"All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten." These are the things I learned in Kindergarten: (A Poem) 1. Share everything. 2. Play fair. 3. Don't hit people. 4. Put things back where you found them. 5. Clean up your own mess. 6. Don't take things that aren't yours. 7. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. 8. Wash your hands before you eat. 9. Flush. 10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. 11. Live a balanced life ~ learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some. 12. Take a nap every afternoon. 13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. 14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up... 15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup ~ they all die...So do we. 16. And then remember the [Eric Carle] books and the first word you learned ~ the biggest word of all ~ LOOK. ~Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
While we do strive to "live a balanced life" here in Kindergarten by "learn[ing] some and drink[ing] some and draw[ing] some and paint[ing] some and sing[ing] and dance[ing] and play[ing] and work[ing] everyday some"...while we learn valuable life lessons...and we learn to read words...we also do so much more :). It's crucial that you understand how important Kindergarten is to your child's education. If this is your first child coming to school, then you may not realize how much Kindergarten has changed since we were all in Kindergarten. There are no "warm cookies and cold milk;" only healthy snacks instead, because we are a Healthy Zone School. There aren't even naps anymore! And instead of "look" being the hardest word they will learn...they will have to learn 108 hard words including the who, what, where, when, why's, of, love, said, thin, because, they, have just to name a few... and they have to be reading and writing well by the time they leave Kindergarten.
We sure hope we haven't scared you away just yet! Don't fret, because that's what we're here for! Together, we will help your child be successful in Kindergarten.
By the end of Kindergarten your child will be expected to... ~identify all 26 upper case and lower case letters and their sounds.~ ~write all 26 upper case and lower case letters correctly in block form.~ ~read and write correctly the first 30 sight words from Jan Richardson (for monolingual). ~read on a DRA reading level 4.~ ~write their first and last names correctly.~ ~write stories with a bright beginning, middle, and end.~ ~identify numbers to 20.~ ~write numbers to 20 correctly. (But we do work on being able to write them to 100.)~ ~make sets to 20 by counting one to one.~ ~count to 100 independently by ones or by groups of 10.~ ~count forwards or backwards by ones or tens beginning at any given number.~ ~problem solve.~ ~add and subtract.~ ~measure.~ ~create and predict patterns.~ ~identify all 2D and 3D shapes.~ ~describe the characteristics of shapes.~ ~graph.~ ~begin to understand capacity.~