For many students, kindergarten is their first experience in a classroom without the presence of parents or guardians. A high-quality kindergarten helps children become independent and comfortable with new situations and experiences.
They learn to follow a schedule and to understand classroom requirements. They experiment, discover and document their learning.
Social and Emotional Development
The phrase ‘kindergarten readiness’ occupies many news articles and keeps many parents up at night, worrying their kids aren’t ready to enter the classroom. But teachers tell EdSurge that getting kids ready for school goes beyond teaching them ABCs and 123s; it also includes preparing children to follow instructions, get along with others and manage their emotions in a structured environment.
These skills are vital to learning because they help students understand and follow rules, respond to adults’ questions, build meaningful relationships with peers and collaborate in groups. They can also support kids’ ability to recognize and manage their emotions, control impulses and communicate clearly. These social-emotional skills are referred to as SEL. They include:
Language and Literacy Development
In kindergarten, children’s language and literacy development become more closely connected. Literacy is the ability to read and write, while language refers to a person’s understanding of speech and symbols.
Research shows that the development of language and literacy is related to a child’s cognitive abilities. Language and literacy skills are essential for learning new information, and they also help improve memory and attention spans.
Friedrich Froebel envisioned the kindergarten as a garden for children and named it that because he believed that a child should be allowed to grow and develop freely, just as plants do in a garden. In the UK, kindergarten is more often referred to as nursery and reception classes. These stages are considered to form the foundation for primary school.
Creative Arts
Creative arts offer a space for exploration, self-expression, and imagination. They speak a universal language regardless of linguistic or cultural barriers, capturing memories and sentiments that span generations and communities.
The creativity, problem-solving, and collaborative skills learned in creative arts activities help children develop across all domains of development. For example, the ability to hold a crayon and make a mark promotes fine motor development while creating a theater or puppet play fosters social-emotional development and verbal communication.
Moreover, participating in visual art, music, dance, and drama promotes both logical thinking and verbal and nonverbal communication. At the elementary school level, taking arts classes outside of school has been linked with higher math, science, and reading scores (Copple and Bredekamp 2009).
Technology
Technology development is a key aspect of high-quality early education. Thoughtfully integrating technology into learning experiences allows for greater engagement and collaboration, while developing essential skills for the digital age such as problem-solving and creativity. This includes interactive whiteboards, tablets, educational software, and a range of age-appropriate online resources.
Kindergarten educators are tasked with integrating instructional practices and assessment in play-based contexts to achieve curricular and developmental goals. However, many studies have cited concerns that new technologies may erode traditional teaching practices and promote an unbalanced emphasis on academic performance (Lynch & Redpath, 2014).
Introducing children to technology at an early age encourages their critical thinking and creativity. Educational games, digital storytelling apps and basic coding programs develop cognitive skills while preparing them for future educational endeavours and daily life in the ever-evolving digital world.
Social Studies
Early childhood educators need to be well-prepared in social studies instruction. Unfortunately, many teacher-prep programs give little instruction on this subject, leaving classroom teachers with little confidence in their ability to teach it well (Strasser & Bresson, 2017).
Young children are naturally curious about the world around them. Educators can capitalize on this learning by offering extended investigations of topics that capture students’ interest and foster classroom communities based on inclusive, democratic values.
Teachers can also help young children understand the larger community and the world in which they live by focusing on family structures, languages, and cultural traditions and through the use of literature genre that illustrates the various family and ethnic cultures that comprise their own community (Catalino & Meyer, 2016; Mindes, 2015). Additionally, parents can help support children’s social studies development by sharing their own family history and culture with them and encouraging them to engage in civic responsibilities at home and in the community.