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What Should Be Learned in Kindergarten?
Most American children attend kindergarten, and many participate in all-day kindergarten programs. While recent reform efforts have focused on extending the kindergarten day, research suggests that how kindergartners spend their time may be more critical than the amount of time children spend in class. In other words, longer kindergarten days in unsuitable activities yield no educational advantages over the traditional half-day kindergarten program.
What Are Appropriate Teaching and Curriculum Approaches for Kindergartners?
However, it is just as natural for young children to learn through spontaneous investigation (close observation, experimentation, and inquiry) as through spontaneous play. Many observers have noted that young children are natural scientists and anthropologists. They devote substantial portions of their seemingly endless energy to learning all aspects of the culture they are born into: they learn its language, stories, music, and literature; they investigate with all their senses and emerging skills what people mean, when things are appropriate and when they are not, where things come from, what they are for, how they are made, and how adults and peers respond to them. They try to make sense of common objects by prying into them, taking them apart, and manipulating them in a variety of ways. Appropriate curriculum and teaching methods include activities and encouragement for kindergartners in these quests and feature the importance of individual children's feelings and emotions in group settings.
The Kindergarten Curriculum
The developmental characteristics of children of kindergarten age call for a curriculum that involves a variety and balance of activities that can be provided in the context of project work (Katz and Chard, 1989). For example, kindergarten children can undertake projects in which they investigate a real event or object. In the course of such projects, the children will strengthen emerging literacy and numeracy skills and their speaking and listening skills and acquire new words as they share their findings with others.
A good curriculum provides activities that include:
Integrated topic studies, rather than whole-group instruction in isolated skills;
Opportunities for children to learn by observing and experimenting with real objects;
A balance of child- and teacher-initiated activities;
Opportunities for spontaneous play and teacher-facilitated activities;
Group projects in which cooperation can occur naturally;
A range of activities requiring the use of large and small muscles;
Exposure to good literature and music of the children's own cultures and of other cultures represented in the class;
Authentic assessment of each child's developmental progress;
Opportunities for children with diverse backgrounds and developmental levels to participate in whole-group activities; and
Time for individuals or small groups of children to meet with the teacher for specific help in acquiring basic reading, writing, mathematical, and other skills as needed.
A major challenge for schools concerned with the best use of children's time in kindergarten is the provision of meaningful teaching and learning activities. The wide range of physical, social, and intellectual characteristics represented in a group of contemporary beginning kindergartners makes an informal, flexible approach to the kindergarten curriculum necessary.
Where Can Parents Find Out More About Kindergarten Practices?
ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Association for Childhood Education International
Sources
Abstracts of the following journal articles and documents are available in the ERIC database. Journal articles, marked with EJ, can be found at most research libraries. Documents, marked with ED, can be found on microfiche at more than 900 locations or ordered in paper copy or microfiche from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service. Call 1-800-LET-ERIC for more details.
Karweit, N. (March 1992). "The Kindergarten Experience: Synthesis of Research." Educational Leadership, 49 (6), 82-86. EJ 441 182.
Katz, L. G. (1989). Pedagogical Issues In Early Childhood Education. ED 321 840. Katz, L. G. and S. D. Chard (1992). The Project Approach. ED 340 518.
Katz, L. G. and S. D. Chard (1989). Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Moyer, J., H. Egertson, and J. Isenberg (April 1987). "The Child-Centered Kindergarten: Association for Childhood Education International Position Paper." Childhood Education, 63 (4), 235-242. EJ 357 171.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (January 1988). "NAEYC Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Primary Grades, Serving 5- Through 8-Year-Olds." Young Children, 43 (2), 64- 84. EJ 365 176.
Written by Lilian G. Katz, Director, ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.
Early childhood and kindergarten specialists have long emphasized the central role of play in young children's learning. In the course of day-to-day experience with young children, it is easy for teachers to see that spontaneous play is a natural way of learning; observations of children's play reveal that play provides a wide range and real depth of learning in all domains of development: physical, emotional, social, and intellectual.
University of Illinois
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Number 1
For number 2
Go right around
Down and over
Go down and around
Make a curve
Across the sky
Make a "S"
Make a loop
Make a 1
Learning the Alphabet
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N O P,
Q R S T U V,
X, X and Y and Z
ABC Chant
A - B - CDE (Teacher)
F - G - HIJ
K - L - MNO
P - Q - RST
U - V - WXY
Z - Z - ZZZ
Teach the Alphabet and Sounds with Bingo cards.
Create your own here.
Alphabet Art
Here are a few fun mediums you can use to help your students form
Letters of the alphabet.
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Color Song
Orange is a carrot,
Yellow
Yellow is a star.
Orange
Orange is an orange.
Blue
Blue is the ocean.
Pink
Pink skies
Grapefruit pulp,
Pink elephant
Stop and think
Ballerina sister,
Green
Green is grass,
Green
Green is the grass
Bright green apples
Green mold is medicine
Green means go
For flowers and trees,
Red
Red is an apple.
Red
The fireman's hat
Red ruby treasure
Your nose turns red
Some girls wear red ribbons,
Hearts are red on cards,
Red
R. E. D.
Purple
Puple are grapes.
Making Music
Small tuna or cat-food cans
Pour 20 or 30 pieces of macaroni in the can.
is like a stick
A straight line down
that's very quick!
go right around
Then make a line
across the ground!
What will it be?
Go round again
to make a 3!
and down some more
That's the way
to make a 4!
Then you stop
Finish the 5
with a line on top!
Then a loop
There are no tricks
to making a 6!
amd down from heaven
That's the way
to make a 7!
And then don't wait
Climb up again
to make an 8!
And then a line
That's the way
to make a 9!
and then an "o"
10 are all your fingers
you know!
School time, learning time,
For you and me.
Recess time, book time,
For you and me.
Gym time, sing time,
For you and me.
I'll really be tired
When I go to bed.
sshhh.......
A - B - CDE (Students)
Grade One is where I want to be. (Teacher)
Grade One is where I want to be. (Students)
Learning to read and write each day.
Many boys and girls we know.
Sharing books with you and me.
Now it's time to say good-bye.
Grade One is where I want to be.
(or, with the zed sound -)
Z - Z - ZZZ And the letters are in my head.
Pretzel Dough
Break off a small peice of refridgerated French bread dough and
roll it into a long snake. Then shape it into letters and place on
a greased tray. In a bowl stir egg white from one egg with a
tablespoon of water. Brush each letter with the mixture, then
sprinkle coarse salt on top. Bake the letters in a 350 degrees
fahrenheit oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Cool then eat.
Peanut Butter
Mix 18 oz. of peanut butter, 6 tablespoons of honey, and enought
non-fat dry milk until you get a workable dough. Add a bit of cocoa
for flavor and this dough is ready to shape into letters and eat.
Popcorn
Pop up a big bowl of popcorn. Ask students to write out the letters
on a piece of paper, and then glue the popcorn on the paper,
following the shape of the letter.
Yarn
Give students a long piece of yarn and cut and shape it into
letters on a piece of paper. When they are satisfied with their end
products, ask them to glue them on a piece of paper.
Shaving Cream
Spray a small ball of shaving cream on each student's work area.
Ask them to use their fingers to make letters out ot it. Make sure
that you remind them not to put it in their mouths!
Plastecine Letters
Roll out plastecine into a long snake, then form letters.
Glitter
Ask students to write out a letter on a piece of paper and trace it
with glue. Then throw glitter on it and shake the excess glitter
off.
Leaves
Collect a variety of leaves. Ask students to write out a letter on
a piece of paper and trace it with glue, then glue leaves
overlapping eachother in the formation of the letter.
Icing
Ask students to form letters, using an icing bag, on top of
cupcakes.
Cereal
Glue cereal pieces into the shape of letters.
Pasta
Glue pasta pieces into the shape of letters.
Buttons
Blue buttons into the shape of letters.
Water
Dip paint brushes in water and "paint" letters onto a blackboard or
a piece of construction paper.
For More Alphabet Related activities visit our Wee Family Web Site
Yellow is a pear,
Green is the grass,
And brown is a bear,
Purple is a plum,
Blue is the sky,
Black is a witch's hat,
And red is cherry pie.
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Yellow is the sun.
Yellow is the moon,
When the day is done.
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Orange is a carrot.
Orange is the colour
of the beak of a parrot.
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Blue is the sky.
Blue are the blueberries
I put into the pie.
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and butterflies
are truly a
sight to see,
the salmon's flesh,
carnations
in a vase,
nightmares
with candy
as the cause.
about the pink
that's everyday
around you,
a bouncing twister,
around the house
in her tutu.
-james hörner
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String beans and peas.
Green are the branches
on Christmas trees.
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and the watermelon skin,
fourth colour in the rainbow,
the emeralds in a ring.
are bitter to the tongue,
but spinach and broccoli-
I eat them up yum!
known as penicilin,
and water fights with
green balloons sure are thrillin'.
when driving, beep! beep!
and green lily pads
are where the frogs sleep.
and the prickly cactus too-
green is important,
as it is for me and you.
-james hörner
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Red is a cherry.
Red is a rose.
And a ripe strawberry.
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is too big for my head,
so I wear a red bucket
when playing, instead.
on Valentine's Day,
with imagination
it's "Pirates" we play.
when it's cold outside,
and sometimes too
when you're sad inside.
bows tied in their hair,
while eating red berries
is the big, black bear.
and also in your chest,
red is the colour
that I like best.
-james hörner
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(can be sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice)
R. E. D.
Red is the word
Red is the word
Apples and strawberries both are red
Tomatoes and cherries both are red
R.E.D. spells
Red, red, red.
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Purple are plums.
Purple is a violet.
And the bruise on my thumb.
Large, round balloons
A small board (like a bread board)
A pair of scissors
Tape
Uncooked macaroni
Cut the neck off a balloon and stretch the baloon over the opening
of the can. Pull it tight by putting the can on the far side of a
board and pressing your chest against the near side.
Have a helper keep the balloon drum head in place by wrapping tape
around the sides of the can.
Decorate as desired.