Introduction
At the kindergarten level, a student is expected to develop oral language skills, including phonology and phonetics. In addition, the student is expected to learn reading, writing, and listening skills. Increased vocabulary and use of words to describe people, objects, and events should also be exhibited. To achieve these, a kindergarten instructor develops curricular goals that have to be achieved through various activities (Hirsch, 1997).
Activities
The first curricular goal that a kindergarten teacher sets are to increase children’s ability to communicate orally in instructional and conversational settings. The activities that come in handy to support this goal is learning and reciting letters. In addition, the students are taught to differentiate the uppercase from the lowercase. Oral communication is also enhanced by encouraging the children to produce the sounds correctly. This can also be achieved by telling them to identify sounds in a given the word. For example, they can identify the initial and final sounds.
Moreover, blending CVC sounds to make a word such as a cat enables a kindergarten student to improve oral communication. Creating rhymes out of sounds, words, or sentences helps in the mastering of things hence improving the ability to communicate orally. A teacher also engages the students by orally stating a sound or words and making them repeat the same. Finally, engaging the students in direct oral instructional and conversational communication gives them the confidence to do that on their own (Modern Curricular, 2003).
To encourage an awareness of the purposes of reading and writing, a kindergarten student should recognize the printed work and try to interpret the meaning. Moreover, reading skills are obtained by chanting aloud. This can also be accompanied by rhythm and intonation. The children should also be encouraged to read their own writing as well as any familiar texts they come across. Reading skills are also enhanced by repeatedly writing and reading their own names.
In addition, the child should be able to differentiate a sound from letters and words. Finally, the students should retell the stories that they read and answer the questions testing their understanding. Writing skills are well-rehearsed for drawing symbols and pictures. This is in order to express meaning, tell stories, or represent people and objects. Dictation is another activity that promotes writing skills for kindergarten students.
Increasing vocabulary through conceptual development is the third kindergarten curricular goal. The activities employed to achieve this goal include producing sounds and predicting the maximum number of vocabulary they can make. In addition, providing objects and pictures and telling the student that a name increases his/her vocabulary. The fourth curricular goal is to Increase listening comprehension. In this case, the students are required to speak and listen in turns among themselves and listen to the teacher or any other speaker and follow the instructions. More so, they are supposed to listen to rhymes and poetry recited to them and master. They are then required to do that on their own. The instructor can improve their listening skills by giving them instructions and demonstrating by actions of the same. The students should also summarize the stories told by narrating in their own words to others.
The fifth curricular goal entails Increasing children’s awareness of the process of communicating by using written language. This is enhanced by giving the students the opportunity to scribble and draw pictures and symbols. They should also interpret the meaning they convey in the same writings. In addition, the instructor can provide them with pictures and tell them to write their names and vice versa. They can also be given written instructions requiring them to perform actions without speaking ( Trumbauer, 2008)
Conclusion
The learning activities developed for kindergarten students aim at improving their ability. Rhythm and repetition are meant to improve their ability to remember. Scribbling and drawing of pictures improve their writing skills while chanting of poems, sounds, and words help them to speak. Storytelling activities and other discussion groups aid in attaining listening skills.
References
Hirsch, D. (1997). What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning. New York: Delta.
Modern Curricular. (2003). Sing, Spell, Read and Write Kindergarten Teacher’s Manual ’04c. London: Modern Curriculum Press.
Trumbauer, L. (2008).Brain Quest Workbook: Kindergarten. NY: Workman Publishing Company.