Kindergarten Learning

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What Do Students Learn In Kindergarten?

KINDERGARTEN LEARNING :

The Cobb County School District is committed to providing your child an academic experience that will develop his or her knowledge and skills at every grade level and to ensuring a strong foundation is established for your child to reach his or her greatest potential. Our teaching is aligned with content standards and our teachers bring those standards to life for your child through various strategies designed to meet your child’s learning strengths and needs.

In Cobb County classrooms, students are immersed every day in learning experiences based on exploration, problem-solving, and critical thinking in all content areas, including the core areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science; and in specialized academic content including Health, Music, Physical Education, Technology, Visual Arts, and World Languages*. Excellence in teaching guides your child’s educational experience from Kindergarten to graduation and into life.

*Programming available varies at local schools

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:
Students enter kindergarten with a wide variety of cognitive abilities and life experiences as they transition from oral to written literacy. They begin to demonstrate their understanding of the organizational and basic features of print as they learn to track print and distinguish words from pictures and letters from words. Students should learn the basics of sound-print code and begin to develop comprehension strategies that will enable them to manipulate grade-level texts of appropriate complexity, including both story books and simple informational texts. Students will begin to connect their inquiries and responses directly to the text and identify main ideas. Kindergarten students will develop the ability to write letters and represent words with letters, identifying some high-frequency sight words and understandings of basic conventions of language. Kindergarteners will continue to increase the complexity of their spoken language and to use language in both one-on-one and group settings. While the kindergarten GSE makes clear specific expectations for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language, these standards need not be a separate focus for instruction. Often, several standards can be addressed by a single, rich task.

MATHEMATICS:
In Kindergarten, instructional time should focus on two critical areas: (1) representing and comparing whole numbers, initially with sets of objects; (2) describing shapes and space. More learning time in kindergarten should be devoted to numbers than to other topics. Being intentional with ongoing exposure to mathematical concepts such as counting and shape identification will support student efficacy and competence. Students use numbers, including written numerals, to represent quantities and to solve quantitative problems, such as counting objects in a set; counting out a given number of objects; comparing sets or numerals; and modeling simple joining and separating situations with sets of objects, or eventually with equations such as 5 + 2 = 7 and 7 – 2 = 5. (Kindergarten students should see addition and subtraction equations, and student writing of equations in kindergarten is encouraged, but it is not required.) Students choose, combine, and apply effective strategies for answering quantitative and statistical questions, including quickly recognizing the quantity of a small sets of objects, counting and producing sets of given sizes, counting the number of objects in combined sets, or counting the number of objects that remain in a set after some are taken away. Students describe their physical environment using geometric ideas (e.g., shape, orientation, spatial relations) and vocabulary. They identify, name, and describe basic two-dimensional shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, and octagons) presented in a variety of ways (e.g., with different sizes and orientations), as well as three-dimensional shapes (cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres). They use basic shapes and spatial reasoning to model objects in their environment and to construct more complex shapes.

SCIENCE:
In Kindergarten, science comes to life through hands-on, student-centered exploration of the natural world. Students dive into Earth, Life, and Physical Science, laying the foundation for core scientific concepts. They explore the world of plants, deepen their understanding of living organisms, and learn to distinguish between living and non-living matter. Kindergarteners also begin their journey into the basics of rocks, motion, and matter, building early ideas that shape their understanding of how the world works.

SOCIAL STUDIES:
In kindergarten, students begin to understand the foundations of the social studies strands: history, geography, government, and economics. Students begin their introduction to United States history through the study of important American holidays and symbols. Basic concepts of geography are presented. Civics provides students with an introduction to rules and character traits of good citizens. Basic economic concepts are also introduced.

SPECIALS:
Young learners enjoy the creative process in the Fine Arts classes, such as Visual Arts and Music. In Art, students begin learning basic art vocabulary and produce art with different subjects and themes. In Music, they perform and demonstrate a basic understanding of pitch and rhythm. In Physical Education, students explore movement, learn to share and take turns. Health class prepares them to be safe; students learn how to compare and contrast accident prevention strategies.

PARENTS TIPS: Reading
Daily reading as a family is an enjoyable and important way to grow a love of learning. Create time to read during breakfast or in the evening before bed. Share your own favorite childhood books and talk about why the book is one you still love. Visit your local library and take advantage of school book fairs and literacy events. By sharing what you love about reading and showing them how much it means to you by reading with them, students will see how important literacy is in their lives.

How Do We Assess Students In Kindergarten?

KINDERGARTEN ASSESSMENT:

Your child will have a variety of classroom assessments that will aid his or her teacher in knowing how to provide the best possible instruction for your child. These assessments will also help you know how well your child is learning and what extra support may be needed. In addition, your child will participate in some standardized assessments that are used to gauge how well your child is doing in his or her grade level.

In Kindergarten, teachers assess student progress using the Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS 2.0). The GKIDS 2.0 helps teachers identify strengths and needs of your child; and teachers adjust their instruction so learning is personalized to each student.

All students in grades K-9 participate in the universal screening process for reading and math using a digital inventory. In Kindergarten, the reading inventory measures foundational reading skills, such as letter/word identification, word recognition skills, and phonemic awareness.

TESTING IN KINDERGARTEN:

Mark the Calendar:
GKIDS Readiness Check: August & September
GKIDS: August, October, January & May
Student Growth Measure (SGM): August & May

Question Types: Kindergarten assessments include observations, analysis of student work, and direct assessment of skills. Students respond to teacher prompts and multiple-choice questions, called selected-response. Questions are often read aloud so young learners have a better chance of successfully completing all questions. Questions relate to subject areas such as Language Arts and Math and encourage students to apply a broad range of thinking skills.

PARENT TIPS: Assessment

Parents can support students in easing any concern or anxiety about assessment:

Talk with your child about any tests or assessments.
Explain that assessment is a natural and important part of any learning. Tests help students understand their thinking better and make improvements for better performance in the future.
Remind your child to pay attention to the directions and to listen carefully as they are read. Encourage your child to take time to understand the questions before selecting an answer.
A good night’s rest is the best way to arrive focused on test day!

Remember that assessment is an important and helpful part of learning for students of all ages. Your support and involvement in your child’s education is critical to success in school and in life. Research shows when parents play a key role in their child’s learning, their child’s achievement excels.

What Instructional Resources Are Used In Kindergarten?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A LIST OF BOARD APPROVED INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES FOR KINDERGARTEN

Instructional resources are provided to students and teachers to support teaching and learning. The titles listed below have been recommended to our Board by a committee of teachers, parents and community representatives and approved through the textbook adoption process (See Board Rule IFAA-R). Additional resources to enhance the instruction are constantly added by local schools and individual teachers.

Course/Content Area	Resource	Publisher
English Language Arts	Scholastic Leveled Bookroom Ready to Go Classroom Library	Scholastic
English Language Arts	Benchmark Phonics Benchmark Literacy	Benchmark
Mathematics	Custom Developed Mathematics Content for Kindergarten	Cobb County School District
Science	Georgia Science, Grade K	HMH
Science	Science Dimensions	HMH
Social Studies	Studies Weekly	Studies Weekly