Kindergarten

Entering Kindergarten is an exciting milestone in your child’s life. Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School provides a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment while fostering the development of the whole child and a commitment to faith and academic excellence. From the moment they walk through the door, our kindergarteners feel at home.

Curriculum

Reading

Focus: We focus on letter sounds, progressing from CVC, CVCC, to CCVC words. We also learn sight words aka "red flag words."

Textbook: Spectrum Phonics book, Heggerty Phonemic Awareness

Writing

Focus: We focus on handwriting, specifically writing our lowercase letters the correct way. As well as, including a writers workshop into our daily schedule where we have personal narrative, fairy tale, opinion, and persuasive writing units.

Textbook: Slingerland

Math

Focus: We use the Eureka Math curriculum to sharpen our skills with shapes, number recognition, comparison of lengths, addition and subtraction to 10, and counting.

Textbook: Eureka Math

Science

Focus: We have a variety of different science units. The units are: a pumpkin investigation, the five senses, germs, weather, and different habitats. All units are interactive.

Social Studies

Focus: We focus on special events and holidays. Holidays include: Veteran’s day, MLK day, and Presidents day. We also study our world, focusing on the seven continents, and take a deep dive into studying our country.

Religion

Focus: We begin our religious studies focusing on how to treat others with kindness, as we are all made in the image of God. In November Kindergarteners will do a Saint project and present their Saint to the class. We also focus on Mary and the Liturgical seasons.

Textbook: God Loves Us

Social/Emotional Skills

Focus: We focus on having a growth mindset, kindness, respect, and problem solving.

Textbook: Second Step

Service and Leadership

During the season of Lent, Kindergartner’s are asked to do acts of service at home to earn quarters. These quarters are then donated to the Heifer International to help buy a goat to support a family in need. Student’s learn all about goats and how they support families across the world.

Enrichment

To enrich learning and the kindergarten experience we buddy up with the 5th grade for reading buddies once a week. We also have a student led math portion each day called Number Corner from the Bridges in Mathematics Curriculum. To acknowledge and showcase each student we have a Star Student writing unit. We also do a weekly show and tell for students to practice speaking in front of their peers and use full sentences.

Special Events

We have lots of exciting events, such as: Very Important Person week (each student is the VIP for the week), Welcome night in May for the incoming class, 100 days of school celebration, a Pete the Cat scavenger hunt, and the Kindergarten/8th grade Kickball game.

Ms. Clare Dowd Kindergarten Teacher

"There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you... until the day you begin to share your stories. And all at once, in the room where no one else is quite like you, the world opens itself up a little wider to make some space for you."

- Jacqueline Woodson

I was born and raised in the Seattle area, attending Holy Rosary West Seattle before venturing off to Kennedy Catholic High School. I graduated from Gonzaga University in 2020 with a Bachelors of Arts and Sciences in Psychology and my elementary teaching certificate. I began teaching Kindergarten at OLL in 2021.