Kindergarten: Children Ready for School Part 2

As of 2007, most states have established developmental standards for children entering into Kindergarten.  How do you know if your child is on track with their social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language and literacy, creativity and the arts, cognitive development, and physical and motor development?   This is part two in our Getting Ready for Kindergarten blog series.

Below are examples of children developing creativity.

Lizzie has been painting at the easel for ten minutes.  In the classroom, the children have been learning about nature and spring, including landscape illustrations.  The teacher says, "Lizzie, tell me about your painting."  Lizzie explains, "This is the yellow sun and a tree and flowers, and the sun makes the flowers grow."

Lizzie is using a variety of media and materials for exploration and expressing her creativity.  Lizzie can also talk about what she has made with the teacher.  She can also share her own opinions about likes and dislikes in art and other forms of creative expression.

Below are examples of cognitive development*.

Mark and Matthew are standing at the whiteboard.  Mark is counting aloud, "One two, three, five."  Matthew scribbles symbols with a marker to represent numbers.  Suddenly they realize that their counting is not sequential.  They go back to another table with teddy bears and practice counting the teddy bears very slowly: "One, two, three, four, five-- we forgot four.  We forgot four!"  The children laugh, and go back to the whiteboard to write four between three and five.

Mark and Matthew are showing an interest in counting, which shows an awareness of numbers and the relationships between numbers.  Children should also be able to identify common shapes (square, circle, etc.).

*Cognitive development is the emergence of the child's ability to think and understand.

Below are examples of physical and motor development.

At preschool, Tommy is riding a tricycle, controlling the speed with his legs and expertly avoiding obstacles.

Tommy is showing signs of having great gross motor development.  Gross motor refers to large muscle control and coordination.  Fine motor coordination is for small muscle control.  Small muscle control would be be apparent when Tommy is using crayons or scissors.