During kindergarten, students will develop new language skills to help them become beginning readers and writers. Your child will:

• Recognize the connection between written and spoken language, and will recognize and produce consonant and vowel sounds, syllables and rhyming words;

• Print numbers 0-20 and upper and lowercase letters to begin to form words;

• Listen to, read, talk and write about kindergarten fiction and nonfiction using clues from the text to help make sense of the writing;

• Use a combination of drawing, speaking and writing to express opinions, explanations and personal stories; and

• Speak and write appropriately using basic parts of speech, simple capitalization, punctuation and phonetic spelling, as well as language that shows a growing vocabulary.

During kindergarten, students will develop the ability to add and subtract up to 5. Your child will:

• Become more comfortable knowing and using numbers, including the ability to count objects and add and subtract small numbers;

• Learn to notice similarities and differences in groups of objects and numbers, as well as how to make and break apart numbers up to 20; and

• Identify and describe basic 2D and 3D shapes.

During kindergarten, your child will be an active learner who will be doing science to learn science. They will learn skills that promote analysis and interpretation of data, critical thinking and problem solving similar to professionals in the field while making connections across the different areas of science to develop a deeper understanding of the science concepts. Your child will:

• Determine the effects of sunlight on the earth’s surfaces;

• Develop an understanding of patterns and variations in local weather and the purpose of watching the weather forecast to prepare and respond to severe weather;

• Apply a basic understanding of the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object; and

• Learn about what plants and animals need to survive, and how their habitat supports those needs.

In kindergarten, students discover the basics of social studies by learning about themselves, their relationships and their community. Your child will:

• Learn about familiar places, such as the school, city and their local communities;

• Explain the purpose of local government, the responsibilities of individuals in the local community and identify several symbols that represent the key components of being an American and a Kentuckian;

• Explain how people use and communities provide goods and services;

• Explore geography in the local community and explain how humans affect the environment; and

• Compare, using personal experiences, how life in the past is different from today.