Kindergarten Curriculum

I love the Kindergarten Curriculum in Ontario because of its flexibility to connect with so many different topics. It allows students to explore and learn from each other through play-based learning, while still keeping literacy and numeracy as central learning goals.

I will always have daily/weekly plans for my classroom, although due to the fluid nature of Kindergarten, my plans will be changing to suit the students and their learning needs as the year progresses. 

All of my lessons will reflect the goals of the Ontario Ministry of Education. 

Please feel free to review The Full-Day Early Learning - Kindergarten Program document: 

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten.html

In our classroom the major themes will be changing as the months progress. There are many expectations from the Kindergarten Curriculum that will be incorporated into these themes (themes will change based on the inquiry and interests of the students). 

Below I have a list of the overall expectations of the Kindergarten Program:

THE KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM – Overall Expectations

As children progress through the Kindergarten program they:

1. Communicate with others in a variety of ways, for a variety of purposes, and in a variety of contexts.

2. Demonstrate independence, self-regulation, and a willingness to take responsibility in learning and other endeavours.

3. Identify and use social skills in play and other contexts.

4. Demonstrate an ability to use problem-solving skills in a variety of contexts, including social contexts.

5. Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity among individuals and families and within schools and the wider community.

6. Demonstrate an awareness of their own health and well-being.

7. Participate actively and regularly in a variety of activities that require the application of movement concepts.

8. Develop movement skills and concepts as they use their growing bodies to move in a variety of ways and in a variety of contexts

9. Demonstrate literacy behaviours that enable beginning readers to make sense of a variety of texts.

10. Demonstrate literacy behaviours that enable beginning writers to communicate with others.

11. Demonstrate an understanding and critical awareness of a variety of written materials that are read by and with their educators.

12. Demonstrate an understanding and critical awareness of media texts.

13. Use the processes and skills of an inquiry stance (i.e., questioning, planning, predicting, observing, and communicating).

14. Demonstrate an awareness of the natural and built environment through hands-on investigations, observations, questions, and representations of their findings.

15. Demonstrate an understanding of numbers, using concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity, and number relationships.

16. Measure, using non-standard units of the same size, and compare objects, materials, and spaces in terms of their length, mass, capacity, area, and temperature, and explore ways of measuring the passage of time, through inquiry and play-based learning.

17. Describe, sort, classify, build, and compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures, and describe the location and movement of objects, through investigation.

18. Recognize, explore, describe, and compare patterns, and extend, translate, and create them, using the core of a pattern and predicting what comes next.

19. Collect, organize, display, and interpret data to solve problems and to communicate information, and explore the concept of probability in everyday contexts.

20. Apply the mathematical processes to support the development of mathematical thinking, to demonstrate understanding, and to communicate thinking and learning in mathematics, while engaged in play-based learning and in other contexts.

21. Express their responses to a variety of forms of drama, dance, music, and visual arts from various cultures and communities.

22. Communicate their thoughts and feelings, and their theories and ideas, through various art forms.

23. Use problem-solving strategies, on their own and with others, when experimenting with the skills, materials, processes, and techniques used in drama, dance, music, and visual arts.

24. Use technological problem-solving skills, on their own and with others, in the process of creating and designing (i.e., questioning, planning, constructing, analysing, redesigning, and communicating).

25. Demonstrate a sense of identity and a positive self-image

26. Develop an appreciation of the multiple perspectives encountered within groups, and of ways in which they themselves can contribute to groups and to group well-being.

27. Recognize bias in ideas and develop the self-confidence to stand up for themselves and others against prejudice and discrimination

28. Demonstrate an awareness of their surroundings

29. Demonstrate an understanding of the natural world and the need to care for and respect the environment.

30. Demonstrate an awareness of themselves as dramatists, actors, dancers, artists, and musicians through engagement in the arts.

31. Demonstrate knowledge and skills gained through exposure to and engagement in drama, dance, music, and visual arts.