Once upon a time, in September of 1985, I started my first day of Kindergarten. What I remember from that year is eating lots of graham crackers and apple juice; coloring; singing lots of songs; playing with blocks and in the “pretend” area; taking naps on cots; and doing lots and lots of cute little projects. I know for a fact that there was no formal reading instruction (other than working on the letters of the alphabet) and hardly any writing instruction.

ADVERTISEMENT

For better or worse, Kindergarten has changed over the last three decades and what I mentioned above is typical of what you’d see and do and in a preschool class today. Instead, Kindergarten has now become closer to what many remember first grade to be like (unless you happened to be born in the late 90s and later…and if you were born then, and you are reading this, I now feel really old ).

Though there are certainly differences from district to district and even from school to school within the same district, overall, Kindergarten is not what it used to be. And it continues to change. Even in the 11 years I have been teaching, I have seen the face of Kindergarten change and evolve. The reason for this is, I believe, twofold. First, the demands of education in America have grown. The percentage of high school graduates who further their education in college has grown, and with it so have the expectations of what students should be able to do at the end of high school. This then trickles down to every other grade level, upping the ante for 5 year-olds in Kindergarten. Second, our idea and understanding of best practices and what is developmentally and cognitively appropriate for 5 year-olds has also grown and deepened. Though we still acknowledge and understand that young children learn through play, we also acknowledge and understand that they are capable of so much more.

To share a little bit about what those changes might look like, I’ll describe what Kindergarten is like at my school. Now, I might be a tad bit biased when I say that my school is totally, totally awesome, but it really is. I fully believe we are engaged in research-based best practices that balance high expectations with developmentally appropriate learning activities and projects. We are a Literacy Collaborative school and teach our students using a Workshop method for Reading, Writing and Math. This means that we structure our teaching and learning around opportunities for students to engage in a whole group or small group mini-lesson that  focuses on single idea or concept and then allow children to practice that focus in both small group and individual work (at their own level), while teachers conference with them. We meet each of our children where they are when they enter the school year, regardless of where that might be, but expect that they will make a full year’s worth of growth, if not more, after working with them in whole group, small group and individual settings.

We dabble in different genres in both reading and writing, learning to read and write personal narratives, nonfiction texts, and poetry. Through Guided Reading, we teach students in flexibly, but homogeneously, grouped reading groups. We  increase the level and difficulty of the texts they read as they learn to control early reading behaviors and become more strategic readers. At the end of the year, we expect and hope that they can read books that are stories (not patterned) with about 3-4 lines of print on each page and that they can also retell the stories they read. In writing, we hope that they are able to write personal narratives that tell a brief beginning, middle, and end, with commonly used words (the, my, we, can, etc.) spelled correctly.

In Math, we hope that by the end of the year, children are able to think about math problems (ranging from patterning to addition and subtraction) critically, justifying and explaining their answers to others. We hope they can work through simple word problems, choosing a strategy to represent their work and checking their answer and their thought process.

On top of all that, we also manage to teach Social Studies, Science and Health, all while adding in a good dose of fun, exploration, and play! We also focus a great deal on social development, helping children learn how to be responsible and respectful, kind and caring. In short, in Kindergarten, we are a microcosm of society, working to grow and develop knowledgeable and thoughtful citizens of the world!

Sounds a little overwhelming, right? And likely very different from the Kindergarten you experienced, right?

Fear not, though. As crazy as some of that might sound, I promise promise promise you, 5 year-olds can and will succeed in the “new” Kindergarten. I have seen it and I LOVE it.

But, before you run out and buy workbooks and flashcards, hold tight (and please don’t run out and by those things!), because in my next post, I’ll share where we hope and expect students to be at the beginning of the year when they enter Kindergarten…and I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the list!