kindergarten questions
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"Stephanie S" st...@vsac.orgnospam
There have been a lot of schoolwork threads on here lately. It turns out that acedemic progress and homework are judged in KINDERGARTEN??!!?? I am blown away and need to really rethink my opinions on school here. So I have some questions...
What is the goal of kindergarten today? Is it no longer to get your child aclimated to showing up at school and socializing with other kids and whatnot?
Are the cl***es goal oriented? What I mean is, will teachers know what they are trying to achieve? If so, what kinds of things are being acheived in kindergarten? What do you learn in kindergarten? What is the purpose of homework?
Thanks S
kev ...@mit.edu (Beth Kevles)
Hi -
Kindergartens vary. Where I live (MOntgomery County, MD), kindergarten is what first grade once was. Sure, they acclimate the kids to school, but then they move on to a very academic focus. They work hard on pre-reading skills, and hope to have the kids sounding out simple words by the end of the school year. There's not a whole lot of time for socializing and emotional development, but since so many children in our county enter school with few, if any, pre-academic skills, there may be something to be said for an academic focus. My son has been introduced to letters of the alphabet, new letters every week, all year. He's learned to count to 100, to do single-digit addition and subtraction, to put stories into a sensible sequence, to tell time (if it happens to be on the hour :-), to hang up his coat and turn in his homework every day, and to wait his turn to use the bathroom.
I object to the homework. I object to the plentiful use of worksheets.
But I do NOT object to the academic content. He was getting bored in nursery school, and the current curriculum suits him well. He doesn't get enough time to socialize, but he's the kind of kid who wouldn't have enough time to socialize if that was ALL he did all day. And the curriculum does, explicitly, include social skills, how to deal with harrasment by peers, conflict resolution, and stuff like that. He even gets music, art and PE every week.
That said, our county is probably on the leading edge of the academic kindergarten movement. And hand in hand with the academic focus goes a rise in the kindergarten-cutoff age. Soon you'll have to have had your 5th birthday prior to entering, rather than partway through your kindergarten year.
Other school systems have a more traditional focus. We have friends in Maine whose child wasn't introduced to the alphabet until 1st grade.
He's a bright kid; he got frustrated and started to learn to read at home. In first grade now, he still has no homework, at least not routinely.
I'm in favor of more academic content to the curriculum, myself. But it's hard and expensive to do that in a way that's developmentally appropriate. For that combination you usually have to head to a private school, one whose philosophy you agree with.
I hope this helps a bit,
--Beth Kevles bethkev...@aol.com http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.
Ericka Kammerer e...@comcast.net
Due, in part, to all the emphasis on measuring progress and all sorts of political educational objectives, kindergarten has become more academic. And, scary to say, most parents are actively on that bandwagon and pushing (heck, many start complaining that *preschool* programs aren't academic enough).
Things vary dramatically. Usually there is a standard curriculum and children are evaluated on their progress toward the goals of that curriculum. However, what those goals are varies hugely from state to state, depending on local education initiatives. You really have to contact your local school to see what things are like in your area. Some kindys aim just to have the kids ready to learn and knowing their letters and numbers, etc. while others aim to have them reading, writing, and doing arithmetic before they leave. Some don't have homework at all, some have lots of homework, and some have homework only for children who seem ready for it. In some states there is little latitude from cl*** to cl***, and in others there is substantial variation. And, of course, every teacher handles things differently.
Ask around your neighborhood, drop by the school, etc. and you'll get a pretty good picture of what you'll be looking forward to.
Take care, Ericka
hollyle ...@aol.com (HollyLewis)
Mine isn't kindergarten aged yet so I'm not speaking from direct experience, but AFAIK you're describing the goals of preschool.
Kindergarten starts to have more of an academic focus, and the goal is to prepare kids for first grade by teaching them "reading readiness" and "early reading" skills, counting and sequencing (which I guess you could call "arithmetic readiness"?) and similar basic concepts in preparation for studying science and culture.
I don't think the kindergartens in my school district ***ign homework, though, nor grades, and the cl*** is only 3 hours a day, so it's not really as "academic" as the later grades, nor as some of the kindergartens other people have described.
Holly Mom to Camden, 2 yrs.
"Circe" guav...@yahoo.com
The above is what preschool is for and it is now presumed that the majority of kids entering kindergarten have had *some* preschool exposure (whether through daycare, part-time preschool programs, HeadStart, etc.). As Beth said, kindergarten in many places (California included) is now what first grade was.
Below my signature are the California state standards for kindergarten. It's long, so I put it below my sig line so it will automatically be chopped from most replies. I don't know if you have the time or patience to read through the whole thing, but hey, you asked <g>!
As far as I can tell: 1) to give the kids a bit of extra practice 2) to get parents involved in and kept up to speed on what the kids are working on in school 3) to make up for the fact that the school is cramming a full-day's curriculum into a half-day cl*** 4) to get the kids used to the idea that with school comes homework
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Be well, Barbara (Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom) See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln Moderator for the proposed group misc.kids.family-life This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop: "No mis-spellings found!" -- spell check software message What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.
Kindergarten English-Language Arts Content Standards Reading 1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development Students know about letters, words, and sounds. They apply this knowledge to read simple sentences.
Concepts About Print 1.1 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.
1.3 Understand that printed materials provide information.
1.4 Recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.
1.5 Distinguish letters from words.
1.6 Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
Phonemic Awareness 1.7 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent the number, sameness/difference, and order of two and three isolated phonemes (e.g., /f, s, th/, /j, d, j/).
1.8 Track (move sequentially from sound to sound) and represent changes in simple syllables and words with two and three sounds as one sound is added, substituted, omitted, shifted, or repeated (e.g., vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel, or consonant-vowel-consonant).
1.9 Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or syllables.
1.10 Identify and produce rhyming words in response to an oral prompt.
1.11 Distinguish orally stated one-syllable words and separate into beginning or ending sounds.
1.12 Track auditorily each word in a sentence and each syllable in a word.
1.13 Count the number of sounds in syllables and syllables in words.
Decoding and Word Recognition 1.14 Match all consonant and short-vowel sounds to appropriate letters.
1.15 Read simple one-syllable and high-frequency words (i.e., sight words).
1.16 Understand that as letters of words change, so do the sounds (i.e., the alphabetic principle).
Vocabulary and Concept Development 1.17 Identify and sort common words in basic categories (e.g., colors, shapes, foods).
1.18 Describe common objects and events in both general and specific language.
2.0 Reading Comprehension Students identify the basic facts and ideas in what they have read, heard, or viewed. They use comprehension strategies (e.g., generating and responding to questions, comparing new information to what is already known). The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight (California Department of Education, 1996) illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Structural Features of Informational Materials 2.1 Locate the title, table of contents, name of author, and name of illustrator.
Comprehension and Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text 2.2 Use pictures and context to make predictions about story content.
2.3 Connect to life experiences the information and events in texts.
2.4 Retell familiar stories.
2.5 Ask and answer questions about essential elements of a text.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis Students listen and respond to stories based on well-known characters, themes, plots, and settings. The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text 3.1 Distinguish fantasy from realistic text.
3.2 Identify types of everyday print materials (e.g., storybooks, poems, newspapers, signs, labels).
3.3 Identify characters, settings, and important events.
Writing 1.0 Writing Strategies Students write words and brief sentences that are legible.
Organization and Focus 1.1 Use letters and phonetically spelled words to write about experiences, stories, people, objects, or events.
1.2 Write consonant-vowel-consonant words (i.e., demonstrate the alphabetic principle).
1.3 Write by moving from left to right and from top to bottom.
Penmanship 1.4 Write uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet independently, attending to the form and proper spacing of the letters.
Written and Oral English Language Conventions The standards for written and oral English language conventions have been placed between those for writing and for listening and speaking because these conventions are essential to both sets of skills.
1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions.
Sentence Structure 1.1 Recognize and use complete, coherent sentences when speaking.
Spelling 1.2 Spell independently by using pre-phonetic knowledge, sounds of the alphabet, and knowledge of letter names.
Listening and Speaking 1.0. Listening and Speaking Strategies Students listen and respond to oral communication. They speak in clear and coherent sentences.
Comprehension 1.1 Understand and follow one-and two-step oral directions.
1.2 Share information and ideas, speaking audibly in complete, coherent sentences.
2.0. Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics) Students deliver brief recitations and oral presentations about familiar experiences or interests, demonstrating command of the organization and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
Using the listening and speaking strategies of kindergarten outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students: 2.1 Describe people, places, things (e.g., size, color, shape), locations, and actions.
2.2 Recite short poems, rhymes, and songs.
2.3 Relate an experience or creative story in a logical sequence.
Mathematics Content Standards By the end of kindergarten, students understand small numbers, quantities, and simple shapes in their everyday environment. They count, compare, describe and sort objects, and develop a sense of properties and patterns.
Number Sense 1.0 Students understand the relationship between numbers and quantities (i.e., that a set of objects has the same number of objects in different situations regardless of its position or arrangement): 1.1 Compare two or more sets of objects (up to ten objects in each group) and identify which set is equal to, more than, or less than the other.
1.2 Count, recognize, represent, name, and order a number of objects (up to 30).
1.3 Know that the larger numbers describe sets with more objects in them than the smaller numbers have.
2.0 Students understand and describe simple additions and subtractions: 2.1 Use concrete objects to determine the answers to addition and subtraction problems (for two numbers that are each less than 10).
3.0 Students use estimation strategies in computation and problem solving that involve numbers that use the ones and tens places: 3.1 Recognize when an estimate is reasonable.
Algebra and Functions 1.0 Students sort and cl***ify objects: 1.1 Identify, sort, and cl***ify objects by attribute and identify objects that do not belong to a particular group (e.g., all these balls are green, those are red).
Measurement and Geometry 1.0 Students understand the concept of time and units to measure it; they understand that objects have properties, such as length, weight, and capacity, and that comparisons may be made by referring to those properties: 1.1 Compare the length, weight, and capacity of objects by making direct comparisons with reference objects (e.g., note which object is shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier, or holds more).
1.2 Demonstrate an understanding of concepts of time (e.g., morning, afternoon, evening, today, yesterday, tomorrow, week, year) and tools that measure time (e.g., clock, calendar).
1.3 Name the days of the week.
1.4 Identify the time (to the nearest hour) of everyday events (e.g., lunch time is 12 o'clock; bedtime is 8 o'clock at night).
2.0 Students identify common objects in their environment and describe the geometric features: 2.1 Identify and describe common geometric objects (e.g., circle, triangle, square, rectangle, cube, sphere, cone).
2.2 Compare familiar plane and solid objects by common attributes (e.g., position, shape, size, roundness, number of corners).
Statistics, Data Analysis, and Probability 1.0 Students collect information about objects and events in their environment: 1.1 Pose information questions; collect data; and record the results using objects, pictures, and picture graphs.
1.2 Identify, describe, and extend simple patterns (such as circles or triangles) by referring to their shapes, sizes, or ...
"Circe" guav...@yahoo.com
We don't have "grades" per se, but students get a numbered score (1 to 4, with 1 being not up to standard and 4 being above standard) for mastery of each item specified in the state content standards for their grade level.
It's pretty easy to figure out that 1 is a D, more or less, and 4 is an A.
(My son has gotten all 3s and 4s, with one exception--a 2 for not having the days of the week down, which of course he mastered the day after the report card came home!)
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Be well, Barbara (Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom) See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln Moderator for the proposed group misc.kids.family-life This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop: "No mis-spellings found!" -- spell check software message What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.
"Cheryl S." spamfoo...@address.com
This is interesting to read about. I don't have any experience with having a child in school yet, but just based on what I've read here, I think what's gone wrong is not *what* they want to teach kids in kindergarten, but *how* they've gone about it. It sounds like they're making kindergarten like a miniature version of high school. Young kids are not "the same as older kids, just smaller"; they are completely different developmentally. Schools that expect young kids to have any sort of significant attention span, for example, are just setting *everyone* up for frustration IMO - teachers, parents, and kids!
Homework at that age is absurd, IMO. If there is any at all, it shouldn't be anything other than to find something to bring in for show and tell, or have a parent read to them for X number of minutes. The fact that they will have to do homework later in life does not mean that they need to do it now to be able to do it later. That's just like the argument that people make about leaving a baby to cry because "it's going to have to sleep through the night sometime, so it better learn how, *right now*".
Academically, though, Julie, who just turned two, knows the entire alphabet, both reciting it and recognizing written letters, can count to 14 (then skips to 20 and counts to 30 ;), and recognizes several written numbers. She's started pointing to words in books and asking me to tell her what they say. My parents tell me I started reading at the age of three, without any conscious teaching effort on their part, just from them reading to me. So it's hard for me to imagine that there would be five year olds who wouldn't be ready to learn to read, ***uming they don't have some kind of disability.
I don't plan to start Julie in nursery school until the fall after next, but I am already wondering if I'll be able to find one that emphasizes what I feel she needs - which is social interaction skills. Most of the ones I hear about around here are way into teaching letters, numbers and colors - and the parents I talk to want that. But Julie already knows all of that, so what would be the point?
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Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2y1m And a boy, EDD 4.Sept Cleaning the house while your children are small is like shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.
"Circe" guav...@yahoo.com
Should have mentioned this earlier, but...
You're in the Bay Area, right? If so, then your school district is just as bound by the California content standards as mine is. And we only have 3h20m of kindergarten, yet we *still* have the same curriculum as the full-day programs in other districts in the county. Your school is also obligated to give your child a "report card" similar to the one I described for Julian (in fact, I think that particular report card is *mandated* by the state of California). So I don't think you can ***ume that your kindergarten program is/will be less academically rigorous than what I'm describing; in fact, you should probably ***ume otherwise.
Whether or not your school ***igns homework in kindergarten, I couldn't say.
Certainly, you may be lucky enough not to have a school/teacher who is "worksheet-happy" (though every homework packet I have seen for my friends' kindergartners has been full of worksheets just like ours). But I would be very surprised if a 3-hour kindergarten program anywhere in California does not place a good deal of emphasis on parental involvement and getting the parents to take over teaching/reinforcing the curriculum, because 3 hours is just not enough time to teach kids everything they're expected to master by the end of kindergarten.
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Be well, Barbara (Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom) See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln Moderator for the proposed group misc.kids.family-life This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop: "No mis-spellings found!" -- spell check software message What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.
hollyle ...@aol.com (HollyLewis)
Oh, I'm not ***uming anything -- it's just that I have three more years before it's relevant, so what I know is based on what I've heard from neigbors with older kids. Who mostly complain about how the short school day leaves them with a very awkward childcare problem! (One family put their child in private school for this reason.) About the program itself and the teachers I've heard mostly positive things, and I haven't ever heard the parents complain about homework or seen the kids doing homework, but of course that doesn't mean there isn't any.
Holly Mom to Camden, 2 yrs.
"Circe" guav...@yahoo.com
Whoops, never mind! In reading another post of yours elsewhere, I see you are in Albany!
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Be well, Barbara (Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom) See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln Moderator for the proposed group misc.kids.family-life This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop: "No mis-spellings found!" -- spell check software message What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.
hschin ...@aol.com (H Schinske)
It varies a lot by school district. My school's policies on homework are MUCH saner than Barbara's school's. It is supposed to be a partnership between the parents and the schools, and the parents can always sign off on homework *they* are satisfied their child worked hard enough on. They did have some kind of token homework in kindergarten, but it was things like "Make up a story using as many B words as you can," and they'd sit there and (orally) tell me "The brave blue boy blew bubbles ..." or whatever. Something that took just a couple of minutes.
--Helen
"Circe" guav...@yahoo.com
Ha ha! So, it's Albany, California not Albany, New York! (I keep forgetting there's an Albany up there, though I should remember since one of my husband's cousins lives there.) Half-day kindergarten *is* fairly awkward from a childcare POV, though there seem to be plenty of centers in our area that cater to people with kinds in kindy (to say nothing of the on-site program).
Well, people 'round here positively *gush* about how wonderful the school and the teachers are. I have nothing against either the school or his teacher; it's just been a bit of mismatch for him this year and, as a result, a rather disappointing experience.
True. And despite the more rigorous academic standards, I gather that some schools/teachers aren't ***igning homework in kindergarten. Frankly, I don't think the homework makes the slightest bit of difference in terms of Julian's mastery--he gets it all just fine without the homework.
Nonetheless, there's a perception among a lot of parents and teachers that homework is good for kindergartners as a habit-builder--both for the parents and for the kids. Any other benefit is really secondary.
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Be well, Barbara (Julian [7/22/97], Aurora [7/19/99], and Vernon's [3/2/02] mom) See us at http://photos.yahoo.com/guavaln Moderator for the proposed group misc.kids.family-life This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop: "No mis-spellings found!" -- spell check software message What does it all mean? I have *no* idea. But it's my life and I like it.
hschin ...@aol.com (H Schinske)
My son is in a community center preschool which I really like. They do have a letter of the week and so on, but it is like a theme for the week, very open-ended. For instance, the teacher writes words on the letter that the children suggest, and the words can be as complex as the children care to come up with. The letters go in a pattern by colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue. A few kids might still be working on naming those colors, most are working on recognizing the pattern and guessing what the next color will be.
Things like that.
They have various "educational" worksheets available to work on, but there are no bad consequences if you don't do them (and the teacher doesn't ***ume that it was because the child didn't know how!). In the first part of the year Peter mostly either didn't do them or scribbled on them. Today he brought home a worksheet of butterfly words (they have butterflies hatching from chrysalises just now) that he had carefully traced over, scales, antenna, thorax, abdomen, etc. (he can read at least some of those words, but it's not expected that he should have to).
The key is to have open-ended activities that are developmentally appropriate.
Say you teach a song about the months -- that could be teaching a child the names of the months and their order, or it could just be teaching music and how to sing with the other children. The more academic in a paper-and-pencil sense it is, the less appropriate for an academically advanced child. But you can do a lot of quiet reinforcement of, say, color naming or counting, for any kids who need that, while not boring the other kids who already know their colors and numbers and are doing the art project because it's fun.
--Helen
toto scarec...@wicked.witch
We just received the Illinois Standards for early childhood today.
The checklist is 12 pages long with social/emotional, gross motor, fine motor, language, mathematics, social science, and science standards included. Note that the development of these particular standards was done by preschool directors working from the k-2 benchmarks of the local school district, so they are not statewide, but community wide at this point. Note also that some of these standards go to what schools should be providing rather than what the children should achieve.
The preschool benchmarks include: Social/Emotional Adult interactions Separates comfortably from parent or guardian after a reasonable period of time Develops relationships with adults Demonstrates pride in individual accomplishments Demonstrates appropriate caution toward strangers Self-image Uses appropriate communications skills when expressing needs and wants Identifies others emotions through non-verbal cues Uses appropriate communications skills when expressing feelings Identifies photo of self Describes self using several basic characteristics Draws a person with at least 5 body parts Expresses a wide range of emotions Respects the rights of others Expresses anger without violence Demonstrates self-confidence Self-help Replaces materials after use Dresses and undresses without supervision Takes care of his/her own possessions Behaves appropriately with others at mealtime Cares for self in bathroom Recognizes and attempts to meet personal needs Feeds self with utensils Refrains from putting inappropriate objects in mouth Self-management Exhibits creativity in seeking solutions to problems Exhibits persistence in seeking solutions to problems Remains with an activity until it is completed Chooses materials in the cl***room independently Exhibits eagerness and curiousity as a learner Manages transitions between activities Adapts to changes in routines Follows simple safety rules Uses cl***room environment purposefully Uses cl***room environment respectfully Peer Interaction Exhibits parallel play Participates in small groups Participates in large group Demonstrates empathy and caring Shares materials Takes turns Develops positive relationships with other children Engages in cooperative play Engages in role playing Physical Development Gross Motor Development Demonstrates adequate balance and control Moves to music Kicks a large ball Imitates body motions Rides a tricycle Hops on one foot Throws a ball Catches a ball Uses alternate feet to go upstairs Shows balance and control while running Skips Negotiates cl***room space safely Negotiates playground space safely Fine Motor Development Eye-hand Coordinations Draws Paints Completes 6 to 12 piece puzzle Builds tower with 8 or more blocks Strings beads, noodles, etc.
Manipulates clay or playdough Uses crayons, pencils, markers in a functional manner Uses a writing tool with preferred hand Holds writing tool in one hand while keeping paper in place with the other hand Traces Holds scissors in a functional manner Cuts on a straight line Cuts out shapes of straight and curved lines Zips clothes Buttons clothes Snaps clothes Ties shoes Uses interlocking manipulatives Language arts: Knows how to hold a book Understands that print carries a message Understands that pictures and symbols have meaning Understands that reading progresses from left to right Identifies signs in the environment Understands that reading progresses from top to bottom Retells stories and events in sequential order Understands that different text forms are used for different purposes (magazines, notes, lists, storybooks, etc.) Listens attentively to a short story in a small group Understands the function of questions (who, what, where, when) Understands the function of higher order questions (how, why) Makes some letter-sound matches Predicts what will happen next in a story using pictures and contextual clues as guides Answers questions relating to pictures and stories Identifies some letters, especially those in his name Demonstrates phonological awareness by participating in rhyming activities Shows independent interest in reading-related activities Understands the connection between print and the spoken word Dictates stories and other experiences Uses drawing and emergent writing skills to convey meaning and information Recognizes his or her first name in print Begins to write some letters especially those in his first name Asks literal questions (who, what, where, when) Asks higher order thinking questions (how, why) Communicates thoughts and ideas orally Contributes appropriately to group discussions Follows 2-step and 3-step directions Points to body parts as instructed Shows understanding of prepositions (behind, beside, in front of, above, below) Shows understanding of time concepts (yesterday, today tomorrow) Listens attentively to group discussions Sings along with a group Speaks clearly Uses intelligible sentences of up to 4 to 5 words Initiates conversations Maintains conversations Verbally lables body parts Asks literal questions (who, what, where, when0 Asks higher order questions (how, why) Uses negatives Uses plurals Contributes appropriately to group discussions States full name States correct home address States 11 digit phone number Uses pronouns appropriately to refer to self and others Communicates ideas and thoughts orally Mathematics Uses strategies to solve mathematical problems Differentiates between mathematical attributes (more, less big, little, long, short) Connects number to the quantity they represent using physical models and representations (Give me four blocks) Participates in cl***room activities which involve recording data using concrete objects, pictures and graphs Participates in activities involving addition using manipulatives Participates in activities involving subtraction using manipulatives Demonstrates and understanding of measurement using non-standard units (measures the table using objects) Develops a sense of present time through participation in the daily schedule of activities Develops a sense of past and future time by participation in activities such as photo albums, timelines and calendars Demonstrates one to one correspondence (can set the table) Groups objects into equal sets of numbers (4 plates and 4 cups) Counts and understands 5 to 10 objects Recognizes single digit numbers Discriminates between letters and numbers Matches basic colors Identifies basic colors Verbally labels basic colors Follows a simple pattern Completes and established pattern Recognizes, duplicates and extends simple patterns (sounds, shapes, colors) Social Studies Locates objects and places in familiar environments (cl***room, home, school, neighborhood) Expresses beginning of locational thinking (cl***room, home, neighborhood) Expresses beginning of geographical thinking (north, south, east, west) Creates maps of an area (bedroom, cl***room, etc.) Demonstrates concept of own family Understands relationship to one's own family Understands that each of us belongs to a family Understands family needs, roles and relationships Recognizes that families vary Recognizes community helpers and functions Devlops and awareness of the role of leaders in an environment (teachers, parents, etc.) Begins to understand the use of trade to obtain goods and services Science Uses five senses to observe and explore materials and phenomena Collects, describes and records information Plans and experiments with materials to test ideas Gathers informations through observation Makes predictions Relates prior knowledge to new information Demonstrates and awareness of cause and effect Shares discoveries with others Describes how things are the same Describes how things are different Describes the effects of forces in nature (wind, gravity, magnetism) Uses common weather-related vocabulary (rain, snow, clouds, sun, etc.) Identifies basic concepts of sink and float Investigates living things in the environment Categorizes living things in the environment Observes changes in him/her self and the environment Predicts changes in him/her self and the environment Decribes and compares basic needs of living things Identifies basic concepts ***ociated with night, day the seasons Uses scientific tools such as thermometers, balance scales and magnifying gl***es for investigation Uses scientific tools safely with increasing independence Becomes familiar with the use of devices incorporating technology (cameras, video players, tape players, record players, cd players, computers) Is aware of technology and how it affects his/her life Expresses wonder and asks questions about the world Participates in recycling projects Dorothy
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There is no sound, no cry in all the world that can be heard unless someone listens ..
Outer Limits
"Cathy Kearns" cathy_kea...@yahoo.com
Actually, my children have thus far made it almost through 8th grade in the California schools systems, in the Bay Area. By district standards, only occasional short homework is allowed in kinder.
And yes, kinder is 3 hours and 20 minutes. But it is no where near as academic as 1st grade. And the report cards, through 3rd grade, are graded as E, S, or N (Excellent, Satisfactory, or Needs improvement). I suspect the grading system is a district mandate, as it apparently is not a state mandate.
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Ericka Kammerer e...@comcast.net
Sure. I'd agree with you, and so would much of the research.
Nevertheless, in many states it becomes one of those "sh*t rolls downhill" scenarios. If you have standardized exams in third grade (upon which teacher and school accreditation depend), then you'd better start preparing for the test. Time is short, and there isn't enough individual attention in cl***, so you need parental help.
You therefore dump a lot of the work into homework (not individualized, of course, because there isn't time for that). But if you start it in third grade, it's "too late"--too much trouble to get things done before exams. Therefore, you push it back to second grade. Well, pretty soon the second grade teachers are saying that it's too rough a transition from first to second grade, so they push some back to first grade. Then the transition from kindy to first grade is too hard, so the start with the homework and "parent training" in kindy.
Add to all that the fact that many parents *push* for this sort of thing, believing that they must be at a superior school if their child is getting homework in kindergarten (or who fuss if friends' children are getting homework and theirs aren't--must mean the school isn't very good). You'll find many parents bragging about how much homework their kids have, as if this is some reflection on how good the school or their children are.
But frankly, as long as there's all this emphasis on "bettering" education through standardized testing, this is the sort of thing we're going to get plenty of.
Oh, I ***ure you there are plenty of kids who arrive in kindy who are nowhere near ready to read. There are plenty who've never had any preschool, whose parents don't read to them, who don't recognize their letters or numbers, who don't speak English well, etc. Kindy is probably among the worst for variation in abilities--quite a challenge for kindy teachers. There are also plenty of kids who arrive already reading, of course.
I felt the same way, but didn't have any trouble finding a preschool that was more socialization oriented. Hopefully if you search around, you'll find the same.
Best wishes, Ericka
mario ...@mindspring.com (Marion Baumgarten)
And really- what happens if he gets 1s or 2s? He's going to first grade anyway. I would speak to the principal anyway. These are unrealistic expectations. Several years ago, I got a book 101 Fre Things for Kids and I had my daughter right away for stuff in the book. This was fun for her, developed handwriting and she loved getting the mail. Myabe you could do something like that over the summer- One letter a week.
hollyle ...@aol.com (HollyLewis)
Yes, I am. The one in the Bay Area. :-) (I would not be surprised if every one of the 50 states has an Albany.) Holly
Momi ...@webtv.net (misty)
In my son's rural kindy there is very little homework.. mainly it's "share_n_tell" once a week.
He's learned some phonics, quite a few sight words..and the rest of the curriculum apears to be coloring, working on legibility and learning about the World ;-) They sing, write "stories" and seem to really enjoy their day at school.
My 3rd grader doesn't have any homework..aside from studying for spelling tests or reading books for prizes (he reads for pleasure anyway).
I love this school system except for the fact that it's so spread out..
the kindergartner is only 2 miles from home...the third grader rides 2 towns away (about 10 miles).. next year he may ride anywhere from 2 to 10 again..and middle school and high school are in 2 different towns as well. Makes getting to school functions a bit of a chore but so far nothing has been scheduled the same days/times :-) They also are knocking off 2 days early for end of the year..to deal with setting up new cl***es in the various schools. That oughta be interesting!
Pray for me 0~:-D .. it's gonna be a long Summer!
Swimming lessons are a Good Thing ;-) ~misty Danny, Andy and Joey
"Sue" sburke9...@wideopenwest.com
I think every kindergarten is different as is different districts. I can ***ure you that the school my children go, we don't have the homework and silly worksheets like Barbara (Circe) complains of. Kara, who is in kindy right now has never had homework. What they focus on is learning to write, very basic spelling, simple math and learning to read, learning to cope in a group and work on your own, listening in small groups. I wouldn't worry about it until you start looking at schools and seeing what exactly the district you are going to will have to offer and what they teach. Good luck.
It really isn't that bad. :o) Sue mom to three girls ...
Clisby Williams clis...@mindspring.com
Somewhat, but I think that's more the goal of preschool these days. Both my husband and I think our daughter's kindergarten year (last year) was like our first grade, only much more interesting.
I'm fine with the academic focus - I was in the 7th grade before I was given work that could even approach being called academically challenging, and I know how incredibly bored I was. My daughtr isn't.
My daughter goes to a small private school, so I'm not terribly tuned in to what the public school district is doing. Her kindergarten definitely had an academic focus, and children were evaluated periodically. She had homework, although it wasn't like what Barbara describes. Most often it was to send home a book for her to read to us. Sometimes it was a book slightly above her level, so that she could read most of it but we had to help. I can remember one ***ignment to find 10 different kinds of leaves; and one to measure 5 different things in your house, and write down the objects and the measurements. There were a few worksheets toward the end of the year when she was well into the 1st grade curriculum (her school has multi-age cl***es, so the age of the child doesn't determine the level of work ***igned.) However, I don't remember any worksheets that involved coloring, or a lot of repetitious work.
Mostly it was stuff like looking at a picture and circling the word that went with it. (Maybe there was a picture of a pot, and the child had to pick between "pot", "pet", and "pat". ) Her school does at least loosely follow Georgia's Quality Core Curriculum standards, and the public schools are supposed to follow them. The standards seem pretty minimal to me, though - most of what they list as the goals of kindergarten were covered in my daughter's preschool. Clisby
"Donna Metler" nospam_dmmet...@bellsouth.net
I have to agree. It is especially hard here, because our kinder students enter, on average, about two years behind where the typical child is supposed to be, just because of inner city home conditions (but there are enough exceptions to definitely make life interesting!) and that delay tends to stay most of the way through. To make matters worse, we start standardized testing which counts for the school in grade 2 (and the kids take their first paper-pencil standardized test in grade 1), and it counts for promotion starting at grade 3-so our kinder teachers have the job of somehow giving these students the prerequisite skills, plus the kindergarten skills.
And if you've sat with her and read, pointed to letters/words as you've done so, explained concepts, and given her experiences, you've been teaching her to read, and it's just a matter of her picking up on it when ready. There are many children who don't get these experiences at home, and therefore have nothing to pick up on. Then we get these kids in kinder and start pressuring them with phonics sounds and worksheets, but they still don't have the background for it to make sense.
valeri ...@aol.comspammast (ValeriePG)
What you described is now the goals of most preschools (and believe me, there are some which are pushing academics).
The goals of kindergarten now are early literacy, meaning sight words, early phonics, early writing (groups of letters equal words, groups of words equals sentences) and the phonological ***ociation of letters to sounds to create the words. Math skills include the understanding of numbers through minimum of 20, the recognization of numbers, the ability to recognize groups as sets, early addition and subtraction, typically with a visual aid.
Science skills are typically honing in the ability to observe, make a prediciton and find the answer through the natural world.
Social Studies skills are geared around learning about families and the community in which you are living in, and the roles of those within it.
The purpose of homework at this age should only be the reinforcement and practice of skills which have been learned already at school.
This, of course, is the general. In addition, social skills are always learned when you have a large group of people together.
(Note- I am a NYS N-6 and Special Ed. teacher. These goals I have mentioned are generalizations and not a given. YMMV depending upon school and state/country.) Valerie co-moderator, soc.support.pregnancy.loss
valeri ...@aol.comspammast (ValeriePG)
Actually many children are not physiologically capable of coordinating their eyes to read before 6. And I would also like to point out that having sight words (recognizing the pattern of letters to equal a word) does not mean a child can read, per se. It also entails the ability to phonologically break down a word (sound it out) to infer it's meaning. This can be a difficult skill given the complexity of the English language.
Valerie co-moderator, soc.support.pregnancy.loss
Bruce and Jeanne bridgemany...@comcast.net
DH and I decided to stay with the Montessori school for our daugther.
"Kindergarten" (it's the last year of her primary cl***) is more academic than we experienced and but she doesn't have the time pressure of homework that Barbara related. As a matter of fact, when I went to the Move-Up Open House yesterday, they said that in the Lower Elementary cl***, there is also no homework. The kids are given workbooks to complete, but there's no timetable for completion. The school does use these silly reading workbooks that I've never liked (but that's another story), but after talking to the teachers it seems they're more for the comfort of the parents rather than the children.
This method (high expectations without time pressure and unending amounts of homework) seems to be working. My daughter who was very resistent to reading in the fall (I blame the previous teacher and the workbooks) is now reading fairly well. She's working on addition and subtraction (without carrying) 4 digit numbers (why stop at 10?), and she's very good at working with children both older and younger than herself.
It seems all the children are (at least) at her level - so I wouldn't say she's particularly gifted or unusually accomplished for kindergarten.
Jeanne
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