Kindergarten Expectations
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During his or her kindergarten experience, your child will experience many activities in all areas of development.
Social:
- Develop positive self-esteem.
- Learn to work and play with others.
- Learn to work independently.
- Learn to follow directions and classroom expectations.
- Demonstrate respectful and responsible behaviors.
- Be polite and kind.
Physical:
- Learn to use classroom equipment and supplies appropriately.
- Develop large motor skills involving body movement and coordination through running, skipping and rhythmic activities.
- Develop small motor skills by using clay, tracing activities and cutting.
What will my child learn in kindergarten?
Reading Readiness
Kindergarten is a critical time to lay the foundation for becoming a successful reader. Your child will learn to:
- Recognize and name both upper and lower case letters.
- Correctly say each letter’s sound.
Your child will learn basic concepts of print:
- holding a book correctly;
- tracking words left to right;
- reading from the top to the bottom of the page;
- identifying the front and back cover and title page;
- understanding the correlation between spoken and printed words.
Your child will learn beginning reading skills:
- Identify initial and final sounds in spoken words.
- Identify rhyming and non-rhyming words (sun/run vs. sun/man).
- Determine word meanings from the way they’re used in a sentence.
- Identify characters, setting, and key events in a story.
- Retell stories in correct sequence.
- Follow two and three-step directions using picture clues
- Identify facts in non-fiction text.
Writing
Early writing skills are reported using one of five stages, showing continual growth from kindergarten through the primary grades.
- Stage 1 involves pictures and scribbling.
- Stage 2 moves your child to the use of random letters, sometimes with correct initial sounds.
- Stage 3 involves the use of initial sounds or both the initial and final sounds—mostly consonants (i.e., lk for like).
- Stage 4 increases the use of vowels (lk becomes lik). As the words become longer, students begin to show an understanding of multiple-syllable words.
- Stage 5 uses many correctly-spelled words in multiple, related sentences.
Kindergarten writing objectives involve:
- Generating story ideas as a class and drawing pictures to match.
- Working as a group to draft a story.
- Writing from left to right and showing space between words.
- Writing the alphabet in both upper and lower case letters.
- Writing first and last name on school papers.
Mathematics
- Count to 100.
- Identify and write numbers through 20 (in or out of order).
- Identify the symbols +, -, = and learn simple addition and subtraction through number 10.
- Understand the concepts of above/below/between, smaller/larger, longer/shorter.
- Identify and name shapes (circle, square, oval, triangle, rhombus, rectangle, and hexagon).
- Sort objects by size, color and shape.
- Create a variety of simple graphs.
- Match numerals to sets of objects.
Science
Introduction to:
- Senses
- Earth
- Weather
- Physical Science
- Environmental Science
Social Studies
Understanding:
- Community Helpers
- Holidays and Seasonal Customs
- Maps and Globes
Oral Language
Strengthening oral skills by:
- Increasing vocabulary
- Speaking in complete sentences in front of groups
- Using creative dramatics, puppetry, chart stories, recorded stories
- Class discussions in small and large groups
Art
Using assorted art materials:
- Paints
- Clay
- Papers
- Chalk
- Variety of tools
Music
Involvement in:
- Rhythm
- Songs
- Chants
- Use of instruments