Kindergarten Curriculum Guide

Introduction

The kindergarten program uses an emergent curriculum, where topics of interests of the children’s and teachers’ observations continue to guide the learning and discovery. UWM Children’s Learning Center uses a whole child approach when thinking about children, knowing that all areas of development deserve awareness and nurturing, while valuing the knowledge that our children and families bring with them to our Center. Our curriculum is play-based and includes hands-on opportunities with real-world materials. This approach makes full use of our children’s intrinsic motivation to engage, learn and wonder. Additionally, this perspective creates a positive early-learning experience, where a strength-based lens builds relationships and promotes confidence, curiosity, and creativity in learning and discovery.

Our kindergarten teachers use the following learning principles in planning, meeting children’s needs, abilities and interests, and when observing and reflecting upon experiences.

• Learning happens through play, relationships and many different languages.
• Children are capable of co-constructing their own learning.
• Children learn about the world through interactions.
• A child’s environment is their third teacher.
• Adults are children’s guides in learning.
• Reflection and documentation are an ongoing process for both children and teachers.

While early academic skills are planned for and developed in our kindergarten, social-emotional development is at the heart of our kindergarten curriculum. All learning experiences stem from relationships and a supportive community. In this way, social and emotional skills and growth are the driving force behind all experiences in our kindergarten program.

In this guide, we highlight developmental milestones and provide ways that we support these goals. We consider that children grow and develop at different rates. We also understand that children will need different types of support and scaffolded learning in order to meet their needs and goals. We use the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards Guiding Principles in our practice. These principles reflect the knowledge based in research while emphasizing our commitment to the values and strengths of our children and families. We also draw from additional pedagogies including Reggio Emilia, Montessori, and High Scope, as well as anti-bias and social justice-driven standards from both NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and Learning for Justice. These ideas create an intentional lens on guiding our ideas, play, work and relationships.

Our kindergarten program looks at each child holistically, using the five areas of development as specified by the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards to guide our planning, implementing and reflecting on learning experiences. These areas include approaches to learning, social and emotional development, cognition and general knowledge, language development and communication, and health and physical development

The learning standards that support growth in these five areas are important as they provide a framework for developmentally appropriate expectations for young children. Additionally, these standards help guide the creation, evaluation and improvement of an environment necessary for optimal development.

While identified separately in this guide, all areas of development overlap and learning takes place in multiple domains simultaneously. Skills and strategies are never learned in isolation. Our curriculum provides children with a rich variety of materials and hands-on experiences, as well as multiple opportunities over time to engage in their environment and partake in those activities and experiences.

Approaches to Learning

We view our approaches to learning as supporting the development of skills and behaviors that children use to engage in their own learning.

Play – Our kindergarten program implements play-based learning for attention to and growth in all areas of development. Play helps children develop imagination and deep knowledge, through relationships and through information. In addition, play promotes learning through a strength-based perspective, where children are recognized for the information and cultural wealth they bring to experiences.

Emergent Curriculum – Teachers plan activities and projects based on the specific group of children they are working with, considering their skills, needs and interests. In an emergent curriculum program, what happens in side-by-side classrooms will look different because of the varying skills, interests and needs of the children within those classrooms. When planning, the teacher takes into account all that they know about individuals and the particular group of children they teach.

Social and Emotional Development

We understand that young children learn best through caring relationships with their teachers and peers, and meaningful hands-on experiences. Social and emotional well-being and skill development is foundational to our kindergarten classrooms. In this way we work to meet the needs of each child. We recognize that developing self-esteem, self-image, and empathy is essential to growth and development in all areas. Additionally, through our relationship-based approach, we work to build a strong classroom community, bringing with it a sense of belonging for all children and families in our care.

• Self-awareness – an awareness of and confidence in meeting one’s own needs. Understanding and taking responsibility for own well-being, expressing ourselves
• Self-management – managing rules, routines and transitions, making good decisions
• Relationship building – engaging with others, sharing interests
• Social awareness – initiating and joining in, taking turns, initiating sharing, participating cooperatively and constructively, solving social problems, having an ability to look at situations differently

Cognitive and General Knowledge

We consider intellectual development as working on the skills and processes that support learning. These skills include:

• Attending and engaging – sustaining work on interesting tasks, ignoring distractions
• Solving problems – solving problems by seeking out information, questioning and reasoning, and evaluating solutions
• Showing curiosity and motivation – an eagerness to learn about a variety of ideas and topics
• Showing flexibility and inventiveness – using creativity and imagination during play and routine tasks, changing plans if a better idea is proposed
• Recognizing and recalling – talking about experiences in order, providing details, evaluating experiences
• Making connections – drawing on everyday experiences and applying knowledge
• Thinking symbolically – drawing, constructing and planning in order to identify and represent ideas
• Engaging in sociodramatic play – acting out scenarios, interacting during pretend play, assigning and assuming roles, sustaining play

Reading

• Enjoying listening to stories read aloud and participates on discussions
• Showing growth in vocabulary
• Recognizing upper- and lower-case letters
• Recognizing that letters have corresponding sounds
• Recognizing own name and others’ names in print
• Knowing print moves from left to right and continues on the next line.
• Pointing to words when reading a short, familiar book

Writing

• Communicating with pictures and words to tell our own stories
• Drawing and writing to convey meaning
• Writing first name
• Practicing writing letters with “kid spelling”
• Using writing as part of our everyday lives

Math

• Exploring and experimenting with math ideas through a variety of materials
• Problem solving with charts, games, blocks, numbers and found objects
• Concepts include counting, shapes, sorting, patterns, 1-1 correspondence, graphing, classifying

Science

• Questioning and observing
• Reading and researching
• Experimenting and hypothesizing
• Collecting and recording data

Art

• Enjoying the process of creating
• Representing ideas in a unique way
• Expressing themselves with materials
• Learning to use art tools
• Practicing creative problem solving
• Developing a visual vocabulary and an appreciation of beauty
• Working with our hands to develop eye-hand coordination

Language Development and Communication

• Listening and understanding – listening and participating, following directions and details, responding appropriately to vocabulary, statements, questions and stories
• Engaging with others -telling stories and sharing in conversations and exchanges
• Connecting ideas -expanding on ideas and sharing information
• Expressing themselves – using complete sentences, having an expanding vocabulary, participating in conversations, sharing ideas and needs

Health and Physical Development

• Growth and skills developing in children’s bodies, including their brains, muscles and senses.
• Development of both large- and small-motor skills – from running, hopping and balancing to using fingers and hands with writing and drawing tools