Kindergarten Learning Overview

We reside in the suburbs of Washington, DC and our children’s education occurs in the Montgomery County Maryland school district, which is nationally recognized as a high quality school system with full day kindergarten.

We quickly learned that Montgomery County’s kindergarten curriculum was robust - much more advanced than the story time, cookies and naps that we experienced 30 plus years ago. Our school district’s primary kindergarten curriculum elements are reading, writing and math. Of these three, this page will focus on the reading curriculum.

Our school district’s reading/language arts program consists of a balanced literacy program encompassing phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. Students are encouraged to be at advanced reading levels by the end of kindergarten and strive to be independent readers by the end of second grade.

Within the first few weeks of kindergarten, children are tested to ascertain their knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, their basic phonic sounds and sight words. On a side note, this was the impetus for the creation of our sight words game, Erudition.

As students progress through the school year, the reading curriculum expands to include the following sub-categories, which were determined by the National Reading Panel to be the key elements of a successful reading program:

Oral Language Development

Students will learn such language topics as opposites, use of pronouns and directional words. They will also be prompted to speak about or relate to personal experiences. Teachers also focus on expanding word choices to effectively communicate.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes (the smallest units of sound). In this area children work to identify and generate rhyming words. Kindergarten teachers work with students to differentiate beginning, ending and medial sounds in spoken words. Students also learn to blend sounds to construct words.

Phonics

Phonics refers to the way in which sounds of the English language relate to letters or groups of letters. When focusing on this element students practice recognizing and identifying the upper and lower-case letters of the alphabet while matching the consonant and short vowel sounds to appropriate letters. Students also learn to use word patterns (e.g. –at, -op, -in) to read unknown words.

Fluency

Reading fluency is the ability to read accurately and efficiently. A fluent reader can both read text and comprehend what that text means. While some children at the kindergarten level struggle with full fluency, students practice reading beginner level text accurately and describing, in their own words, what they have read.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary development relates to a student’s knowledge of the meanings and pronunciation of words. Under this curriculum area teachers work with students to read and understand simple high-frequency sight words and to recognize environmental print (e.g. stop sign, up and down arrows).

Comprehension

Both vocabulary and comprehension involve the meaning of written text, but at various levels. Vocabulary relates to individual words while comprehension generally refers to understanding sentences or paragraphs. To develop comprehension teachers solicit students to predict what is coming next based on background knowledge. Students are also prompted to discuss what they have read.

Please read the articles below for a more detailed account of certain elements of our kindergarten curriculum.

Kindergarten Homework - 4th Marking Period

Kindergarten Homework - 3rd Marking Period

Kindergarten Writing - Foster Your Little Shakespeare

Seasonal Celebration - First Day of Spring (Vernal Equinox)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Sight Words: A Key Benchmark for Kindergarten Curriculums

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Report Cards Reflect More Than Just Grades

Happy Belated Groundhog Day

Kindergarten Homework - 2nd Marking Period

High Frequency Words (Sight Words)

Directional and Positional Words

Kindergarten Interview for Parent Conferences

Soaring with Sight Words

Using Peaceful Words

Happy Thanksgiving

Kindergarten Parent Teacher Conference

Kindergarten News - Month of November

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Kindergarten Activity

Halloween Candy Makes Perfect Patterns

Who Knew Humpty Dumpty Could Be So Educational?

Helpful Homework Tips

Kindergarten Homework - 1st Marking Period

Homework is not just Busy Work

Kindergarten Curriculum Night: Math

Kindergarten Math Curriculum

Elementary School’s Open House

Kindergarten Curriculum Night: Reading/Language Arts

Kindergarten Reading / Language Arts Curriculum

Developing a Kindergartener’s Reading Comprehension – Ask the Right Questions

Lend a Helping Hand - Read to Your Child

Back to School Night

Back to School Parent’s Checklist

School Safety 101

Learn Your ABCs at the Dinner Table

Behind Every Successful Student Stands a Teacher and a Parent

Getting Ready for School

Does Your Home Encourage Learning?

Expose Children to Irregular Sight Words Early & Often

Summer Homework – Can be a Day at the Beach

Kindergarten: Is Your Child Ready?

Kindergarten Readiness Skills

Proper Letter and Number Formation

Kindergarten Summer Homework – Letter & Name Recognition

Summer Homework to Prevent Brain Drain– A New Day

Summer Learning Loss (Seasonal Brain Drain)

Kindergarten Activities - Letter Identification

Kindergarten Activities – Making Playdough & Letters of the Alphabet

Kindergarten Curriculum – The Developmental Approach to Writing

Kindergarten - Holding a Pencil the A-OK Way

Here are a few additional important kindergarten curriculum elements

School’s Mission Statement

The staff, students and families will share responsibility for ensuring that each child demonstrates consistent, measurable progress on the way to reaching his or her potential as a learner and responsible citizen.


Classroom’s Mission Statement

The children in this classroom want to be GREAT kindergarteners. We want to work hard and have fun. As a result, we will:
Try our best
Be responsible
Be respectful
Clean up and be helpful
Be friends with everybody
Be caring
Do the right thing


Classroom Rules
We listen.
We work quietly.
We walk.
We are kind.