DC PK3 - what are they learning?

[Anonymous]

At least in my experience, most kids came into my kids' PK3 classes knowing some letters, some numbers, and some shapes. It varied by kid, obviously. Mine knew more letters and numbers than shapes. PP is correct that there isn't an expectation that incoming PK3 know ALL numbers, letters, and shapes. Potty training and some self-regulation are more important, when considering all the new subjects, teachers, and rules PK3-ers are introduced to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing all letters is NOT a prerequisite for PK3 but it is helpful for teachers to know how many/which kids already know all their letters.

One of my kids started reading in her PK3 year. Other kid is still learning to name letters and is in PK4.

How did your child who was reading adapt when in PK3? Did they feel the classroom moved at a slower pace for them/or that they knew all that they were learning?

PK3 is about so much more - new kids, new teachers, new building, new toys, larger classroom, second language in her case, etc. The fact that she coudl count higher than almost anyone else and started reading CVC words and some sight words was not a problem.

+1

My kid was reading ahead of grade level, but honestly, academics is the least important part of PK3. So much of it is about adjusting to the classroom and routines, learning to stand in line, wait their turn, listen to the teachers, etc. There's a ton of social stuff that's happening, and my kid is a social butterfly who loved all of it. And even the academics aren't just learning letters and learning to read-- teachers read stories to the kids and talk about the stories, they learn about the world around them, they do art projects, etc. She definitely didn't know everything that they did in the classroom, and even though she already knew her letters, she still enjoyed the literacy activities.

[Anonymous]

DS is in PK3 now and has not done any alphabet or number learning yet. They spent the first few works on social-behavioral lessons (sharing, clean up, playing together).
Now they're working on shape recognition. It's mostly an all-day play group at this point.

[Anonymous]

DD is in PK3 now and they appear to be working on letter recognition although I don't know when/in what form/DD never mentions it. I just know that she went in knowing all of her uppercase letters if they were presented exactly how she was used to and only those lowercase letters that looked like their uppercase counterparts or were in her name. Two months in, she is great on uppercase letters even if the font is weird/different (she explained to me that some people liked to make "lazy "i"s" with no ceiling or floor even though those could also be "l"s) and seems to have the majority of the lowercase letters down.

[Anonymous]

In terms of potty training are they also expected to know how to wipe by themselves as well? (Boy mom here)

[Anonymous]

Your child will need to know Calculus and be prepared to sit for an AP test by the end of the year. I'd suggest a tutor - you're going to need it!!!!

[Anonymous]

In my experience, teachers understand that three year olds are still "mastering" the basics of using the bathroom and some may be better at it than others (using "mastering" VERY loosely here). I doubt my son was good at wiping (because he wasn't at home) but I never heard anything about it. As long as he used the potty himself, they were good with it (and they would have helped him if he needed help too). The baseline is that it isn't a daycare - they don't want diapers or pull-ups that staff have to handle. Honestly, it felt like my PKers wanted a lot of help at home but if I picked them up from school and they needed to use the bathroom, they knew to do it themselves. It was something about the conditioning of the building they were in and what the rules were. Kind of drove me nuts at home but I guess they needed a little TLC from their parents.

[Anonymous]

PK3 at my inbounds school has a lot of social-emotional learning. Kids are drawing pictures and captioning them. Some kids are writing full-sentence captions already (with invented/phonetic spelling, imperfect handwriting, some letter reversals, etc.). Some are writing the first letter of each word and then drawing a line to symbolize the rest of the word. Some draw a line for each word and the teacher writes the word. Some are doing a mixture of these depending on the word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing all letters is NOT a prerequisite for PK3 but it is helpful for teachers to know how many/which kids already know all their letters.

One of my kids started reading in her PK3 year. Other kid is still learning to name letters and is in PK4.

How did your child who was reading adapt when in PK3? Did they feel the classroom moved at a slower pace for them/or that they knew all that they were learning?

My opinion: in a good PK3/4 program, the "academic" parts should be short and participatory. Raising hands to identify letters/shapes in books or during other group activities, that kind of stuff. Kid who already know this will be proud of themselves when they "know the answer". Most of the classroom time should be spent on playtime/centers/recess, circle time, stories. If the letters/numbers/shapes are drilled/recited/memorized then yes, a kid who already knows them might be bored. But a good preschool program should not have enough drilling/memorization/lecture time to bore anybody.