Learning Objectives for Prekindergarteners

learning
objectives for prekindergarteners

Learning objectives are the standards by which we set expectations and guide a child’s growth and development towards readiness for the next step in their learning journey.
puzzle-me-you

me + you

learning about my self and those around me

skills:
sense of self
self-competence
resilience
self-management
relationships
integrity
compassion
respect for self + others
citizenship
good citizenship
mindfulness
helpful at school, home, community
leadership
courage
positive attitude
responsibility
relationship building
positive relationships
global citizens — social studies
self, family + community
time + history
geography
civics
economics

me + you

  • learning objectives for prekindergarteners
  • sense of self

self-competence

  • Identifies and advocates for own needs, preferences, opinions, and limitations
  • Identifies and verbally expresses emotions
  • Shows pride in own characteristics, abilities, and accomplishments
  • Accomplishes routine tasks and is able to play and work independently
  • Is able to persist in the face of obstacles, disappointment, frustration, or failure

resilience

  • Demonstrates the ability to express and regulate emotions
  • Demonstrates adaptability and flexibility in a variety of situations, tasks, activities, and problem-solving
  • Can seek support from trusted adults and peers, and believes in own abilities
  • Demonstrates coping skills to bounce back from challenges and negative emotions

self-management

  • Independently follows rules and routines and appropriate social behavior
  • Displays motivation for learning about or accomplishing a range of ideas, concepts, and tasks that are of self-interest
  • Engages in planning, goal-setting, and decisions with minimal assistance, and manages personal time and responsibilities effectively
  • Demonstrates the ability to express and regulate emotions
  • citizenship

good citizenship

  • Identifies community members' characteristics and functions
  • Independently follows rules and routines and appropriate social behavior
  • Demonstrates respect for possessions, equipment, and materials belonging to self, others, and the classroom community
  • Demonstrates responsible behavior with minimal supervision

mindfulness

  • Demonstrates strong and stable attention skills
  • Demonstrates awareness of inner experience and ability to choose responses to challenging events
  • Demonstrates ability to cultivate positive emotions such as gratitude, joy, kindness, compassion, equanimity, and forgiveness
  • Can identify stressful situations and list strategies to manage stress

helpfulness

  • Is able to seek help from adults and identify support needed
  • Recognizes when others need help and assists without being asked
  • Can identify and implement a variety of ways to be helpful at home, in school, and in the community
  • relationships

integrity

  • Is able to define integrity and advocate for own beliefs
  • Consistently practices and values honesty with self and others
  • Demonstrates responsible behavior with minimal supervision
  • Is accountable and dependable for actions and words
  • Works to complete projects to own satisfaction based on personal standards of quality or completion ("good enough" or "finished")

compassion

  • Is able to recognize others' suffering and perceive when they need help
  • Demonstrates ability to be tolerant towards another person's feelings even when they create negative emotions
  • Demonstrates empathy towards others through imagining their feelings, speculating on where they come from, and why they might be different from their own
  • Expresses concern for the needs and suffering of others and is motivated to assist them
  • When confronted with someone else's suffering, is able to tolerate difficult emotions in themselves without becoming overwhelmed by them.

respect for self + others

  • Demonstrates self-respect by practicing self-care, valuing and appreciating themselves, and identifying and advocating for own needs, preferences, opinions, and limitations
  • Demonstrates respect for others by being sensitive to their feelings and well-being, as well as accepting and being supportive even when there are differences
  • Demonstrates respect for social norms
  • Demonstrates respect for classroom community and environment
  • leadership

courage

  • Lists and employs strategies to overcome fears to take on new challenges
  • Demonstrates willingness to take on and persist with new challenges

positive attitude

  • Shows confidence in own abilities and independence
  • Demonstrates curiosity about and eagerness to experience new things
  • Demonstrates optimism
  • Demonstrates coping skills to bounce back from challenges and negative emotions

responsibility

  • Is able to take care of self and belongings independently
  • Is able to recognize and understand the impact that their actions have on others
  • Is able to keep promises and commitments given to others
  • relationship building

positive relationships

  • Engages with trusted adults as resources and to share mutual interests
  • Recognizes that others' feelings about a situation might be different from their own
  • Interacts cooperatively in groups of children
  • Maintains friendships for several months or more
  • Cooperates and shares ideas and materials in socially acceptable ways
  • Resolves social problems through negotiation and compromise
  • global citizens
    social studies

self, family, community

  • Describes characteristics of self and others, and recognizes each person's uniqueness and importance
  • Identifies family members, family characteristics and functions
  • Demonstrates awareness of similarities and differences of own and others' cultures, including traditions, costumes, foods, and holidays

time + history

  • Demonstrates awareness of time by using time-related vocabulary and concepts
  • Demonstrates a basic awareness of history by understanding of past events, changes over time, and connections to the past

geography

  • Demonstrates basic geographic literacy by using geographic terminology and concepts correctly
  • Demonstrates knowledge of the various ways people communicate, travel, live, and work

civics

  • Demonstrates knowledge of rights and responsibilities of citizenship
  • Demonstrates knowledge of the role and importance of government

economics

  • Understands how people interact economically and the exchange of goods and services
  • Identifies people's basic needs and how they fulfill them, and understands the difference between needs and wants
  • Demonstrates knowledge of the concepts of scarcity and of saving
puzzle_brain

brain power

learning how to think about the world around me

skills:
approaches to learning
learning strategies
reasoning + concept development
sorting
using symbols
math
numbers
shapes + spacial relationships
comparison
patterns
science
scientific method
living things
physical science
earth + space
technology
tech knowledge
engineering
design + building

brainpower

  • learning objectives for prekindergarteners
  • approaches to learning

learning strategies

  • Uses a variety of resources to find answers to questions
  • Thinks through possible long-term solutions and takes on more abstract challenges
  • Uses a few deliberate strategies to remember information
  • Generates a rule, strategy, or idea from one learning experience and applies it in a new context
  • Demonstrates strong and stable attention skills
  • reasoning + concept development

classifying

  • Groups objects by more than one characteristic at the same time; switches sorting rules when asked, and explains the reasons

using symbols

  • Represents objects, places, and ideas with increasingly abstract symbols
  • Plans and negotiates complex role play; joins in detailed conversation about roles and actions; play may extend over several days
  • math

numbers

  • Recites number in order to twenty with increasing accuracy
  • Makes sets of 6–10 objects and then describes
  • Recognizes numerals and uses counting as part of play and as a means for determining quantity

shapes + spacial relationships

  • Uses and makes simple sketches, models, or pictorial maps to locate objects
  • Recognizes and names common two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, their parts and attributes

comparison

  • Uses multiples of the same unit to measure; uses numbers to compare; knows the purpose of standard measuring tools

patterns

  • Recognizes, creates, and explains more complex repeating and simple growing patterns
  • technology

tech knowledge

  • Can describe and creatively use a variety of technological tools and their uses
  • engineering

design + building

  • Demonstrates an understanding of benefits and uses of tools for humans and animals
  • Explores principles of engineering by building and rebuilding with a variety of materials, experimenting with substance, height, breadth, and balance
  • Makes and implements a simple engineering plan
  • science

scientific method

  • Engages in elements of the scientific process, including observation, making and recording predictions, developing plans for testing hypotheses, trying out ideas, and communicating outcomes

living things

  • Identifies characteristics, traits, and properties of living and non-living things
  • Observes, identifies, and describes a variety of living things, their basic needs and life cycles, habitats, and relationships

physical science

  • Describes, compares, and categorizes objects based on their physical properties and states of matter, including absorbency, color, hardness, flexibility, texture, and strength
  • Describes, compares, and categorizes objects based on their position, speed, and motion
  • Demonstrates understanding of cause and effect
  • Explores and discusses simple chemical processes and reactions with teacher assistance
  • Demonstrates understanding of sound, light, and electricity

earth + space

  • Demonstrates knowledge of Earth's features, seasons, and weather
  • Understands that people have an impact on the environment and participates in efforts to care for the environment
  • Demonstrates knowledge of space
puzzle-healthy

healthy me

developing a healthy body + learning to take care of myself

skills:
body awareness + motor development
traveling
balancing
gross-motor manipulation
fine-motor strength + coordination
healthy habits
learning healthy habits
safety
making good choices

healthy me

  • learning objectives for prekindergarteners
  • body awareness + motor development

traveling

  • Coordinates complex movements in play and games

balancing

  • Sustains balance during complex movement experience

gross-motor manipulation

  • Manipulates balls or similar objects with a full range of motion

fine-motor strength and coordination

  • Uses small, precise finger and hand movements
  • Uses three-point finger grip and efficient hand placement when writing and drawing
  • healthy habits

learning healthy habits

  • Identifies the importance of—and performs independently—tasks related to health and self-care
  • Is knowledgeable about and eats healthy foods
  • Identifies and practices good health habits independently
  • Knows and practices stress management and self-calming techniques

safety

  • Identifies and follows basic safety rules and emergency routines
  • Identifies ways adults help keep us safe and knows how and when to seek help
  • Identifies situations that are safe vs. dangerous and knows what action to take

making good choices

  • Demonstrates adaptability and flexibility in a variety of situations, tasks, activities, and problem-solving
  • Demonstrates responsible behavior with minimal supervision
  • Demonstrates the ability to identify consequences and accept feedback
puzzle-word

word smart

learning to communicate in the world around me

skills:
listening
language
speaking
using language
conversation
prereading
phonetics
letters
print
narrative
prewriting
writing

wordsmart

  • learning objectives for prekindergarteners
  • listening

language

  • Responds appropriately to complex statements, questions, vocabulary, and stories
  • Follows detailed, instructional, multi-step directions
  • speaking

using language

  • Incorporates new, less familiar or technical words in everyday conversations
  • Pronounces multisyllabic or unusual words correctly
  • Uses long, complex sentences and follows most grammatical rules
  • Tells elaborate stories that refer to other times and places

conversation

  • Initiates and participates in complex, lengthy conversations (five or more exchanges)
  • Uses acceptable language and social rules while communicating with others
  • prereading

phonetics

  • Generates a group of rhyming words when given a word
  • Isolates and identifies the beginning sound of a word
  • Segments words into syllables

letters

  • Recognizes most letters, especially those in own name
  • Is able to match most letters with their sound.

print

  • Uses various types of books for their intended purposes
  • Understands that written words represent spoken language

narrative

  • Uses prior knowledge, story title, and pictures to make predictions about story content
  • Retells a familiar story in proper sequence, including major events and characters
  • Can answer detailed questions about a story
  • prewriting

writing

  • Is able to write own name
  • Writes using pictures/symbols/letters and early invented spelling
puzzle-imagine

imagine that

learning to express myself creatively

skills:
art
visual arts
music
musical expression
dance + movement
dancing
dramatic play
drama

imagine that

  • learning objectives for prekindergarteners
  • art

visual art

  • Plans and completes artwork that incorporates one or more artistic elements or processes
  • Uses an open-ended art process to convey thoughts, emotions, and experiences
  • Demonstrates appreciation of artwork in the environment and pride in their own work
  • music

musical expression

  • Demonstrates an understanding of pitch, tempo, and volume
  • Plays traditional and nontraditional instruments to create original rhythms and sounds
  • Sings songs that have personal meaning
  • dance + movement

dancing

  • Uses individualized movements and dance to express emotions
  • Creates dances by generating movements to match different rhythms
  • dramatic play

drama

  • Uses a variety of props to communicate themes about real life or imaginative experiences as well as ideas and emotions
  • Responds to theatrical performances with oral, written, or visual expression
  • Communicates thoughts and feelings through theatrical performance
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