Developmentally Appropriate Educational Experiences for Kindergarten
The Southern Association on Children Under Six
The following understandings should serve as guides to developing effective kindergarten programs:
• Kindergarten children develop understanding through play and other natural learning strategies.
• Kindergarten children need adults to help them make sense of their experiences.
• The best learning environment for kindergarten children is one in which they can actively participate by manipulating objects and by expressing their ideas through many curricular areas such as music, art, drama, puppetry, and science projects.
• Kindergarten children learn best when all of their developmental/learning needs and interests are nurtured through a board and understandable curriculum, guided by a caring teacher certified in Early Childhood Education.
• The different needs of children can best be facilitated through informal, flexible classroom arrangements which utilize interest centers and individualized activities and games.
• Kindergarten children learn best when the curriculum is based on concrete experiences to which they can relate in meaningful ways.
The following guidelines are suggested for developing quality learning environments and assessment for kindergarten children:
• Create learning situations in which children can use both the real world and their fantasy world to experience the process of soling problems and creating new ideas.
• Capitalize on children’s creativeness by providing dramatic play experiences, encouraging participation in artistic and musical expression and in scientific, hands-on activities.
• Respond to the many facets of children’s development by including social, physical, nutritional, intellectual and emotional content in the program.
• Provide many varied opportunities for children to use language. Avoid narrowly defined reading programs. To meet their diverse needs use their experience as a basis for developing many language activities.
• Provide a participatory curriculum for fostering a sense of autonomy in kindergarten children. Encourage child’s decision making and design learning environments in which the child’s needs, interests and discoveries are paramount.
• Utilize a variety of instructional approaches such as individualized learning and small group activities.
• Be intentionally personal in interactions with kindergarten children. Spend time listening to them and encourage them to express themselves both individually and in a variety of situations.
• Assessment should be viewed as an ongoing process of analysis, a method of searching diligently for strengths and weaknesses so that individualized planning is provided for each child’s development.
• Assessment of children’s development and learning must consider the real world in which the children live. It must recognize home life and cultural setting.