Sarah Belmonte- Teacher

Ms. Belmonte attended Our Lady Queen of Peace School and Marquette High School, where Catholic education was at the forefront. She graduated with honors from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. After graduating, she married her wonderful husband and she was blessed with two sons. She enjoys spending time with her family. As a professional educator, her greatest goal is to inspire a love of learning. Ms. Belmonte provides a safe, respectful, and creative environment where students are positively engaged. Her teaching strategies are in accordance with each student's unique strengths and abilities. Inquiry and reflective thinking are practiced, and students are supported as they build self-confidence, enjoy learning, gain knowledge, and meet their full potential.

Overview

Religion

In the Sadlier Religion series, students will learn and discuss how God gave us many gifts, that God is our creator, how Jesus shows us God's love and that Jesus wants us to share God's love.  The Kindergarten class attends Mass weekly.   They also recite daily prayers.

Writing

OLQP uses a workshop approach to the teaching of writing.  The instructor helps to build a group of writers in which individuals are supported by the teacher and by other students in the classroom.  This approach allows students to write about topics of their choice, to explore different writing styles and to practice their revision and editing skills.

Math

The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Saxon Math Curriculum uses various manipulatives to engage students.  In Kindergarten, students will learn to count and pay with pennies, nickels, and dimes, graph items, create color patterns, tangrams, ordering shapes by size and dividing shapes in half.

Reading

In Kindergarten, we use the HMH Journeys Common Core series.  We exercise grammar, phonics, vocabulary, writing, reading fluency, reading comprehension and story retelling.  We practice reading and writing sight words weekly.

Science

Kindergarten science is a guided inquiry program, Science Fusion that gives students the opportunity to explore topics and concepts through investigations.  Instructional methods include:  individual and small group work, full class instruction and discussions and guided inquiry activities.  They will also participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities.

Social Studies

Students will learn more about the communities around them, the United States of America and the Earth
in which we live. Scott Foresman engages students through prior knowledge, visual content and a
systematic focus on language.