I don't have an intervention block so when can I use it?

We know that the beginning of kindergarten is a lot of routines and getting down the "basics." This is also true during our small-group time. We don't usually jump right in on day one pulling back reading groups. Instead we build independent stamina and work on skills our students need! You can easily use KinderStart during this time. Spend 10-15 building stamina and then use KinderStart to fill up your remaining small-group block until students have built up their independent stamina!

Sounds great! Tell me more!

KinderStart is broken down into three major areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, and oral listening/storytelling. For the oral listening/storytelling the teacher will read an included daily script about the adventures of a bulldog. The students will have an opportunity to listen as he goes on his daily adventures. Included in the lesson plans as well are daily follow-up questions. The students will respond to the story they had just heard. In the area of phonemic awareness the students will be introduced to the skills: rhyming {identifying and generating}, syllables, onset/rime, single sounds, segmenting, and blending. The teacher will lead the students in a variety of activities each week to help build mastery in the skill. The lesson plans provide explicit instruction on what games to play and all necessary pieces are included. The students will also have a phonics piece each week. They will work on names, the alphabet, color words, and words in sentences. Please note this is not an explicit alphabet instruction, but a basic introduction to the alphabet and alphabetic skills.

Keep in mind that all lessons can be adjusted to fit your needs. However, a sample whole-group KinderStart lesson could look like this; students meet at the carpet, students listen to the Brisket read aloud story {choose to use a stuffed dog or puppet to bring the story to life}, teacher reads read aloud questions and students respond, teacher introduces phonemic awareness skill, students participate in a game/activity that matches the phonemic awareness skill, teacher introduces phonics skill, students participate in a game/activity that matches the phonics skill.

What about assessments?

Also included in KinderStart is an assessment piece. Included in the packet is a phonemic awareness assessment tool. You can choose to do a pre-assessment and see where your students are in the areas and then a post test after the 8 week curriculum program. This could be done by simply using two pen colors. Ask the students ½ of the questions before starting the program and then ask the student the last ½ of the questions after the curriculum program has ended. You can also choose to give just one post time to ensure students made adequate progress or to note those that did not. Also included is a phonemic awareness tracker so that can quickly mark those that have mastered the skill and note those that have not.

What is included in KinderStart?

-Teacher "simple read" lesson plans for 40 instructional days. You will not need to rewrite these lesson plans. They are truly print and teach lesson plans covering the areas of {oral storytelling, phonemic awareness, and phonics}.

-All necessary picture cards and poem pieces

-All necessary independent follow up sheets

-Color home connection piece for color week

-Phonemic awareness assessment and tracker

Skills Covered in KinderStart

Week 1: Rhyming {Identifying} and Names

Week 2: Syllables and Names

Week 3: Onset/Rime and Alphabet Introduction {Abc's}

Week 4: Rhyming {Generating} and Letter Sorting {by attribute}

Week 5: Single Sounds and Alphabet Games {maniupulating letters}

Week 6: Blending and Color Words

Week 7: Segmenting and Color Words

Week 8: Segmenting and Words in Sentences

I teach PreK ...what about me?

Yes, I totally see KinderStart working great in PreK! It's possible you wouldn't use it at the beginning of the year, but once students are ready!

Please view the preview to see the sample lesson plans/materials!

If you are a kindergarten teacher you can check out my KinderWordBuilding! (Kindergarten Intervention) curriculum for once the students have an understanding of all their letters and sounds!

If you have any questions at all about this packet please email me at littlemindsatworkllc@gmail.com

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