Kindergarten marks the exciting beginning of a child’s elementary school journey, where curiosity blossoms, creativity takes shape, and young learners develop the foundational skills to become confident writers and critical thinkers.
Our literacy program is aligned with the U.S. Common Core State Standards (CCSS). For several years, BFS has used the Lucy Calkins Reading and Writing Workshop curriculum, with units of study aligned with current Science of Reading research. The program emphasizes foundational literacy skills, writing across disciplines, and structured, explicit instruction through a consistent five-part lesson framework.
Currently, our Kindergarten students are learning to organize and tell narrative stories by beginning with sentences about objects. Through a process of observing an object, thinking about its details, creating a detailed drawing, and then writing about it, students develop an understanding of the connection between drawing and writing. As Kindergarten student Aiden P. explains, “Writing is like drawing, but you use letters.”
By the end of the unit, students will create “Show and Tell” narratives based on real or imagined experiences and events. They will use drawing, dictation, and writing to describe a single event or a series of loosely connected events, recount them in the order in which they occurred, and share a reaction to what happened. Students will also learn to strengthen their writing through planning, revising, editing, rewriting, and exploring new approaches. Drawing on their lived experiences, creativity, and imagination, our Kindergarten writers bring their stories to life through writing about favorite objects and treasured family items.
To further strengthen foundational literacy development and support learners from Kindergarten through Grade 2, BFS also introduced phonics materials from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) this fall. By combining the Reading and Writing Workshop approach with explicit phonics instruction, we provide students with opportunities to develop essential literacy skills while expressing their ideas and experiences. Through this work, our Kindergarteners embody the Shark value of Active Communicators, finding their voices as engaged writers and critical thinkers who confidently tell their own stories.
