Kindergarten

I am Sherry Neiger, the Kindergarten teacher at Meridian School. I graduated from Brigham Young University with B.S. degrees in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. I love teaching children and have taught pre-school and Kindergarten for 9 years.

Kindergarten is a magical year. Children at this age are creative, imaginative, active, curious and ready to learn. I strive to instill a love of learning through a curriculum that is meaningful and fun. I try to inspire my students with my enthusiasm for life and learning. “One can succeed at almost anything for which he has enthusiasm” (author unknown).

I foster a learning environment that is safe and based on trust. All students are accepted and respected, and are given opportunities for daily success. I try to teach my students how to think. I have a passion for teaching and desire that all my students look at themselves as winners. My instruction is based on each student's individual needs.

One of my greatest pleasures is to read high-quality, award-winning children's literature to my students every day. We act out our favorite stories with puppets, props, masks, and/or costumes. Children learn from the language they hear so I try to provide a rich language environment.

My Kindergarten language arts curriculum, based on the Utah State Core, integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking with age-appropriate, hands-on activities that support children of varying abilities and experiences. I teach reading and writing through a balanced literacy program. I teach the following foundation skills for reading: print awareness, knowledge of the alphabet, phonemic awareness, sight vocabulary, and phonics instruction. I use large-group, small-group, and individual instruction to insure success for all learners every day. Success breeds success.

My curriculum balances teacher-directed and child-initiated activities using the finest children's literature and research-based practices such as encouraging writing with ‹inventedþ spelling. My students are encouraged to write words the way they sound. The proven benefit is that it heightens phonemic awareness which primes the pump for phonics instruction. Invented spelling is temporary and is followed by a gradual transition to conventional spelling.

My math curriculum encourages students to discover how basic operations work, as well as learning basic math concepts. The students learn through playing fun math games as well as doing hands-on math practice activities and worksheets. When I introduce a new math unit, I send a letter home informing parents about the unit with new vocabulary words, suggested reading materials and a math game.

I integrate content areas in science, social studies, and health into my language arts and math curriculum. We have fun exploring our world by going on field trips and doing special projects.

Field trips include:
 Fall Treasure Hike
 Pet Store
 Bean Museum
 Ballet and/or Theatre productions
 Country Farm
 Hogle Zoo

Special events include:
 Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Spring/ Easter Learning Parties
 Christmas Around the World
 Snowy Day Celebration
 Nursery Rhyme Olympics
 100th Day of School Celebration
 Teddy Bear Picnic (after reading, discussing and acting out various versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Bear Math and Writing)
 Author's Share
 Fun Friday complete with food experience (Kindergarten A-Z recipe book for each child), scrap booking, easel painting, puppetry, and many other fun hands-on experiences.