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The kindergarten experience provides a solid foundation for the success of a child in later years. While kindergarten isn’t compulsory in every state, about 75% of American kids attend it.
This development period is vital for 3- to 5-year-old children. It develops their social, literacy, and self-esteem skills. Here are the important life skills for kids to learn before the end of kindergarten.
1. Reading
Kindergarten is where the fundamentals of reading occur. Although some kindergarteners already have pretty reading skills, there’s a lot to learn. While in this development stage, your kid will learn:
- To recognize rhyming words
- Phonemic awareness
- Read their name
- Letter words
- Word families
- Recite the alphabet
- To identify a few or all letters of the alphabet
Kindergarten will also help your child recognize high-frequency sight words. These are two to three words that are simple to master. Of course, fluent reading might be a tad complicated for kindergartens.
2. Counting
How to count to 100 by ones and tens is one of the skills every kid should learn in kindergarten. At first, they may use visual objects in the classroom to understand what counting entails. As they advance, they will learn how to write and recognize numbers in print.
By the end of the year, children in this stage should be able to:
- Know number names
- Know the count sequence (up to 100)
- Count to tell the number of objects
- Compare numbers
Counting also enables kindergarteners to read the calendar correctly. They will be able to distinguish days from weeks and months.
Students begin realizing that working as a team can get the job done better and a lot faster.
3. Math Skills
Once kindergarteners are familiar with counting, they may be introduced to more fundamentals in math.
One important concept they will learn is addition and subtraction up to the number ten. The focus is on understanding how to put together and take apart. Kids will learn how to solve problems involving physical objects or pictures.
Besides addition and subtraction, young children begin learning about measurement and data. They will learn to categorize, classify, and sort objects by color, material, and size.
Teachers also introduce the concept of comparison. Your kid should be able to compare different objects in terms of their weight, size, and height. They also learn how to use directional words like below, next to, behind, to name a few.
Students begin learning about geometry in kindergarten. They may identify two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) shapes in the real world. Some of the shapes they will be familiar with include triangles, circles, rectangles, cubes, cylinders, cones, and spheres.
4. Healthy Habits
In kindergarten, kids are introduced to essential healthy lifestyle habits. Students learn the importance of consuming healthy meals, drinking plenty of water, maintaining proper hygiene, staying fit, and getting quality sleep.
They will learn habits like:
- Washing hands
- Covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing
- Slathering on sunscreen
- Brushing teeth
- Ditching junk food
- Haircare
5. Teamwork
Kids in kindergartens start to learn that teamwork is more than playing with a few friends. Here, they learn to work with one another to achieve set goals. Students begin realizing that working as a team can get the job done better and a lot faster.
At this stage, team-building activities build foundations for successful interpersonal relationships. These activities can involve solving puzzles, playing games, or being resourceful as a team.
6. Early Social Studies
Kindergarteners are usually curious about themselves, their surroundings, and the community. It’s vital to teach them essential aspects of the world, local history, economics, and cultural traditions.
While in kindergarten, your kid will learn about the family structure and the roles different family members perform. Your child will understand how they fit into the family and the role they play.
With time, young learners will be taught the importance of community members like health practitioners, farmers, firefighters, and police officers.
Children will also understand how rules work and why they need to follow them. They will distinguish what is right or wrong in the classroom environment.
On a personal level, your child will grasp vital information such as phone numbers and addresses.
7. Science
Science classes offer a fun way to learn about life, earth, and physical sciences. Most of the lessons are basic and rely heavily on observation or graphics.
Science lessons will help your kid observe the weather, understand their senses, and learn the body’s workings. Advanced classes can cover things like:
- Types and characteristics of animals
- Distinguishing between living and non-living things
- Energy sources
- Environment and resources
- Food and nutrition
Kindergarten science is more about observing and exploring the world around children. It allows young learners to ask questions about anything.
8. Printing
The ability to comprehend the print concept starts way before kids enroll in kindergarten. Most parents begin pointing out letters and words to toddlers even before pre-school. However, it’s in kindergarten where the print concept is implemented.
In kindergarten, young students spend part of their time learning to print the alphabet. They learn to print in lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and some words. Printing fosters vocabulary growth, and it might improve motor skills.
9. Thinking and Cognitive Skills
The kindergarten environment encourages learners to explore, observe, record, and ask questions. Kids learn a lot when they play-learn, and kindergarten provides the best platform for playful learning.
Some of the activities that improve your child’s ability to think and understand include:
- Stacking and building games
- Telling riddles
- Playing simple board games
- Completing jigsaw puzzles
- Participating in memory games
Apart from these activities, subjects like math sharpen your kid’s thinking capacity.
10. Classroom Behavior
Some kindergarteners have never been in a school setting before. While in kindergarten, such children learn how to behave in a classroom. They learn to sit on their allocated spots, interact with fellow students, and stay quiet while the teacher speaks. At the end of the year, they will have fully understood how classroom etiquette works.
Bottom Line
Kindergarten is the ideal place for your kid to develop social, problem-solving, literacy, cognitive, and reading skills. Ensure you provide the best support for your kid to prosper at this level.
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