Curriculum

Children will learn to enhance their writing by responding to feedback with adult help. For example, a 5-year-old writes about a day at the zoo and draws a picture of animals they saw. An adult might ask, "What sounds did the animals make?" or a peer might suggest, "Write about the big elephant you saw!" The child can then add these details to their writing, such as "The lion roared loudly" or "The big elephant sprayed water with its trunk."

With prompting and support, children will ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. For example, while reading a story like "The Little Engine That Could," if they come across a word like "massive," a teacher might notice the confusion and ask, "Do you know what 'massive' means?" If the child is unsure, the teacher can help by saying, "Massive means very big or huge." Then, the teacher might ask, "Can you think of something massive?" encouraging the child to use the new word in context.

Children will explore using different digital tools to create and share their writing with the help of adults. For instance, a 5-year-old might use a simple storytelling app or a kid-friendly word processor to write about a picnic. An adult can guide them in typing out their story, adding digital pictures, or even recording their voice to narrate the story. They can then share these digital stories with classmates or collaborate by combining their stories into a class eBook, helping them understand the basics of digital publishing and collaboration.

With prompting and support, children will recognize common types of texts such as storybooks and poems. For example, a teacher might show a group of kindergarteners different books and ask them to identify which ones are storybooks and which are poems. The teacher could point out features like, "Storybooks often tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and they sometimes have lots of pictures." For poems, the teacher might say, "Poems are made up of lines that sometimes rhyme and are often shorter than stories."

With prompting and support, children will learn to name the author and illustrator of a story and understand the roles each plays in telling the story. For example, a teacher might read a book like "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak to the class and then discuss it. The teacher could start by asking, "Who wrote the words in this book?" and "Who made the pictures?" As the children respond, the teacher will explain, "The person who wrote the words is called the author, and that's Maurice Sendak for this book. He thought of the story and told it with words. The person who made the pictures is called the illustrator, and in this book, it's also Maurice Sendak. He helped tell the story by creating pictures, so we can see what the characters and places look like."

With prompting and support, children will describe how illustrations relate to the story they are in. For example, using "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, a teacher might show the page where the caterpillar eats an apple and ask, "What part of the story does this picture show?" This helps children see how pictures help tell the story, enhancing their understanding and enjoyment of the book.

Children will, with prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear. For example, after reading a story, the teacher might ask, "What does this picture show?" The children could respond, "It shows the bunny and the carrot." The teacher might then prompt them to connect that illustration to the text by asking, "How does this picture help us understand what happens in the story?" The children might answer, "It helps us see what the bunny looks like and where he is."

(Not applicable to literature)

Children will, with prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text. For example, after reading a nonfiction text, the teacher might ask, "What reasons does the author give to explain why trees are important?" The children could respond with answers such as, "The author says trees provide oxygen and homes for animals." The teacher may encourage them to look back at the text for specific phrases that support their answers, helping them understand how authors use reasons to back up their main points.

With prompting and support, children will compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories. For example, a teacher might read two stories like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "The Three Little Pigs." Afterward, the teacher can ask the children, "How are Goldilocks' adventures different from those of the three pigs?" and "What similar things happened to Goldilocks and the pigs in their stories?" This activity helps children understand the characters' actions and experiences, encouraging them to think about stories in a deeper way and notice similarities and differences.