Kindergarten is the first formal school experience for most kids. It marks a transition from the home environment, primarily family-based activities, to a structured classroom setting with a larger group of peers led by adults other than their parents.
Help your kindergartner develop important academic skills like counting and recognizing basic shapes. Get tips and ideas for supporting their learning in Twinkl’s Teaching Wiki.
Social and Emotional Development
In kindergarten, children build the social skills that lead to learning and establishing relationships with adults and peers. This development helps them develop positive self-images and the ability to cope with stress. These skills set them up for success at school and in life.
During kindergarten, children learn about the classroom rules and routines as well as basic math concepts. They are encouraged to practice lining up and taking turns, as well as sharing supplies and materials with classmates. They also develop emotional literacy by learning to label and understand their own feelings as well as the feelings of others.
The study described in this article used informal and formal interviews to examine the interactions between eight teachers and their 130 kindergarten students in a variety of schools. The findings show that the elements of environment, play, and relationships all work together to form a psychological environment that supports guided participation in social-emotional activities. This type of guidance is what Vygotsky called “indirect guidance.” It is similar to feeding a child healthy, whole food.
Language and Literacy Development
The kindergarten year is a critical chapter in the academic journey of children. It serves as an entry point to a more structured academic environment with higher expectations of children’s literacy and math skills.
Research has shown that the language development of young children is closely linked to their literacy abilities. In fact, they start to build the neural pathways that lead to reading and writing long before they begin school.
In kindergarten, children develop literacy skills like print concepts and phonological awareness — the knowledge that letters represent sounds and that printed words convey information. The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) has found that these early experiences provide the foundation for later reading comprehension.
Kindergartners also learn their uppercase and lowercase letters and match them to their sound, and they practice writing their letters and identifying objects around them that have the same shape. They gain basic math skills such as counting and understanding how numbers are grouped together to form larger groups or number combinations.
Thinking Skills Development
During kindergarten, children are on a journey of moving from concrete to abstract thinking. As such, they often become adept at thinking of a solution to a problem without having to go through the hands-on experiment of actually trying it out.
Kids can develop critical thinking skills by playing games that require them to classify objects, identify similarities and differences and make inferences. These activities are important for kids because they will need to think critically in the real world to help them make informed decisions.
To encourage creative thinking, teachers should provide an open environment where children can explore their imagination. They can do this by providing multiple art materials, offering a choice of books to read or even adding new props to the playground. This will allow children to try something different than what they’ve done before, whether it’s using colored pencils instead of crayons or asking a new question during an outdoor activity.
Physical Development
During kindergarten, children develop and refine their gross motor skills, which include movements that require the coordination of large muscle groups. They also develop their fine motor skills, which involve the coordination of smaller muscles, such as those found in the fingers and hands. This development enables children to engage in physical activities with greater skill and dexterity.
In addition, physical development teaches children about their bodies, including health and safety practices. This knowledge lays the foundation for healthy habits that can last a lifetime.
Use this lesson to identify typical developmental milestones for the ages your program serves, as well as factors that influence them. Then apply your knowledge of child development to help your staff understand how to foster children’s growth and learning. This includes providing them with the right materials and environments to encourage their physical development. Also, make sure your staff members have access to the Virtual Lab School, a course that provides age-group specific information about physical development.