Kindergarten
Teachers/Classroom Information
General Information
Curriculum
Supply List
Kindergarten Curriculum
The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) creates instructional programs based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as specified by the NC Department of Public Instruction. For an overview of WCPSS instructional programs, see WCPSS Connections.
Salem Elementary supplements the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and WCPSS instructional program with the concepts of Core Knowledge.
What Is Core Knowledge?
Core Knowledge is an idea for promoting academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher
literacy in elementary and middle schools by implementing a solid, specific, shared core
curriculum. Core Knowledge is designed to help children establish strong foundations of
knowledge, grade by grade. For more information on Core Knowledge, see
http://www.coreknowledge.org/.
Kindergarten Core Knowledge
Language Arts
World History and Geography
American History and Geography
Mathematics
Science
Poetry
Mother Goose and Other Traditional Poems
A Diller, A Dollar Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep Old King Cole
Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling Old Mother Hubbard
Early to Bed One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Georgie Porgie Pat-a-Cake
Hey Diddle Diddle Rain, Rain, Go Away
Hickory, Dickory, Dock Ride a Cock-Horse
Hot Cross Buns Ring Around the Roses
Humpty Dumpty Rock-a-bye, Baby
It's Raining, It's Pouring Roses Are Red
Jack and Jill See-Saw, Margery Daw
Jack Be Nimble Simple Simon
Jack Sprat Sing a Song of Sixpence
Ladybug, Ladybug Star light, Star Bright
Little Bo Peep There Was a little Girl
little Boy Blue London Bridge Is Falling Down
Little Jack Horner This little Pig Went to Market
Little Miss Muffet Three Blind Mice
There Was an Old Woman Who lived in a Shoe
Other Poems, Old and New
April Rain Song (Langston Hughes)
Happy Thought (Robert Louis Stevenson)
I Do Not Mind You, Winter Wind (Jack Prelutsky)
Mary Had a little Lamb (Sara]osepha Hale)
The More It Snows (A. A. Milne)
My Nose (Dorothy Aldis)
Rain (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Three little Kittens (Eliza Lee Follen)
Time to Rise (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Tommy (Gwendolyn Brooks)
Twinkle Twinkle little Star (Jane Taylor)
Fiction Stories
The Bremen Town Musicians (Brothers Grimm)
Chicken little (also known as "Henny-Penny')
Cinderella (Charles Perrault)
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? (African folk tale)
King Midas and the Golden Touch
The Legend of Jumping Mouse (Native American: Northern Plains legend)
The little Red Hen
Little Red Riding Hood
Momotaro: Peach Boy (Japanese folk tale)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Little Pigs
A Tug of War (African folk tale)
The Ugly Duckling (Hans Christian Andersen)
The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams)
selections from Winnie-the-Pooh (A A Milne)
The Wolf and the Kids (Brothers Grimm)
Aesop's Fables
The lion and the Mouse
The Grasshopper and the Ants
The Dog and His Shadow
The Hare and the Tortoise
American Legends and Tall Tales
Johnny Appleseed
Casey Jones
Sayings and Phrases
A dog is man's best friend.
April showers bring May flowers.
Better safe than sorry;
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The early bird gets the worm.
Great oaks from little acorns grow.
Look before you leap.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Practice makes perfect
[It's] raining cats and dogs.
Where there's a will there's a way.
Geography: Spatial Sense (working with maps, globes, and other geographic tools)
Maps and globes: what they represent, how we use them
.Rivers, lakes, and mountains: what they are and how they are represented on maps and globes
Locate the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. .
Locate the North and South Poles.
An Overview of the Seven Continents
Identify and locate the seven continents on a map and globe:
Asia Europe Africa
North America South America
Antarctica Australia
American History and Geography
Geography
Name and locate the town, city, or community, as well as the state where you live.
Locate North America, the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Native American Peoples, Past and Present
Become familiar with the people and ways of life of at least one Native American tribe or nation, such as:
Pacific Northwest Kwakiutl, Chinook
Plateau: Nez Perce
Great Basin: Shoshone, Ute
Southwest Dine [Navajo], Hopi, Apache
Plains: Blackfoot, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa, Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota (Sioux)
Northeast: Huron, Iroquois
Eastern Woodlands: Cherokee, Seminole, Delaware, Susquehanna, Mohican, Massachusett, Wampanoag, Powhatan
Early Exploration and Settlement
The Voyage of Columbus in 1492
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain
The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria
Columbus's mistaken identification of "Indies" and "Indians"
The idea of what was, for Europeans, a "New World"
The Pilgrims
The Mayflower
Plymouth Rock
Thanksgiving Day celebration
July 4, "Independence Day"
The "birthday" of our nation
Democracy (rule of the people): Americans wanted to rule themselves instead of being ruled by a faraway king.
Some people were not free: slavery in early America
Presidents, Past and Present
George Washington
The "Father of His Country"
Legend of George Washington and the cherry tree
Thomas Jefferson, author of Declaration of Independence
.Abraham Lincoln
Humble origins
"Honest Abe"
Theodore Roosevelt
Current United States president
Symbols and Figures
.Recognize and become familiar with the significance of American flag
Statue of liberty
Mount Rushmore
The White House
Patterns and Classification
Numbers and Number Sense
Money
Computation
Measurement
Geometry
Animals and Their Needs
Animals, like plants, need food, water, and space to live and grow.
Plants make their own food, but animals get food from eating plants or other living things.
Offspring are very much (but not exactly) like their parents.
Most animal babies need to be fed and cared for by their parents; human babies are especially in need of care when young.
Pets have special needs and must be cared for by their owners.
The Human Body
The five senses and associated body parts:
Sight eyes
Hearing: ears
Smell: nose
Taste: tongue
Touch: skin
Taking care of your body: exercise, cleanliness, healthy foods, rest
Introduction to Magnetism
Identify familiar everyday uses of magnets
Classify materials according to whether they are or are not attracted by a magnet
Seasons and Weather
The four seasons
Characteristic local weather patterns during the different seasons
The sun: source of light and warmth
Daily weather changes
Temperature: thermometers are used to measure temperature
Clouds
Rainfall: how the condition of the ground varies with rainfall; rainbows
Thunderstorms: lightning and thunder, hail, safety during thunderstorms
Snow and snowflakes, blizzard
Taking Care of the Earth
Conservation: Some natural resources are limited, so people must be careful not to use too much of them
Practical measures for conserving energy and resources
Some materials can be recycled
Pollution can be harmful, but if people are careful they can help reduce pollution.
Oceans
Most of the earth is covered with water.
Locate oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic.
Oceans are salt water
Coast, shore, waves, tides
Currents, the Gulf Stream
Landscape of the ocean floor: mountain peaks and deep valleys
Diversity of ocean life: from organisms too small for the eye to see (plankton), to giant whales
Dangers to ocean life
Science Biographies
George Washington Carver
Jane Goodall
Wilbur and Orville Wright