Kindergarten

Kindergarten Curriculum at a Glance

Reading

The student…

  • recognizes letters of the alphabet
  • associates sounds with letters of the alphabet
  • understands basic phonological/phonetic principles (ex. knows rhyming words, knows words that have the same initial and final sounds
  • blends individual sounds into words
  • understands how print is organized and read (ex. locating print on a page, matching print to speech, knowing parts of a book, reading from top-to-bottom and left-to-right and sweeping back to the left for the next line.
  • uses a variety of sources to build vocabulary (ex. word walls, other people and life experiences)
  • develops vocabulary by discussing characters and events from a story
  • uses strategies to comprehend text (ex. retelling, discussing, asking questions, using illustrations and sequences of events)
  • knows the main idea or essential message from a read-aloud story or informational piece
  • selects materials to read for pleasure
  • is able to recognize, read, and write the Kindergarten sight words.
  • uses pictures and inventive spelling to write about a story or about their own thoughts.

 

Writing

The student…

  • writes upper case and lower case letters from A-Z
  • writes first and last name in the proper form (with a capital letter first followed by lower case letters)
  • recognizes spacing in sentences
  • ends sentences with correct punctuation
  • identifies and writes sight words

 

Mathematics

Number Sense

The student…

  • counts, reads, and writes numerals to 20 and counts backwards from 10-1
  • knows that cardinal numbers indicate quantity and ordinal numbers indicate position
  • uses language such as before or after to describe relative position in a sequence of whole numbers
  • compares 2 or more sets (up to 10) and identifies which set is equal to, more than, or less than
  • uses concrete materials to represent whole number and fractional parts of a whole (ex. one half and one fourth)
  • demonstrates and describes the effect of putting together and taking apart sets of objects
  • creates, acts out with objects, and solves number problems
  • estimates the number in a set and verifies by counting

Measurement

The student…

  • measures and communicates length, distance, and weight of objects using nonstandard, concrete materials
  • uses direct and indirect comparison to sort and order objects
  • uses uniform, nonstandard units to estimate and verify by measuring length and width of common classroom objects
  • knows measurement tools and uses them for length, weight, capacity and time

Geometry

The student…

  • knows and sorts 2-dimensional shapes (ex. circle, squares and triangles) and 3-dimensional objects (ex. cubes and cones)
  • recognizes and creates symmetrical figures
  • knows the attributes of circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles

Algebraic Thinking

The student…

  • identifies simple patterns of sounds, physical movement, and concrete objects
  • classifies and sorts objects by color, shape, size, and kind and which do not belong in a group
  • predicts, extends, and creates patterns
  • knows that symbols can be used to represent missing or unknown quantities (ex. fill in the missing number in 5, 6, _, 8)

Data Analysis and Probability

The student…

  • interprets data in pictorial or concrete materials (ex. pictures on a graph or chart)
  • interprets data in pictorial or concrete graphs

Ideas for Helping Your Child at Home

Language Arts

  • Make flash cards for upper and lower case letters and practice them daily OUT OF ORDER.
  • Take your child to the library to get a library card and choose books.
  • Talk, sing, listen, and read to your child every day.
  • Put letters in a bag and have your child reach for a letter and say the sound. Have him/her reach in for another letter. If your child does not know the sound, say the sound and put it back in the bag. Count how many sounds they can do in a minute.
  • Write a note each day to put in your child’s lunch box or on your child’s pillow.
  • Read a nursery rhyme. Read leaving out the last word of every other line of the rhyme for your child to say.
  • Practice forming letters on paper, in the air, or on a salt-filled cookie sheet.
  • Have your child write his or her name over and over the proper way; first and last.
  • Point out pictures in a book or newspaper. Ask your child to tell you’re the first sound in the word and the sound they hear at the end of the word.

Mathematics

  • Identify shapes and colors of the objects around you.
  • Allow your child to help you sort the groceries before putting them away (canned goods, boxes, or items that need to be refrigerated).
  • Have a bag of various objects. Have your child sort them by color, shape, size, and texture.
  • Count everything around you- pennies, the number of steps you walk, the number of leaves on the ground, the number of toys in the toybox.
  • Practice counting orally to 100.

 

Kindergarten Sight Words- write, read, and spell the following:

I     a     to     see     my     like     and     go     the     is     here     said     have     play     are     she     he     for

Kindergarten Word Families- write, read, and spell the following:

-at:  cat, bat, sat, fat, mat, rat

-an:  can, ban, fan, tan, man, ran, Nan

-it:  fit, mit, pit, sit, hit, bit, kit

-ig:  fig, pig, wig, jig, big, dig

-ug:  bug, tug, rug, pug, dug, mug

-ut:  cut, nut, rut, hut, but

-et:  pet, wet, met, get, set, net

-en:  pen, ten, hen, men, Ben, Ken

-ox:  box, fox, lox, pox

-ot:  not, hot, got, pot, dot