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 identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. For example, in the story "Little Red Riding Hood," a teacher might guide children by asking specific questions like, "Who are the main characters in the story?" to which children might respond with "Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother, and the wolf." The teacher could further prompt, "Where does the story take place?" leading children to discuss the settings such as the forest and grandmother's house. Finally, to identify major events, the teacher might ask, "What happens when Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf?"

Children will identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses. For instance, in reading the classic poem "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" by Edward Lear, a teacher might ask the children to listen closely for words that describe how the characters feel or what they see, hear, or touch. The teacher could then ask, "What words tell us how the owl feels about the pussycat?" or "What phrases describe the boat they sail in?" The children might respond with phrases like "beautiful pea green boat," which appeals to the sense of sight, or "they danced by the light of the moon," which suggests a joyful feeling.

Children will describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. For example, after reading a story about a boy who helps a lost puppy find its way home, the teacher might ask, "How are the boy and the puppy connected in the story?" The children could respond, "The boy helps the puppy because it is lost." The teacher may then prompt them to think about an event, asking, "What happened when the boy met the puppy?" The children might say, "The boy felt happy when he found the puppy and decided to take care of it."

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 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.

Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.

Children will ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. For example, if they read a sentence like "The brown bear hibernates in winter," they might ask, "What does 'hibernate' mean?" and find out that it means to sleep for a long time during winter. Similarly, if they come across a sentence like "Bees collect nectar from flowers," they might ask, "What is 'nectar'?" and learn that it is a sweet liquid that flowers make.

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."

Children will learn to identify who is telling the story at various points in a text by using familiar books. For example, using "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, a teacher can ask the children, "Who is telling the story here?" The children will notice that the story is told by a narrator who describes Max's adventures in a third-person perspective.