Kindergarten

Meet the Teacher

Hi, welcome to Kindergarten! My name is Krizia Layam and I have been teaching at St. John the Baptist since 2020. Before working at SJBS I was a preschool instructional aide at a Catholic school in Seattle, Washington, where I also attended the University of Washington for my undergraduate. Go Dawgs! After living in Seattle, I decided to come back home to the Bay Area and received my Masters in Teaching degree from Santa Clara University in 2022. 

In my classroom, students will blossom in their reading and writing skills and build many new math skills. Students will also grow socially, emotionally, and physically, so it is important to me that your child feels safe, cared about, and happy when they are in my classroom. I love having fun in the classroom, but also know the importance of having a structured and organized learning environment. 

Outside of school, I love spending most of my free time outdoors going on hikes, camping, biking, and exploring new places. I also love trying new restaurants. When I’m stuck indoors, I enjoy reading a good book, playing video games and watching the latest movies or TV shows. I am also a huge sports fan and especially love watching the Warriors, Sharks, and Niners!

Curriculum and Tools

• Math: students will learn about sorting and matching, writing and identifying numbers 1-20 in different ways, addition and subtraction within 10, 2D and 3D shapes
  • Go Math!
  • SFSD Math
  • Apps:  Moose Math
     
• Science: concepts are divided into three units - Needs of Plants and Animals, Pushes and Pulls, and Sunlight and Weather
  • Amplify Science
  • Mystery Science
  • STEM Lab: we go once a week to do a hands-on lab/experiment 
  • Coding: Kodable and Tynker Jr. 
     
• Social Studies: students will learn about citizenship, important figures of the past, US symbols and holidays, community helpers, and geography 
  • Studies Weekly
  • Little Thinkers
     
• Religion: students will learn about foundational elements of our Catholic faith and the importance of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph through scripture, art, prayer and hands-on activities
  • Finding God
  • RCL Benziger Family Life
     
• English Language Arts: through our phonics curriculum students will learn foundational reading skills like rhyming, mastering sounds for every letter in the alphabet, blending CVC words, and recognizing high frequency words; students will learn reading comprehension skills for both fiction and non-fiction texts by identifying story elements, retelling a story, identifying the beginning, middle, and end of a story through our reading curriculum
  • Reading: Journeys
  • Phonics: Magnetic Reading Foundations
  • Secret Stories
  • Apps:  Lexia 
     
• Writing: writing concepts are divided into three units - narrative, informative/explanatory, and opinion/argumentative; students will learn proper script letter formation in handwriting 
  • Lucy Calkins Units of Study
  • Zaner-Bloser for Handwriting