What do kindergarten students need to know

In kindergarten, children learn how their family and their class are part of the school and local community. Teachers offer lots of opportunities for children to share their opinions, listen to others, resolve disagreements, and learn about their languages and cultures.

Long-term projects in geography and history connect skills and concepts to events children are familiar with. Creative arts. Children express their feelings, ideas, and creativity in many ways—by exploring different art forms, inventing and telling stories, dancing, making music, and combining materials to make something new. In a high-quality kindergarten, your child might act out a story, learn about painting and architecture, and learn to appreciate the art of many cultures. Creating helps your child imagine, focus, and think about problems in a new way.

Computers, tablets, smartphones, digital cameras, and other technology are available in many classrooms. Children use them to find information, solve problems, create, and learn at their own pace. When children use technology together, they learn to cooperate, consider different ideas, and make group decisions. Skip to main content. Development Your child continues to develop a wide range of skills in kindergarten, including physical, social, emotional, language and literacy, and thinking cognitive skills.

Learning Standards Every state has learning standards that describe what children need to know and be able to do at a certain age. Subject Areas Whether they are helping children write thank-you letters to a library they visited, decide what material would best support the cardboard bridge they are making, or brainstorm solutions to keep the lettuce in the class garden from wilting, teachers connect learning across subject areas to give children a deeper understanding of a topic.

To support these skills, teachers Explore new vocabulary words with children during science, math, social studies, and art, while on field trips, and during reading and computer time Give children opportunities to talk about what they know and make connections to their own lives Encourage children to take turns when talking so they learn to politely listen and speak Ask children to explain what they're doing and what they notice Reading.

They Share books and other types of information in both print and digital formats, and post different types of print around the room like the daily schedule and helper charts so children see that reading is useful and fun Read with children every day, individually or in a group Teach children letter sounds Point out and explain parts of written language, like capital letters and punctuation Support children who are learning English in addition to their home languages Writing.

To support children's writing, teachers might do the following: Provide lots of writing materials, like different kinds of paper, pencils, markers, crayons, and digital devices such as tablets and computers Model—show and explain—specific skills Have children write in different forms, like observations in their science notebook or instructions on how to feed the class guinea pig Encourage your child to review and look for ways to improve his writing Share the pen—on a large sheet of paper, the teacher writes some of the words of a story, and then invites the children to write some too Math.

Audience: Family. Point to the word as they say it and spell it out. In kindergarten, your child begins to truly grow as a writer. Label Everything : Create labels with your child for different objects in your house, like books, toy bins, foods, kitchen objects, and clothes.

You or your child can write the names of the objects, and your child can draw a picture to go along with it. Play Guessing Games : Draw a picture and have your child guess the spelling of that word, giving them a few letters in the word as a hint. Create a Photo Album : When you take pictures of events or people, ask your child to label the picture.

Glue it to a piece of a paper so they can write a description of the event, what happened, who was there, etc. Shop the best resources for kindergarten below! You can find all books and activities at The Scholastic Store. Parents Store Cart. At bedtime, ask them to count how many stuffed animals they have, and ask, "How many books about dogs do you have? How fast can you count them? Kids will learn how to name and describe common shapes circle, square, triangle, rectangle. By the end of the year, they'll be able to identify, sort, and classify objects by color, size, and shape.

Talk about the properties of common shapes: How would you describe a rectangle? How is it different from a triangle? Additionally, you can introduce a "Draw a Shape" game, and take turns with your child drawing rectangles, circles, and squares. Finally, encourage your student to organize toys by types—they can gather same-size blocks into a pile or sort Legos by color. You can also take out an old box of buttons and have your child sort them by size and number of holes.

What should kindergarteners know about time and seasons? At this age, kids grasp the basic concepts. They can identify the time of everyday events to the nearest hour—for example, they leave for school at a. Note, however, that it will still be hard for them to fully grasp the concept of time because they're concrete thinkers and time is abstract. To reiterate the concept of time, constantly read the clock during routine activities.

Use and explain words like morning, noon, night, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Make a timeline together showing a typical day, with drawings of regular events and the time of day written beneath each one.

In addition to learning about time, 5- and 6-year-olds can name the four seasons, so chart changes in the weather together on a calendar throughout the year.

Find pictures illustrating the seasons colorful leaves, snow, blooming flowers and discuss what your child sees in them. Talk about what clothing you can wear during each season. By Mary Harvey Updated May 19,