Academics

Kindergarten Schedule

9:15 - 9:40 Arrival/Breakfast

9:40 – 10:00 Morning Meeting 

10:00 - 10:45 Writer’s Workshop/MIL/Sharing

10:45 – 11:10 Word Study

11:10 -11:43 Bathroom/Wash Hands/Lunch

11:43 – 11:55 Number Corner

12:00 -12:30 Recess

12:35 – 12:50 Number Corner

12:50 – 1:40 Specialists

1:45 – 2:30 Readers Workshop/MIL/Sharing

2:30 – 2:40 Snack

2:40 - 3:30 Math/MIL/Sharing

3:30 – 3:50 Closing Circle/Dismissal

To simplify the back-to-school process and lower the cost for families, Diamond Path will be ordering all kindergarten student supplies.  Parents are asked to pay a $40.00 donation to cover the cost of supplies for students.  This can be paid through My Payments Plus (sorry, no cash or checks).  The supplies will be given to students by their classroom teacher when school begins.

• Learning Links
• Snack List
• Alphabet Chart
• Verbal Pathways-Lowercase Letters
• Verbal Pathways-Uppercase Letters
• Verbal Pathways-Numbers
• Benchmark High Frequency Words

Interventionists collaborate with classroom teachers to support individual or small groups of students. Interventions may be for academics, communication, social skills, emotional skills, or behavioral skills. They may take place within the student’s classroom or in a small group setting. Interventions may range from daily 30-45 minute sessions or as quick as daily 5-7 minute sessions depending on student need. Some of the interventions that take place at Diamond Path include literacy interventions such as Leveled Literacy Intervention and Reading Recovery, Second Step for social emotional learning, and intervention focusing on communication skill

The Reading Recovery program provides daily individualized reading and writing instruction for students identified(*) as needing this intensive support. This is only a first grade support program and is designed to be a short term intervention for students. The program's goal is to accelerate students' reading and writing growth within 12-20 weeks to reach the average levels of their classes. After this time, students who are able to be successful working independently in their classrooms no longer need any support. If it is determined that some students will need more ongoing support to be successful, they will transition to another program which will provide this needed support for them.

The daily 30 minute Reading Recovery lessons are taught by specially trained Reading Recovery teachers. Each lesson focus is designed and carried out with the individual student in mind. Every Reading Recovery lesson, however, consists of the same structure and format. The parts of each 30 minute lesson are:

• Familiar reading
• Running record of a new book
• Letter/word work
• Fluent writing of a short story
• Cut up sentence from the writing
• New book introduction
• First reading of a new book

Each night the student takes a familiar book home to read, along with the cut-up sentence from the lesson, to reassemble. Daily home support is essential. Parents are also encouraged to observe a lesson. Through observing a lesson, parents are able to see how all the parts of a lesson work and tie in together to support new learning for their child.

For more information about this program or to find out more specific information about each of the lesson components and their significance please contact the Diamond Path office.

(*)Early student assessment and District 196 guidelines for qualifying scores identify students who are eligible for this support program.

Gifted and talented children are those students with outstanding abilities and capable of higher performance when compared to others of similar age, experience and environment. They have significantly different educational needs from their peers and require educational differentiation as a regular part of their school day to ensure they reach their full potential.

Learn more about our Gifted and Talent Development Program >

The Diamond Path English Learner (EL) Program welcomes and celebrates the diversity and unique language experience that English Learners bring to our school. Their multilingual skills and unique cultural backgrounds enrich our school community.

The EL Program at Diamond Path provides instruction and support developing students’ Academic English skills in speaking, listening, reading, and/or writing. Building Academic English supports students’ access and achievement in content and grade level units of study. In addition, we advocate for students by working with classroom teachers and families to identify other educational opportunities that may enhance student learning.

Students in our EL program come with their own individual abilities and level of need. The goal of the EL program is to help each child reach his/her full potential. We encourage parents to continue reading and supporting their child's first language skills at home, as first language literacy helps build and deepen English language literacy! For resources to support and build your child's English language skills, please talk to their EL teacher or grade level teacher.

Learn more about the District 196 EL Program >

Adult/Community Education

• Adult Basic Education
• Community Education
• Dakota County Library
• USA Learns

Reading and Spelling Grades K-2

• Children's Storybooks Online
• Lit2Go
• PBS Kids
• Primary Games
• Raz Kid
• Roy the Zebra
• Spelling City
• Starfall Reading
• Storyline Online
• Story Place
• Unite for Literacy