Kindergarten for 5-year-olds is the "second step" of the learning pathway in Delavan-Darien schools. It is the continuation our little ones’ educational journey from the 4-year-old kindergarten. By building on what was learned in 4-year-old kindergarten, your child’s learning will continue to blossom and become the foundation by which he or she continues to grow and learn.

Students at this age are like "sponges" and learn much by observing and being with others. Parental involvement in your child’s education is essential for the experiences he/she has in school. Please work with your child at on the skills listed in this curriculum guide. We hope the ideas listed on this web page will help you understand the milestones your child will pursue this year and the ways you can help your child achieve much success.

The Delavan-Darien School District has adopted the Common Core State Standards as its curriculum guideline for kindergarten. Within this standards-based curriculum document, kindergarten teachers have identified what Delavan-Darien kindergarten students should know and be able to do in all subject areas. These area are identified below.

Five-year-old kindergarten teachers also follow Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards, which are designed to guide instruction for children from birth through first grade. There are five domains outlined within the standards including:

• Health and Physical Development
• Social and Emotional Development
• Language Development and Communication
• Approaches to Learning
• General Knowledge and Cognition

Within these domains are sub-domains that give developmental expectations and key examples of evidence of growth in each area.

For more information, download the Wisconsin Early Learning Standards guidebook.

If you have any question, please contact your child's teacher or the district's director of curriculum and instruction.

Science

• Classify living and nonliving things
• Identify parts of a plant and what they need to survive
• Identify stages of growth in a familiar plant/animal
• Identify basic needs of animals
• Identify the five senses and how people use their senses
• Identify the body part/organ associated with each sense
• Identify the day and night sky: i.e. earth, moon, stars and sun
• Identify and describe some internal and external body parts: i.e. heart, stomach, brain, lungs, skin

You can increase your child’s understanding of science concepts by:

• Exploring plants in your neighborhood
• Planting flowers and noticing the changes
• Going for walks and noticing what happens as the seasons change

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Social Studies 

• Sharing, getting along, and respecting others
• Define a neighborhood and people in the community that help us
• Importance of safety
• Appreciation of diversity
• Our natural resources and how we can protect the earth

You can increase your child’s understanding of science concepts by:

• Discussing community helpers and what they do for us
• Visiting a fire station or police officer
• Talking about safety in your home, i.e., fire detectors
• Having your child learn their address and phone number

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Math

• Measurement of time
• Calendar and seasons
• Patterning
• Identifies fractional part 1/2
• Add/subtract numbers to 10
• Identify coins and their values
• Tell time to the nearest hour and half hour
• Recognize the four basic shapes and draw the four basic shapes
• Collect data and interpret/read charts and graphs
• Number operations
• Rote count to 110 and skip counts 10’s to 110
• Recognizes number 0-20
• Orders numbers 0-20
• Writes numbers 0-20

You can build your child’s math skills at home by:

• Making counting part of your daily life (count cars at the stoplight or steps when you are walking)
• Practicing ordering numbers 0-20 using flashcards
• Helping your child notice and name simple patterns in clothing
• Using the words more and less, above and under, in and out, between, beside
• Finding and identifying various shapes in your home (circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals)

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Reading

• Understand how print is organized
• Identify front, back, title page, author and illustrator
• Follow words from left to right and top to bottom
• Know the significance of spaces
• Know the difference between letters, words and sentences
• Understand the use of capitalization and punctuation
• Sequence stories beginning, middle and end
• Name all upper and lower case letters and know all letter sounds
• Begin to understand word chunks (at, op, up)
• Hear and name rhyming words
• Read the high frequency words
• Know main idea and theme of story
• Sequences events in the correct order

You can increase your child’s understanding of reading concepts by:

• Reading daily
• Discussing parts of the book
• Showing your child a word or a letter within a story
• Finding letters within the text of a story
• Using flash cards to review letters in isolation

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Language Arts - Writing

• Writes letters using the correct letter formation
• Writes one sentence using high frequency words

You can increase your child’s understanding of writing concepts by:

• Coloring in one direction and staying in the lines
• Writing the letters in the alphabet
• Writing their first and last name using upper and lowercase letters
• Writing using paper and Zaner Bloser handwriting strokes

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