Kindergarten

The Greencastle-Antrim School District is excited to welcome your child to kindergarten at the Greencastle-Antrim Primary School. We know the learning experiences your child will receive will give him/her a good start to a successful school career.

Kindergarten is an exciting time in a child's formal schooling. Our staff is delighted to open the doors to learning, investigation and socialization while providing your child with all the support they need. Our kindergarten program has a firm foundation based upon research and PA core standards to ensure a purposeful and meaningful education that will give your child the necessary skills he/she will need to be successful throughout his/her career.

Kid Writing
Individualized
Numbers
Desire to Learn
Engaging
Reading
Group Activities
Alphabet
Responsible
Team Work
Exciting and Enthusiastic
New Friends

What we learn in Math

Number Sense: Students will begin to quantify sets of objects as they practice the counting sequence. Students will focus on matching one-to-one counting with objects, order, count, and write up to twenty objects that are in various formations. Students will begin to quantify numbers and able to compose and decompose numbers, represent quantities using manipulatives as well as identify, writing, and comparing numbers.

Data & Measurement: Students will investigate and graph the information that they collect using rally marks, picture graphs and bar graphs. Students will compare their data and answer questions related to the information they have collected. Students will describe and compare measurable attributes of the length and weight of objects. They will use nonstandard units to measure length and weight.

Shapes: Students will describe two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects. Students will identify, create, and compare 2D and 3D shapes.

Addition & Subtraction: Students will begin to use their counting skills and their knowledge of the value of numbers to understand the idea of addition and subtraction. Students will use manipulatives, equation, and models to solve addition and subtraction problems to 10.

What we learn in English Language Arts

Readers & Writers: We will immerse learners in literacy and build routines of interactive writing, shared writing, writers workshop, read alouds, shared reading and guided reading using a variety of non-fiction and fiction texts. Kindergarteners understand how reading and writing correlate with one another and learn how writing gives them an opportunity to share their voice with the world around them.

Phonological & Word Awareness: Students will understand our spoken language through a variety of practices including: rhyming words, rhyme recognition, onset fluency, phoneme categorization, syllables, isolating beginning, final or medial phonemes, letter naming and language awareness. Students will manipulate phonemes in words through blending and segmenting sounds.

Environmental Center Programming

Kindergarteners begin their excitement at the environmental center with a wagon ride through Tayamentaschta at the beginning of the school year.

The program they will experience during the school year is Earthseekers. Earthseekers is a year-long environmental education program which ties Tayamentaschta and home together to create a comprehensive learning experience. Through seasonal activities at home and at school, students train to become "Earthseekers".

At Tayamentaschta, the students meet the puppet character, Mother Nature, and her marvelous Wonder Trunk. Mother Nature sends the young students on an adventure using their 5 senses and special tools to help learn more about nature's wonders. The students will then be engaged in helping nature's wonders each season during the school year.

Community Service Project

Community Helper Day: The purpose of this day is to extend and educate our students about some of the community services in the Greencastle area. In kindergarten we introduce this by learning and discussing community services, what these helper do, and the tools and uniforms they use to perform their jobs. Some of the community helpers that come to share about their job include: firefighters, police, postal workers, Antrim Township, chefs, veterinarians, doctors, fitness instructors, mechanics, and beekeepers.

Cocoa with Kindergarten: Each year kindergarten students and teachers host a school wide event to raise money and provide pajamas to pediatric cancer patients at Hershey Medical Center. All pajamas collected will be donated in memory of Weston Rock. All money raised will go toward purchasing even more pajamas.

Special Days and Field Trips

Staggered Kindergarten start
ABC Fashion Show
Race for Education
Pumpkin Delivery from Stoner's Dairy Farm
Trip to the Maryland Theater
Spring field Trip to Stoner's Dairy Farm
Field Day
End of the year Beach Bash