Kindergarten is a time of growth in many ways. Children grow physically (using large muscles like running and climbing), emotionally, socially, cognitively and in their thinking skills.
It was the year 1873 when the new educational movement had scarcely gotten started. It needed free work on a broad basis to insure careful, unbiased investigation and adoption by the people.
Math
Math is one of the first skills young children learn. Counting, understanding numbers and shapes, comparing groups of objects, and basic addition and subtraction are all key skills that kindergarteners must master.
These skills are often taught using tangible materials and in ways that help kids understand how these concepts apply to their daily lives. As students progress through the year, they move from counting objects to adding and subtracting with representations of those objects (like drawing pictures to represent addition and subtraction).
A good early mathematics program embeds significant mathemat- ical learning in everyday classroom routines and activities. It also provides carefully planned experiences that focus students’ attention on a specific mathematical idea or set of related ideas. This recognition of the importance of high-quality mathemat- ics learning is at the heart of a joint position statement by NCTM and NAEYC.1
Reading
At this age, children need to be able to understand the story they’re reading and answer questions about it. This is called listening comprehension.
They also need to be able to use context clues to decode words they don’t know (such as turning the page when they come to a word they don’t recognize and pointing to the picture for a clue). They need to learn to read simple texts with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression like they’re talking. They need to be able to identify authors and illustrators, recognizing that the author writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures in the book.
Teachers monitor children’s reading level using DIBELS assessment tools to ensure that they don’t progress too quickly or become frustrated and discouraged by a lack of success. Teachers also provide students with books aligned to their level, so that they can enjoy the experience of reading and don’t feel frustrated when they encounter a difficult word or concept.
Social Skills
In kindergarten, social skills are honed and learned from both spontaneous experiences and structured learning. Depending on their home-rearing environment and socioeconomic status, children enter kindergarten with a variety of social skill levels, which is why fostering their social growth is so important to their future success.
Developing and strengthening their social skills is key to students’ academic and emotional well-being. By encouraging and reinforcing appropriate social behaviors in the classroom, teachers can help students learn to cooperate with peers and share responsibilities, which is vital for their academic success.
To promote social skills development, reading age-appropriate stories and facilitating discussion is an excellent start. Role-playing emotions and situations also gives children a chance to learn how to express their own feelings in healthy ways, as well as empathize with others. Cooperative games are another way to foster communication, collaboration, and problem-solving among students. These are great for promoting teamwork and a sense of responsibility among kindergarteners.
Science
For kindergarten students, a good way to learn science concepts is by doing them. Make sure your students do lots of hands-on activities, like experiments and projects. Use songs and games to make science fun, too.
Doing science provides children with rich contexts in which they can practice skills of inquiry, such as observing the natural world, making predictions and testing those predictions through investigation. This early exploration lays the foundation for learning more complex scientific concepts as they get older.
For example, a child who has explored snails in the classroom can later ask why a snail moves the way it does and why a plant grows the way it does. This type of thinking requires an understanding that the process of scientific discovery is more important than the final product. It also requires a good amount of time for children to engage in the science and enough space to support their observations. This is often difficult in the context of an instructional day schedule.