Kindergartens around the world provide a transition from home and preschool to classroom education. The curriculum helps children develop physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills.
Kindergarteners develop a better understanding of time and a set schedule. It is also a great time to help them learn to distinguish different shapes, and organize toys by size and color.
Alphabet
Learning the alphabet is an important first step to literacy. Children can build their knowledge of the alphabet through games, activities, and educational tools. They can practice their letter recognition through alphabet worksheets, tracing letters on a chalkboard or dry erase board, or playing a game like Alphabet Soup where they have to find a particular letter in a group of jumbled letters.
It’s also a good idea to teach the lower case letters as well as the uppercase, and make sure kids know the sounds of each letter. This will help them with their future reading skills. It is recommended to introduce sound-letter relationships in a slow and consistent manner. Teach high utility letters first, such as the letters in their name, and then move on to lower-utility letter-sound relationships.
Numbers
Kindergarten students learn about the numbers from 0-10. They count objects to identify their quantity. They also learn to recognize a number and use it in writing, and they begin to understand how numbers work by solving addition and subtraction problems involving physical objects.
Repetition is essential to learning numbers. Children need to experience numbers multiple times – in class discussions, games, worksheets, centres and tablet activities. This helps them build understanding and fluency.
One fun way to teach kindergartners the numbers is through songs and rhymes. Singing numbers songs like ’10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed’, ‘This Old Man Played One’, ‘The Ants Are Marching One by One Hurrah’ and others will help children remember them easily. These songs are not only entertaining but will help children develop a strong foundation for the more advanced math concepts that come later on in their school years.
Shapes
Shapes are one of the most important math skills for kindergarten students. They help with brain development and thinking skills, as kids analyze and compare the objects around them. Learning shapes can also help with early math skills such as sorting and classifying, counting, and spatial relation.
Teach students about shapes by displaying a variety of real-world objects with different shapes on them, such as manhole covers, flags, and windows. Encourage them to name the shapes they see and repeat them back to you.
Kids can also practice their shape recognition by playing games that involve matching shapes with objects. For example, they can play a shape scavenger hunt game where they show a flash card with a shape such as a square and then search the room for objects that are a similar shape.
Science
Kindergartners are naturally curious and ask questions about how the world works. That’s why introducing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) concepts this early is the best way to help kids become critical thinkers for life.
Kindergartners will likely not conduct complex scientific experiments, but they can learn basic principles such as observing and predicting (like how wind changes weather) or comparing objects’ physical properties, like color, shape, size, temperature, odor, and texture. They’ll also learn about animals, plants, and their life cycles and seasons. These are foundational skills for future academic success.
Writing
After children master the alphabet and can recognize stand-alone letters, they will work to string them together to read three- to five-letter words. They may also start to read simple stories and books.
In kindergarten, teachers should provide a variety of writing opportunities. For example, they can invite students to write letters or cards to friends or family members, create dioramas about their class field trips and/or classroom topics of interest, or create storybooks to record experiences in school and at home. They can also incorporate writing into daily activities, such as signing in at lunch time or creating an autograph book after a classroom field trip. Teachers can help build children’s generative knowledge of writing by encouraging parents to participate in similar activities at home.