Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum

​The pre-kindergarten curriculum focuses on fun and ongoing development of social, emotional, and physical skills as well as on cognitive development, in keeping with the Rhode Island Early Learning and Development Standards. To ensure that children are ready for success in kindergarten, academic preparation begins to have more formalized goals, outlined below.

MATH
1. Arithmetic and Number Concepts/Number and Operation Concepts
The student will:
  • Count, compare, recognize, and begin writing numbers
  • Solve problems using patterns, concrete materials, and logical thinking
  • Explore addition in various contexts
  • Understand one-to-one correspondence
  • Use estimation techniques with concrete materials
  • Use real things to show number

2. Geometry and Measurement Concepts
The student will:
  • Respond to directional terms, such as “right,” “left,” “up,” and ”down”
  • Sort and classify objects by size and shape
  • Compare and order objects by length, width, and height
  • Select and use non-standard units to measure objects

3. Problem Solving
The student will:
  • Determine resources and strategies for solving simple problems
  • Use manipulatives or draw sketches to model problems
  • Orally explain solutions to simple problems

4. Statistics and Probability
The student will:
  • Collect, sort, organize, and describe data with one attribute
  • Construct graphs using real objects, make true statements using graph
  • Read and interpret picture graphs (more, least, and equal) with one attribute
  • Gather data about themselves and their surroundings

5. Mathematical Skills and Tools
The student will:
  • Count, recognize, and write numbers 0-10
  • Compute sums to 10 with manipulatives
  • Orally count to 20
  • Count back from 20
  • Estimate numerically and spatially (e.g., estimate up to 20 objects in a jar)
  • Compare size of objects using non-standard units
  • Identify and draw triangles, squares, rectangles, and circles
  • Refer to geometric shapes and terms correctly with concrete objects or drawings, including triangles, squares, rectangles, circles
  • Show mathematical ideas in a variety of ways (numbers, pictures, graphs, and models)
  • Explain solutions to problems

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
1. Conventions, Grammar, and Language Usage
The student demonstrates a basic understanding of the rules of the English language in written and oral work, and selects the structures and features of language appropriate to the purpose, audience, and context of the work.

The student demonstrates control of:
  • Grammar
  • Sentence construction (discriminates among a letter, a word, and a sentence)
  • Letters (uppercase)
      - Identification of
      - Differentiation among
      - Location of (with prompt)
      - Writing of (as dictated by teacher)
  • Usage

2. Writing
The student will:
  • Write first name appropriately using uppercase
  • Form uppercase letters
  • Form simple sentences by putting words in a logical order
  • Experience pre-writing strategies:
      -  Brainstorming
      -  Webbing
      -  KWL chart
      -  Observation chart

3. Speaking, Listening, Viewing
The student will:
  • Maintain eye contact
  • Use appropriate voice level
  • Speak clearly
  • Use visual aids (objects and pictures)
  • Role play
  • Follow multi-step directions
  • Have conferences with adults
  • Watch films/videos
  • Experience a variety of print material
  • Tell a story orally 

4. Literature
The student will:
  • Identify literary elements
    Demonstrate book-handling skills
       -  Front/back
       -  Title
       -  Text
       -  Pictures
       -  Left-to-right tracking
  • Differentiate between work of author and work of illustrator
  • Experience at least 25 pieces of quality literature from a variety of genres
  • Demonstrate early reading strategies
      -  Directionality (left-right/top-bottom)
      -  Matching one to one
  • Develop comprehension skills in response to literature to include:
       -  Identifying characters
       -  Predicting outcomes
       -  Establishing setting
       -  Understanding and establishing sequence
       -  Understanding direct cause and effect
       -  Understanding and recognizing themes

5. Mathematical Communication
The student will:
  • Use appropriate mathematical terms, vocabulary, and language, based on prior conceptual work
  • Show mathematical ideas in a variety of ways (numbers, pictures, graphs, and models)
  • Explain solutions to problems

SCIENCE
Content Standards 
The student will demonstrate understanding of:
  • The four seasons and five senses
  • Properties of objects and materials, such as similarities and differences in the size, weight, and color of objects
  • Characteristics of organisms, such as survival and environmental support; the relationship between structure and function; and variations in behavior
  • Life cycles of organisms, such as how environment determines the characteristics of an organism
  • The importance of the sun in providing the light and heat necessary for survival

SOCIAL STUDIES
Social Studies Standards
The student will demonstrate understanding of:
  • Culture (purposeful, celebrated holidays, what constitutes a family)
  • Time change, continuity (sense of time, progression, growth, change, schedule, event sequencing)
  • People, places, environments (classroom map relative to self; each room’s location, function; adults’ occupations, careers; names, addresses, phone numbers; school and classroom teachers)
  • Science, technology, society (transportation and communications)