Curriculum

Children will be able to use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word. For example, when they see "unhappy," they can recognize that the prefix "un-" means "not," helping them understand that "unhappy" means "not happy."

Children will be able to distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action by acting out the meanings. For example, they might demonstrate the differences between "walk," "march," "strut," and "prance" through physical actions, helping them understand the subtle differences in how each verb describes moving.

Children will be able to use frequently occurring prepositions** (e.g., during, beyond, toward) in their speaking and writing. For example, they might say, "The cat is under the table" or "We will play beyond the park."

Children will understand how to spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships. For example, they might spell the word "fish" as "f-i-sh" based on their understanding of the sounds associated with each letter.

Children will be able to identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms.** For example, they might recognize the root word "look" and identify its inflectional forms such as "looks," "looked," and "looking."

Children will be able to use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading, and being read to, and responding to texts. For example, after listening to a story about a farm, a child might use words such as "tractor," "harvest," and "barn" while playing with farm animal toys or drawing a farm scene.

Children will be able to produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences** in response to prompts. For example, they might respond to a prompt by saying, "I like ice cream" (declarative), "Do you like ice cream?" (interrogative), "Please pass the ice cream" (imperative), or "Wow, that ice cream looks delicious!" (exclamatory).

Children will be able to determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content. For example, they might use context clues from a story to figure out that the word "bat" can mean an animal or a piece of sports equipment, depending on the sentence.

Children will be able to demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.** For instance, they might discuss similes and metaphors, such as "as fast as a cheetah," and explore the meanings of words that are similar or related, like "happy" and "joyful."

Children will demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. For example, during a classroom presentation, they might correctly use past tense verbs or plural nouns in their spoken sentences.