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Kindergarten
Kindergarten marks a child's first step into their school career.
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Why Kindergarten?
Kindergarten is the foundation of a child's learning and serves as a bridge to the classroom. It builds active-thinking life skills, such as social, emotional, and problem-solving skills. Kindergarteners also develop skills such as:
- listening, speaking, reading and writing
- working memory
- conceptual knowledge
- processing fluency
Language and literacy development is one of the main focuses of Kindergarten.
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What we offer
At Garland ISD, our program uses fully-trained teachers that are:
- specialists in early childhood education and development
- graduates of the state’s Reading Academies program (or those working toward completion)
- skilled in instructional strategies for language and literacy
Your child will learn skills like:
- the letters of the alphabet and letter-sound relationships for reading and spelling words
- basic math such as counting to 100, identifying numbers to 20, and recognizing coins
- social abilities such as working, learning and getting along with others
- science knowledge using exploration and observations
- fine arts foundations and physical skills
Our Kindergarten program also allows for whole group and small group instruction. Learning is based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum.
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Ready to enroll?
We're excited to welcome your family to Garland ISD! Learn about the process and get started on our enrollment page:
Skills needed for Kindergarten
Many parents ask what developmental milestones their child needs for kindergarten. See below for a list of what most children can do the following by age five.
Note: This checklist is not a substitute for a standardized, validated developmental screening.
Development milestone checklist
Expand AllLearning, thinking and problem-solving
- Counts 10 or more things
- Can draw a person with at least six body parts
- Starts to understand time
- Can print some letters or numbers
- Copies a triangle and other geometric shapes
- Knows about things used every day (ex. money or food)
- Tells you what they think is going to happen in a book
Social & Emotional
- Wants to please and be like friends
- More likely to agree with rules
- Likes to sing, dance and act
- Can tell what is real and make believe
- Shows more independence
- Is sometimes demanding and sometimes cooperative
Language and Communication
- Speaks clearly
- Tells a simple story using full sentences
- Uses future tense (ex. "Grandma will be here")
- Says name and address
Physical development
- Stands on one foot for 10 seconds or longer
- Hops, and may be able to skip
- Uses a fork and spoon. Sometimes may use a knife
Information adapted from "Caring for your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5" and "Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents" by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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Identifying gifted children
Young children that are gifted academically may:
- Walk and talk at an early age
- Have a large and advanced vocabulary
- Learn rapidly and easily
- Read at an early age
- Able to entertain themselves for long blocks of time
- Remember a large amount of information
- Consistently organize, sort and classify things
- Have a heightened curiosity
- Fantasize/daydream often
- Be self-motivated and self-sufficient
- Show sensitivity to other people's feelings
- Practice perfectionism