Kindergarten Content
In kindergarten, core concepts should be integrated across all curriculum areas. Reading, writing, and mathematical skills should be emphasized as integral to the instruction in all other areas. Personal relevance of content is always an important part of helping students to value learning and should be emphasized.
Kindergarten students engage in many activities that help them develop oral language and literacy. Kindergarten students take part in language activities that extend their vocabulary, conceptual knowledge, and phonological awareness. Students learn to follow directions and develop the language of schooling.
Within a well-balanced mathematics curriculum, the primary focal points for kindergarten are developing whole-number concepts and using patterns and sorting to explore number, data, and shape. While learning mathematics, students will be actively engaged in using concrete materials and appropriate technologies such as calculators and computers.
In kindergarten, students learn about themselves and their relationship to the classroom, school, family, and community. Students are expected to develop skills in posing simple questions, measuring, sorting, classifying, and communicating information about the natural world. Students learn about their bodies and the behaviors necessary to protect them and keep them healthy. They learn basic body control while beginning to develop motor skills and moving in a variety of settings. Students become aware of strength, endurance, and flexibility in different parts of their bodies. They express their thoughts and ideas creatively, while challenging their imagination, fostering reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and problem-solving skills.