Bryson at Hunter College Elementary School

We feel incredibly grateful to have Bryson at Hunter College Elementary School. The teachers and staff are very thoughtful about the curriculum, community, and the children's academic, social, and emotional growth. We've also been able to make friends with other parents and also gone on play dates.



 

 

 

In case you were curious about curriculum and what their day is like..

 

The Kindergarten physical education curriculum outline is here.

 

Class News - Kindergarten

Class of 2030 has arrived! With Ms. Guss & Ms. Koon at the helm and full support from Ms. Fernandez, Ms. Leal & Ms. Huang, our kindergarteners are off to a great first year at HCES. The students are already settling into their new surroundings, new schedules, and new community.

Our littlest Hawks have been introduced to all the wonderful amenities of Hunter, from the library and playground to the art, music and gym spaces. Along with French and chess instruction, they are embarking on their discovery of literacy, social studies, science, and the new ‘Investigations’ math curriculum. The beginning of the year has been focused on friendships and there are many initiatives to build community woven into their routine.

Math is being creatively integrated into their day. Calendar Math focuses on a ‘number of the day’ that is used in a variety of exercises, including tallying, drawing a picture that represents the number, discussing which numbers come before and after, and adding by 10’s. Although the kids may experience this as ‘math that doesn't feel like math’ right now, things will soon ramp up.

In Literacy, the classes have been using the works of author Kevin Henkes to explore friendship and kindness. In Ms. Koon’s class, the reading of ‘Chester’s Way’ has set a lovely tone for appreciating each other’s differences, celebrating individuality, and recognizing the joys of every friendship. Ms. Guss’ class read ‘Chrysanthemum’ and learned about acceptance and self-esteem.

Theater has been particularly exciting. They are using classic stories such as The Three Little Pigs and The Little Red Hen to practice elements of stage theater. Our little actors are projecting their voices, running lines and moving around the big stage. These components will be married with movements being learned in dance to create the Kindergarten play.

For our 4 and 5 year olds, the recent fire drill and yellow bus tour were moments of great excitement—everything is so new! Mr. Adisa led all kindergarteners onto a big, yellow bus for a bus safety tour. The riders learned about buckling in and emergency exits, among other safety features. They are now ready for their first bus field trip! Speaking of which, the kindergarteners will participate in a cross-grade trip later in the year with their fourth grade buddies. A beloved Hunter tradition, each student was paired with a fourth grader and the pairs will be doing a number of activities together throughout the year—the first of which is an apple taste test later this month!

One of the stimulating routines in the classrooms has been Center Time—where students explore a different activity area such as Chess, Drawing, Reading, Math, Blocks, and more. For the 12-day rotation, classes have combined forces—students from Ms. Guss’ class are paired with students from Ms. Koon’s class at each station and partners will change at the start of the next rotation, thus building cross-classroom friendships and allowing for varied group play.

The children are quickly establishing great friendships—buddying up at every chance with their new peers. They are getting to know each other better every day—celebrating each other’s birthdays to comparing each other’s foot size, which each class is carefully logging, compiling and aggregating with Ms. Wolf to derive ‘The Hunter Foot.’ As the children form bonds that will extend into the years to come, parents, too, are finding opportunities to bring families together in our newfound community. There is much to come for Hunter’s newest students and we are all excited to be part of this great school.

 

Dear Parents,

 

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend!  So many exciting things have been happening in class KG!

In literacy, we have continued to learn about word families and reviewing new sight words we have learned.  Each week we share a new big book and practice reading.  So far, we have read Mrs. Wishy-Washy,   Dan the Flying Man,  and Yes, Ma’am.  These books allow us to practice reading new sight words and learn about rhyming words.

 

We have begun using the Investigations math program.  We have been taking attendance each day by counting the number of students who are present and figuring out how many are absent.  This has given us the opportunity to explore skip counting around our circle.  We have skip counted by 2s, 3s, and 5s.  During math workshop, we have also explored some of our materials, including pattern blocks, geo blocks, and linking cubes.  We learned how to play Pumpkin Ten Frames.

 

In science, we have been learning all about apples.  We have been reading books about apples and learning about the parts and varieties of apples.  We had the opportunity to taste Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, and McIntosh apples on Friday.

 

In the past two weeks, we have also met our 4^th grade buddies from Mrs. McCabe’s class.  During our first meeting, we had an opportunity to get to know them and spend s, ome time playing in the courtyard.  We were busy tasting different apples during our second meeting.  The 4^th graders took surveys with their kindergarten buddies to see which was everyone’s favorite apple. 

  

See you soon!

 

Jen