Saturday, January 3, 2015

"Pre-School" Lists

Last Spring I scanned through tons of "what your child should know before starting Kindergarten" lists (and a few "before 1st grade" lists), and compiled a "master list" of topics that I would like to cover with Kaja in these pre-school years. This is NOT an exhaustive list, nor does any Kindergarten teacher expect their incoming students to know these things (honestly, this is more like a Kindergarten curriculum, with several more advanced elements, too)! I DO NOT expect her to become an expert on everything on this list, and when I wrote it, I anticipated it would take at LEAST two years to get through most of it. Some items are a piece of cake for her, and some are extremely ambitious and probably won't be learned until she's older (the difference between a verb, noun, and adjective, for instance), but I put it on there as a reminder to help me work it into our conversations if it comes up, and to give me a goal to work toward, since I know she will need to learn it eventually. Who knows? She has surprised us plenty in the past!

Disclaimer: I'm not an educator. While some of these items came from education sources, this is purely my personal goals for my own daughter. This is literally just cut-and-paste from my brainstorming, so sorry for the discombobulated mess! Some items include suggestions on how to work on that concept, and at the bottom is my (incomplete) "wish-list" of supplies to play and learn with.

English/Language Arts:
  • Rhyming words
  • Telling stories from pictures
  • Putting story pictures in order
  • makes predictions about what comes next in a story (and why)
  • Retelling and recalling story details
  • identifies setting, plot, character, conflict (where/when, what, who, why, how)
  • empathizing and talking about characters feelings and emotions
  • "story stones" (making up stories including certain elements)
  • Writes her own (full) name
  • Concept of sentences, simple punctuation (period, question mark, comma, quotation mark, etc.)
  • Title, author, illustrator, chapters, table of contents,
  • basic word types (noun, verb, adjective)... do madlibs together?
  • Fact vs. fiction
  • Capitalize 1st letter in sentence, and proper nouns.
  • Tracing and writing letters and numbers


Math/Numbers:
  • shapes (2D and 3D)
  • Tell Time
  • count to 30 (work in with months), 60 (work into minutes/hours), then 100
  • seasons
  • months of year?
  • days of the week (this method using vitamins in pill organizers makes it so easy!)
  • Yesterday, today, tomorrow, last week, other time words (work into vitamin lessons)
  • Right and left
  • sorting by size, color, shape, type, etc
  • more or less
  • measuring (length, width, height, weight, volume (liquid measurements), time, temp. etc)
  • Money!
  • Simple addition and subtraction
  • working with a number line
  • graphing
  • ordinal numbers (first, second, third)
  • simple fractions ("cut the cake in half")
  • skip counting (2's, 5's, 10's)?


Science:
  • Observations and hypotheses (prediction based on observation)
  • use magnifying glass to examine items carefully
  • 5 senses
  • weather
  • living vs. non-living (plants, animals, minerals, etc)
  • What living things need to survive
  • life cycles (like frogs and butterflies)
  • classifications (bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, insect, arachnid, mammal, etc)
  • plants: from seed (bean sprouts), grow a garden (from sprout to blossom/fruit), roots and root vegetables, different food sources (fruit, vegetable, grain, dairy, nuts/legumes, meat)
  • stars, planets and solar systems
  • Look at stars, talk about what they are, simple constellations, point out planets, etc.
  • waterways (definition of: wells, springs, streams, rivers, lakes/ponds, oceans), currents, etc.



Geography/History:
  • Understands different places have different climates, animals, cultures, languages, etc.
  • 7 continents (list and locate)
  • 4 oceans
  • north pole, south pole, equator
  • compass directions
  • understand the difference between “city, state, country, continent”
  • understands “Past, present, future” concepts, and the difference between stories and history
  • Use timelines to show progression of time (seed-plant, baby to adult, progress of day, then history, etc)
  • Talk about kings, presidents, governors, other authority figures


Life Skills:
  • ROUTINE!!!
  • Dress self
  • button and zipper fastening
  • tie shoes
  • set and clear table
  • help with cleaning tasks (sweeping, dusting, wiping)
  • put away books and toys (sorting)
  • early folding laundry skills (matching socks, folding towels, etc)
  • sort her own laundry???
  • Know her own birthday, address, phone number
  • Know when to use titles of respect (Mrs., Mr., Pastor, Doctor, etc)
  • help in kitchen (stirring, using the manual egg-beater, helping to pour/measure, use the food chopper or wavy chopper)


Gross Motor:
  • bounce and catch ball
  • skip
  • hop on one foot
  • climb ladders



Art and fine motor ideas:
  • scissor work
  • color blends (red+blue=purple, blue+yellow=green, etc)
  • pipe cleaner and cheerio threading
  • drawing shapes in different sizes
  • using shapes to make a picture (start by using pre-cut shapes to make pictures, a-la funny face, eventually working toward drawing in the shapes freehand)
  • stencils
  • mist plants with spray bottle to build hand strength
  • use an eye-dropper for coordination (fun for color mixing games! 2-in-1!)
  • tracing in clay, cutting clay
  • Recreating pictures, shapes, etc from looking at a model (no directions)
  • creative modeling materials (toothpicks and marshmallows/raisins, etc.)
  • Looking at and talking about different styles of art



Items/equipment ideas:
  • Magnifying glass
  • balance scale
  • misting spray bottle
  • eye dropper
  • plastic test tubes?
  • Small table/chairs
  • low cupboards for her dishes/silverware
  • Ideally, Kid-safe kitchen items in reach with a low workspace (hang a low shelf?) (wavy chopper, food chopper, manual egg-beater, plastic dishes/silverware, etc)
  • Full-length mirror to hang sideways near ground (for baby), or larger/multiple mirrors (fun for dancing!)
  • 5or7-compartmet organizer for laying out outfits for the week
  • clothing hamper(s) for K
  • trampoline (those small ones for exercising)
  • tumbling mats (IKEA!)
  • balance beam (again, IKEA!)
  • items to climb, hang, swing, and rock on
  • Hang a lower closet bar so she can reach her own clothes
  • Tension/closet rod and bags with hooks for puzzles and sets of small things
  • Chalkboard Paint! (magnetic?)
  • Or giant, glossy sheet metal that can be magnet board and dry-erase board (oil drip pan?)
  • The Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center is seriously the BEST thing ever! You can slide any 8.5x11 paper under the clear plastic and it becomes a dry-erase board! We use it for coloring, tracing, worksheets, mazes, you name it!
  • play money
  • letter stamps and stickers
  • counting manipulatives (pebbles, bottle caps, glass beads from the dollar store, etc)




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