West Ottawa Summer Migrant Kindergarten Class of 2013

Welcome to one of the most hard-working classes at school. Kindergarten students achieve an unbelievable amount of learning between the beginning of Kindergarten and First Grade they learn letters, sounds and words and then use these to read and write; they learn counting, number recognition and grouping of numbers, then use these skills to add and subtract. They also learn to be independent learners, follow directions, and develop friendships. During the Summer Migrant Program, students work on the above mentioned skills while closing any achievement gaps and avoiding summer slump a loss of skills and learning over the summer as result of not being in school. Besides district and state mandated curriculum components, students learned using a weekly integrated theme based on classic childrens literature. Integration means that we not only read the story but complete activities related to the story that support common core subject areas. For example, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and focused on story sequence, color words, patterns, the life cycle of a butterfly, number sequence, counting and number recognition. While reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, we focused on story prediction skills, number recognition and sequence, adding, subtracting and patterning. We also studied transportation and community helpers.

We took some wonderful field trips this summer, too! Our first trip was to the Critter Barn where students learned about how a real farm works and got to touch many different kinds of animals. We also wrote about our trip. Next, was a visit to Deanas Playhouse where students worked on their social, speaking and language skills by playing in some really cool places like a bank and a grocery store donated by Macatawa Bank and Meijers. We were able to visit Tuesinks Pony Farm where we got to ride ponies and take a hay ride! Lastly, students went to the Grand Rapids Childrens Museum where they experienced many different hands-on activities that helped build their background knowledge in math, science, and social studies, as well as, continued their development of speaking, listening and social skills. As you can see, we had a busy and fun summer of learning. Look out First Grade here we come! Ms. Jones Kindergarten Teacher

Students playing Sparkle at the word wall and reading sight word books at their tables.