CURRICULUM GUIDE

KINDERGARTEN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Language

1. Listening/Speaking Skills

· Listen to others’ ideas, pose questions, share familiar experiences/interests.

· Retell story elements after listening to stories.

2. New Vocabulary

· Identify/sort common words into classes (colors, shapes, textures, etc.)

· Describe common objects/events in general and specific language.

Reading & Literature

3. Concepts of Print

· Know parts of a book (cover, title, author, etc.)

· Understand directionality (top to bottom, left to right).

· Identify upper and lower case letters.

· Recognize difference between a letter and a word.

· Understand that sentences are made of separate words and that words are separated by spaces.

· Introduce punctuation (. ? ! , ).

4. Basic facts, ideas and making predictions

· Sequence pictures and parts of a story (beginning, middle, end).

5. Letter/sound relationships

· Understand that words are composed of speech sounds.

· Recognize and produce rhyming words.

· Recognize story patterns

· Recognize letter-sound associations.

· Begin to decode cvc words.

· Read high frequency words

6. Different types of literature

· Listen to poetry, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fiction, non-fiction, drama.

· Introduce story elements of plot, character, setting.

· Use titles, key words, illustrations to understand text

· Recite and/or act out familiar literature.

Composition

7. Printing

· Print first and last name.

· Practice upper and lower case letters.

8. Story writing

· Draw a picture that tells a story and use letters or phonetically spelled words to write about the picture.

· Dictate a sentence to go with a picture.

Media

9. Introduce use of a computer.

MATHEMATICS

Number Sense and Operations

1. Number Facts

· Count by ones to 100.

· Count objects 0-20 (1 to 1 correspondence)

· Recognize/identify numbers 0-20.

· Identify positions from first to fifth.

· Classify objects by size, color, number and detail.

· Use math vocabulary (none, more than, less than, equal to).

· Understand concept of whole and half.

· Become familiar with U.S. coins by name.

· Use manipulatives/drawings to model and solve addition and subtraction problems to ten.

· Use symbols + , -, =.

2. Estimation

· Estimate objects in a group.

· Make and check estimations.

Patterns, Relations and Algebra

3. Patterns

· Identify, create and extend a variety of patterns.

· Count by fives to 50.

· Count by tens to 100.

4. Relations

· Identify the attributes of objects.

· Sort and classify objects.

Geometry

5. Shapes

· Draw, model, describe and classify circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, rhombus.

· Match and compare three dimensional shapes.

6. Spatial Relationships

· Identify positions of objects in space, using appropriate language (beside, inside, next to, above, below, apart).

Measurement

7. Measurement methods

· Recognize and compare the attributes of length, volume, weight, time, and temperature using appropriate language (longer, shorter, same, heavier, lighter, yesterday, today, tomorrow).

· Use nonstandard units to measure.

Data Analysis, Statistics, Probability

8. Data

· Collect, sort, organize and compare data using concrete objects, pictures, numbers, graphs and tally marks.

· Introduce the concept of chance.

· Spell cvc words

Media

9. Introduce use of computer

SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY

Inquiry

Scientific Method

· Classify objects and events for details, similarities and differences.

· Use simple tools.

· Observe, pose questions, make predictions.

· Conduct simple investigations.

· Communicate observations through discussions, drawings, simple graphs and writing.

Physical Science

· Properties of objects

· Solid, liquid, gas

· Position and motion of objects

Life Science

· Living and nonliving

· Life cycles

· Five senses

Earth and Space Science

· Day and night

· Seasons

· Weather

Technology

· Purpose of a variety of man-made objects

HISTORY and SOCIAL SCIENCE

History

· Stories/holiday connections to historical figures Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, King.

· Similarities and differences in own family’s home, meals and customs.

· Other cultures and lifestyles

· Differences in fantasy and reality

Geography

· Earth’s features (water, land, forest)

· Globe as a model of Earth

· Maps to find location

· Know own address.

· Know way around school.

Economics

· Making fair trades

· Understand difference between wants and needs

· Sharing, saving, spending

· Occupations

Civics and Government

· Class rules

· Good manners

· Personal responsibility

· Tolerance for others

· American flag as a symbol

· Pledge of Allegiance

The purpose of this guide is to identify the major topics, concepts, and skills that are considered essential for each grade level as identified by the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.