Mrs.
Margaret S. Bernosky
Hi, my name is Mrs. Margaret S Bernosky. I teach kindergarten at Ashland Elementary School and you can
contact me by calling 875-2371. My school E-mail is m.bernosky@northschuylkill.net
I am a graduate of North Schuylkill High School. I received my BS from Bloomsburg University in Elementary
Education.
I have
been a teacher at North Schuylkill for twenty-eight years. I taught 3rd grade for ten years, and 2nd
grade for one year. After that I was
given a kindergarten position, and have been teaching it for the last seventeen
years.
You
can use the homework helpline to find out information about your child's
classroom assignments and activities.
Using a touch-tone phone, call 462-3000. My selection # is 7255.
Classroom Rules
The
classroom rules in kindergarten are very simple. Rather than have a set of class rules, we have a set of “Good
Choices”.
*Share with everyone
*Always use nice words when you talk
*Be careful with our books
*Keep your hands and your feet to yourself
*Small voices inside, tall voices on the
playground
*Listen to each other
*Raise your hand before speaking
If a
child makes a bad choice, they get a warning.
If a student continues to make the same bad choice, they get a tally
mark on our daily chart. When a child
accumulates three tally marks in one day, they lose five minutes at recess.
Homework
is a very important component for a student’s learning process. If a child does not have their homework
completed, they can bring it the next day.
If they still don’t have it, they must complete it at recess.
I use
a discipline approach called “Assertive Discipline” which uses positive
reinforcement to help the students make their good choices. An example of this is “if a child is
exhibiting a bad choice, I will praise a child sitting near them for making a
good choice. The child making the bad
choice see that he can get my positive attention by making the good choice, and
they usually alter their behavior.
Curriculum
We use the Harcourt Math
Series in kindergarten. It provides a
research-based instructional plan that insures success for students. It includes daily strategies for intervention
using problem solving and skills that diagnose students with difficulties in
Mathematics. This Math provides an
opportunity for differentiated instruction so that all students can succeed.
The
things learned in kindergarten lay the foundation for algebraic concepts, which
will be built upon as the children progress through their education.
This
program is aligned with the State and national Standards, and the students are
assessed on a regular basis. It builds
a strong school-home connection. There
is a useful web site for parents and students to explore www.harcourtschool.com.
Our Phonic program that we use in kindergarten is
Saxon Phonics. The kindergarten
children learn print awareness through capitalization, punctuation, and
concepts about print.
They
learn to decode and spell by learning alphabet recognition, initial, medial and
final consonants, twin consonants, consonant blends, sounds of "s"
and consonant diagraphs. They learn to
decode by learning short and long vowels, silent vowels, vowel diagraphs, and
vowel rules. They learn about
r-controlled vowels and other combinations. They
learn word structure by recognizing nondecodable sight words, blending CVC and
other words, syllabication, compound words, and possessives.
The
handwriting/penmanship is based on capital and lowercase manuscript letter
formation.
We learn comprehension,
oral communication, listening and speaking skills. We incorporate kid-writing, journal writing, and cooperative
interactive writing into our curriculum.
Here are some helpful web sites to use for your children.