Anonymous wrote:Letter sounds and the foundations of addition and subtraction. Sight words. Writing letters and numbers.

DC loves going to school. DC is a bright kid but not academically advanced. Never had issues going to daycare but is now super smiley in the mornings going to K in MCPS. We are thrilled.

We're in FCPS, but same! She loves K and we're thrilled

Letter sounds and the foundations of addition and subtraction. Sight words. Writing letters and numbers.

DC loves going to school. DC is a bright kid but not academically advanced. Never had issues going to daycare but is now super smiley in the mornings going to K in MCPS. We are thrilled.

Basics of phonics, Lots of nursery rhymes, some US history- important people (leaders etc). Basic math like addition of single numbers. But also lots of routines etc. Our class has 27! kids. There won't be any differentiation for a bit. With my oldest, there was math pullout in K starting in winter for kids who were way ahead because they had the staff.

According to him, he’s learning stuff.

Literacy through fundations. Play based math and social studies curriculum. Science is a special (I think twice a week.) starting a foreign language which is standard in K at their school.

We ended up continuing for K at our Montessori Preschool, where DC attended from ages 3-5, then transitioned to public for 1st. It worked very well. DC all had solid foundations when they entered 1st and they avoided the mediocre half-day public K where we live.

Staying at Montessori through K also helped with logistics, because we both work every day in the office; the Montessori allowed an earlier drop off than our public, and we paid for after-care (which was mostly spent outdoors with same-age kids on a supervised fenced playground, unless it was wet) until 5:30pm.

FYI: there is a sticky thread with loads of useful information about wide range of curriculum supplements in the Montgomery County Public Schools forum.

K was a fun age for us. DC were so eager to learn anything. They felt that learning was tremendous fun. We focused on letters, numbers, then Phonics, and then reading - for a grand total of maybe 15 minutes each day. DC were fully ready for 1st grade with solid foundations.

When my son was in kindergarten, he learnt about going to poop and wipe without help. I was very proud of him.

That's it, OP. K are learning about going to school, such as getting their own lunch, follow instructions, complete assignments, coming on bus and going home.

They are 5.

Anonymous wrote:At our school in MCPS, it seems like very little. The math/language skills are far more basic so far than she learned in the prek 4 we sent her to last year (which was in DC & private because Montgomery County doesn’t do universal prek). Would love to think we’ll get some differentiation at this point, but the signs so far don’t seem to point in that direction.

You can build on her existing math and reading skills at home. If the school is still practicing counting to 5 when your child is already adding and subtracting within 10 and can count to 100, start showing her how to add and subtract within 100 using an abacus. If the school is still working on letter names and sounds when your kid can read CVC words, start teaching her silent e and more digraphs.

It's very hard to get differentiation in upper grades, when by that time it's obvious who the smart kids are, so it's probably not going to happen in K when the school has comparatively much less data about kids' abilities. For that reason there is a whole economy of outside academic enrichment and acceleration.

Anonymous wrote:At our school in MCPS, it seems like very little. The math/language skills are far more basic so far than she learned in the prek 4 we sent her to last year (which was in DC & private because Montgomery County doesn’t do universal prek). Would love to think we’ll get some differentiation at this point, but the signs so far don’t seem to point in that direction.

*hoping for differentiation at some point, not at this point

At our school in MCPS, it seems like very little. The math/language skills are far more basic so far than she learned in the prek 4 we sent her to last year (which was in DC & private because Montgomery County doesn’t do universal prek). Would love to think we’ll get some differentiation at this point, but the signs so far don’t seem to point in that direction.

DCPS K: Lots of classroom expectation setting around schedule, behavior, etc. Lots of testing to set up small groups and baselines. Daily phonics/science of reading type lessons and another one that’s kind of a blend of handwriting and phonics (learning to write letters properly, name them, name the sounds, name things that start or end with the sound, etc). Math seems all small groups based and my kid is working on addition and subtraction fluency out of 5. (If there’s whole group instruction it’s so basic my kid isn’t mentioning it.) Small group literacy started this week and my kid is working on digraphs and c c words.

Anonymous wrote:DD1 started reading in February of K. Very simple books

DD2 started a few months earlier (maybe December)

DS has just started K. He can read already (Bob books level 3-4). I taught him this last summer. He is a boy and young for grade and I wanted him to feel good about his academic abilities and start on the right foot. As of now, they are only learning letters and letter sounds.

Not sure they are doing much in math yet.

My older girls are a few years past K and are doing exceptionally well even though they were middle of the pack in K.

This is in private school so we are only on week 3