Kindergarten Curriculum

Parent Guide Grade K

A Parent’s Guide To KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM

Reading + Writing + Mathematics + Science + Social Studies

Introduction Research shows that children are more likely to succeed in learning when families actively support them. When you and other family members read with your children, help them with homework, talk with their teachers, and participate in school or other learning activities, you give your children a tremendous advantage. Other than helping your children grow up healthy and happy, the most important thing that you can do for them is help them develop their reading skills. It is no exaggeration to say that how well children learn to read directly affects not only how successful they are in school but how well they will do throughout their lives. When children learn to read, they have the key that opens the door to all of the knowledge of the world.

As a parent, you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Our goal in this guide is to give you greater visibility into the Forward instructional program. We believe that the gains your child experiences in this program will establish the building blocks for his or her love of learning in the months and years to come.

Kindergarten Integrated Curriculum The Elementary Integrated Curriculum blends reading, writing, and mathematics instruction with lessons in science and social studies in a way that spurs creativity and critical thinking skills. Students will receive robust instruction across all subjects in the early grades. The curriculum is built around developing students’ critical and creative thinking skills as well as essential academic success skills, which lead to college and career readiness.

The Kindergarten Integrated Curriculum incorporates critical and creative thinking skills as well as academic success skills, and paces these into four parts that are each nine weeks in duration. These skills are explicitly taught using concepts and topics identified by part in each content area and provide a focus for integration across content areas. This document provides an outline of these skills and the curriculum concepts and topics that are the focus of instruction for Kindergarten students.

K–5 Instructional Program Goals

Reading Science Students will develop the knowledge and Students will develop the knowledge and skills skills essential to becoming literate, thoughtful essential to becoming literate in science and communicators, who are capable of controlling technology in the following ways: language effectively, in the following ways: Thinking critically, solving problems, and Strategically reading literary and communicating effectively informational instructional-leveled texts Tackling increasingly challenging issues with fluency, purpose, and comprehension Seeking understanding to support Using skills and strategies widely as tools solutions for learning and reflection Understanding and appreciating language Social Studies and literature as catalysts for deep thought Students will develop the knowledge and and emotion skills essential to developing a balanced and integrated understanding of systems of culture, Writing economics, geography, and politics and the Students will develop the knowledge and history of their development in the following skills essential to becoming literate, thoughtful ways: communicators, who are capable of controlling Applying concepts and knowledge of the language effectively, in the following ways: past to problem solving real-world issues Composing narrative, informative/ of the present explanatory, and opinion texts as tools for Critically examining human interactions learning and reflection and evaluating their role as an effective Conducting research and writing projects citizen for a range of discipline-specific tasks, Communicating social studies concepts purposes, and audiences clearly in multiple formats and putting Evaluating relevant information from print theory into practice as a citizen and digital sources and using a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing Mathematics Students will develop the knowledge and skills essential to achieving mathematical proficiency in the following ways: Developing both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency Thinking and reasoning mathematically Using mathematics to solve problems in authentic contexts

Parent Guide Grade K | Part 1

CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL

Analysis Collaboration

Identify and describe attributes. Demonstrate active listening and empathy in communicating with Compare by identifying similarities and differences. group members. Sort and classify into categories. Solicit and respect multiple and diverse perspectives to broaden and deepen understanding. Identify and describe patterns and relationships within patterns. Demonstrate teamwork by working productively with others.

Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies

Foundational skills Writing workshop: learning Math routines Questioning & observing Leaders; jobs Comprehension of literary to be a writer Directional and positional Testing; recording; sharing Rights and responsibilities text: story elements Ideas & development: words Collecting data Rules and laws Phonics prewriting; drafting; details; Attributes of objects words; pictures; lists; notes; Safety Symbols Comprehension of text: making booklets Data collection Solving problems: U.S. monuments connections; questions Conventions: editing for Counting and comparing identifying; testing; sharing Citizenship Vocabulary spelling; periods and capital Repeating patterns National holidays Handwriting letters; letters; beginning Concepts and skills review American heroes—George sounds; editing checklists Assessment Washington; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks

Parent Guide Grade K | Part 2

CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL

Fluency Intellectual Risk Taking

Generate many ideas. Adapt and make adjustments to meet challenges when Represent and describe ideas or solutions in a variety of ways. seeking solutions. Demonstrate willingness to accept uncertainty by sharing ideas, asking questions, or attempting novel tasks.

Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies

Comprehension of Writing workshop: learning Number concepts: 0–9; Living and nonliving things: Maps and globes: Earth literary text to be a writer representation of counted identifying needs Human-made and physical Letter-sound relationship Ideas & development: quantities through 20; one- Describe how animals features used to describe to-one correspondence Vocabulary focus on memories; change as they grow Earth’s surface stretching and writing Comparison of sets of Comprehension of Similarities and differences Weather and climate words objects: more, less/fewer, of plants and animals informational/explanatory or equal to text: generating questions; Word choice; sensory retelling details Representation of numbers through 10 in a variety of Phonics Organization: beginning, middle, and end ways Conventions: high- Ordinal numbers (first frequency words; editing; through fifth) revising; sharing

Parent Guide Grade K | Part 3

CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL

Synthesis Effort/Motivation/Persistence

Organize parts to form a new or unique whole. Demonstrate strategies to achieve a goal or solve a problem Self-assess effectiveness of strategies and redirect efforts to achieve a goal or obtain a solution to a problem.

Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies

Comprehension of literary Writing workshop: Measurable attributes Tell about water and land Making choices; needs and text: story map; predicting; narratives; informational/ Comparison of objects: covering Earth wants retelling; shared inquiry explanatory writing length and weight; sorting; Tell when the sun, clouds, Jobs Letter-sound phonics Ideas & development: comparing; estimating by and moon can be seen in Goods and services topics and titles; fact vs. heavier/lighter the sky Vocabulary Money: value feeling; sensory details; Exploration of shapes: Tell where the sun is in the Determining meaning of using mentor text; revisions unknown words composing and sky at different times of and illustrations decomposing the day Conventions: peer editing Analysis of visual images Describe and record for capital letters Construction of 3-D shapes weather Organization: topics; table Identify and describe of contents; questions; observations using the pictures; labels senses Describe objects by their composition and characteristics Identify loud and soft sounds

Parent Guide Grade K | Part 4

CRITICAL THINKING SKILL ACADEMIC SUCCESS SKILL

Originality Metacognition

Create a new idea, process, or product using multiple and Examine one’s own thoughts and ideas to identify background varied formats. knowledge. Plan and formulate a new, unique, or alternative solution to a Explain thinking processes. problem or situation. Transform an idea, process, or product into a new form.

Reading Writing Mathematics Science Social Studies

Comprehension of literary Writing workshop: poetry Part-whole concept Identify and measure Measuring time and text: shared inquiry; Using verbs; comparisons; (through 10) solid objects chronology (schools then story structure; retelling; synonyms; sounds; Composition and Observe how liquids take and now; goods and elements of poetry; rhythm; expressing feelings decomposition of numbers the shape of their containers services) rhyme; questioning Patterns and repetition; Joining and separating Tell that gases fill their Communication Comprehension of editing; sharing with an Everyday application of containers Personal history and ways informational/explanatory audience numbers Tell how water changes of knowing about the past text: main idea; ask by freezing, melting, and Defining cultures, questions; text features Features of biographies; asking questions; boiling celebrations, communities, Vocabulary interviewing a partner Tell what is in some mixtures and families Letter-sound phonics Organizing and gathering Tell that a push or a information about a pull can change how an classmate; peer editing object moves Using facts and persuasive Order objects by how fast words they move Identify objects a magnet attracts