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In Kindergarten English Language Arts, students engage in many activities that help them develop their oral language skills and help them begin to read and write. Kindergarten students take part in language activities that extend their vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. Students learn to follow directions and develop the language of schooling. Students discuss the meanings of words from familiar and conceptually challenging selections read aloud. Students express themselves in complete thoughts. In Kindergarten, students listen to a wide variety of children's literature, including selections from classic and contemporary works. Students also listen to nonfiction and informational material. Students learn to listen attentively and ask and respond to questions and retell stories. Students know simple story structure and distinguish fiction from nonfiction. Kindergarten students identify and write the letters of the alphabet. Students learn that individual letters are different from printed words, that words have spaces between them, and that print is read from left-to-right and from top-to-bottom. Through meaningful and organized activities, Kindergarten students learn that spoken language is composed of sequences of sounds. Students learn to segment and identify the sounds in spoken words. Students name each letter of the alphabet, begin to associate spoken sounds with the letter or letters that represent them, and begin to use this knowledge to read words and simple stories. In Kindergarten, students write the letters of the alphabet, their names, and other words. Initially, students dictate messages and stories for others to write. Students begin to use their knowledge of sounds and letters to write by themselves.
Kindergarten Math:
(1) Within a well-balanced mathematics curriculum, the primary focal points at Kindergarten are developing whole-number concepts and using patterns and sorting to explore number, data, and shape.
(2) Throughout mathematics in Kindergarten-Grade 2, students build a foundation of basic understandings in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics. Students use numbers in ordering, labeling, and expressing quantities and relationships to solve problems and translate informal language into mathematical language and symbols. Students use objects to create and identify patterns and use those patterns to express relationships, make predictions, and solve problems as they build an understanding of number, operation, shape, and space. Students progress from informal to formal language to describe two- and three-dimensional geometric figures and likenesses in the physical world. Students begin to develop measurement concepts as they identify and compare attributes of objects and situations. Students collect, organize, and display data and use information from graphs to answer questions, make summary statements, and make informal predictions based on their experiences.
(3) Throughout mathematics in Kindergarten-Grade 2, students develop numerical fluency with conceptual understanding and computational accuracy. Students in Kindergarten-Grade 2 use basic number sense to compose and decompose numbers in order to solve problems requiring precision, estimation, and reasonableness. By the end of Grade 2, students know basic addition and subtraction facts and are using them to work flexibly, efficiently, and accurately with numbers during addition and subtraction computation.
(4) Problem solving, language and communication, connections within and outside mathematics, and formal and informal reasoning underlie all content areas in mathematics. Throughout mathematics in Kindergarten-Grade 2, students use these processes together with technology and other mathematical tools such as manipulative materials to develop conceptual understanding and solve meaningful problems as they do mathematics.
Kindergarten Science:
(1) In Kindergarten, science introduces the use of simple classroom and field investigations to help students develop the skills of asking questions, gathering information, communicating findings, and making informed decisions. Using their own senses and common tools such as a hand lens, students make observations and collect information. Students also use computers and information technology tools to support their investigations.
(2) As students learn science skills, they identify components of the natural world including rocks, soil, and water. Students observe the seasons and growth as examples of change. In addition, Kindergarten science includes the identification of organisms and objects and their parts. Students learn how to group living organisms and nonliving objects and explore the basic needs of living organisms.
(3) Science is a way of learning about the natural world. Students should know how science has built a vast body of changing and increasing knowledge described by physical, mathematical, and conceptual models, and also should know that science may not answer all questions.
(4) A system is a collection of cycles, structures, and processes that interact. Students should understand a whole in terms of its components and how these components relate to each other and to the whole. All systems have basic properties that can be described in terms of space, time, energy, and matter. Change and constancy occur in systems and can be observed and measured as patterns. These patterns help to predict what will happen next and can change over time.
(5) Investigations are used to learn about the natural world. Students should understand that certain types of questions can be answered by investigations, and that methods, models, and conclusions built from these investigations change as new observations are made. Models of objects and events are tools for understanding the natural world and can show how systems work. They have limitations and based on new discoveries are constantly being modified to more closely reflect the natural world.
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