Kids in kindergarten are often their first time being exposed to a group of other children. Make sure they feel safe and understood by establishing classroom procedures and routines early on.
The main focus in kindergarten is on learning letters (uppercase and lowercase) and their sounds. They’ll also work on recognizing high-frequency sight words to help build reading confidence.
Language
Language is a key area of learning for children, as it is how they communicate with one another and make sense of their surroundings. It is also how they learn to read and write.
Kindergartens have a broad range of educational aims but generally are focused on preschool education. Kindergartens in poorer regions of the world face a greater challenge to remain operational due to poverty and lack of resources.
Friedrich Frobel was an influential early-years educator who believed that self-understanding, creativity and social participation are the basis for healthy development into adulthood. His approach has influenced many kindergartens across the world.
Math
The ability to count, recognize patterns, and solve problems is essential for young children. It also helps them make sense of the physical and social worlds around them.
Experts and research indicate that young children need to explore key mathematical ideas, allowing them to develop understandings that lead to future learning. These “big ideas” include patterning, spatial sense, and algebra, including number flexibility (understanding how numbers relate to each other), among others.
Creating a more seamless math education for kindergarteners requires better curriculum and teaching, tightly aligned with pre-K and elementary school, along with better teacher preparation and continuing professional development. This would help teachers understand how to use kindergarten math experiences to build students’ skills and knowledge.
Social Studies
Social studies is the integrated study of various fields of knowledge, including history, civics, geography and economics. It helps students develop critical thinking skills and understand the value of respect, fairness, equality and responsibility for one’s community.
In kindergarten, teachers should foster children’s natural curiosity about the world around them and incorporate daily life into the curriculum as much as possible. Ideally, the social studies curriculum follows an expanding communities sequence, beginning with the self, then family and school, the neighborhood and the community, the state or region and finally, the hemisphere or world.
Science
Children naturally want to learn about the world around them. Nurturing their curiosity in kindergarten can inspire them to pursue science education and careers as adults.
Science skills involve observation and recording, forming predictions, testing hypotheses and working through steps in an experiment. This helps kids develop problem-solving and communication skills. It also builds a base of new vocabulary and improves writing skills as they describe their experiments.
To be effective, science activities must be sustained for long periods of time and provide multiple opportunities to explore the same concepts. For example, observing snail movements can be an ongoing investigation that could involve smelling, examining, drawing and recording observations for several weeks.
Art
Few things are more gratifying than watching kids intently draw and then proudly show off their finished project. It builds confidence, encourages emotional intelligence and self-expression, and helps children learn perseverance and patience.
Art also strengthens fine motor skills, as children work with pencils, crayons, chalk and paintbrushes. This development is essential for later tasks like writing and buttoning a coat.
Art also develops logical thinking and problem-solving skills, especially when kids have to think creatively about color and color placement. These skills will serve them well as they enter the workforce and become innovative thinkers.
Music
Whether it’s a quiet lullaby soothing a baby or the exuberance of a toddler dancing to their favorite tune, music is an emotional language that children instinctively understand. It provides a way for them to express themselves and communicate with others, as well as regulate their emotions.
Musical experiences also help kids develop fine and gross motor skills. Playing rhythms on drums or dancing to a beat can help them improve their hand-eye coordination, attention and problem-solving abilities.
And when kids participate in group music activities, they learn how to work together to achieve a common goal. This is a fundamental social skill that they’ll need throughout their lives.
Physical Education
Physical education (or Phys Ed) is currently the only time and place in the school day where all children can learn knowledge about and engage in physical movement. It also provides the only opportunity for children to participate in vigorous and moderate intensity physical activity in a safe, specialist-supervised learning environment.
Quality physical education contributes to students’ daily accumulation of physical activity and is essential for developing motor skills, strategic knowledge, and a healthy lifestyle. However, barriers, ranging from institutional to teacher-related to student-related, prevent schools from implementing high-quality physical education programs.