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Primary Grades (K-3)

Developmental Characteristics in the Primary Grades

The Kindergarten Child:

 

Will Probably Be:

  • Extremely active
  • Growing rapidly
  • Susceptible to disease
  • Interested in other children, yet individualistic
  • Eager to please and imitate adults
  • Maturing in motor control, can hop, jump and skip
  • Eating, dressing, and toileting independently
  • Losing his/her first teeth
  • Farsighted, requiring large objects and close contact

 

Will Probably Have:

  • Good reasoning powers
  • Ability to plan and carry out plans and short-term projects
  • Desire to speak plainly and use new words.
  • Ability to relate experiences
  • A changeable mind, gradually acquiring more defined ideas

 

Family Activities that Support Learning in Kindergarten:

  • Read to and with your child daily and ask questions about the story
  • Encourage older children to read to younger siblings
  • Reinforce the importance of reading by being a reader yourself
  • Label items around the house and encourage your child to read the labels
  • Talk with and listen to your child
  • Encourage your child to ask questions and seek answers
  • Plan educational games with your child, including counting games
  • Create special times for your child to be alone with you or to participate in activities with you
  • Take your child places and talk about the places you visit.
  • Read nursery rhymes, songs, and family stories to your child and encourage him/her to memorize the words.
  • Give your child responsibilities to contribute to the family such as making the bed or picking up belongings
  • Monitor your child’s TV viewing
  • Teach your child to write his name using upper and lower case letters
  • Teach your child his/her phone number and address
  • Encourage the use of toys that develop small muscle coordination such as clay, small blocks, etc.
  • Let your child know that you expect him/her to do well in school and to behave

The First Grade Child:

 

Will Probably Be:

  • Impulsive: Tending to go to extremes of behavior
  • Changeable: Experiencing periods of laughter and tears in quick succession; periods of deep thinking and periods of inattention
  • Often dawdling: More interested in playing than in eating or dressing
  • Often careless of his/her clothes or toys
  • Active: climbing, running, wrestling
  • Easily frustrated by lack of motor skills
  • Enjoying imaginative play
  • Demanding of other
  • Becoming aware of past and future time
  • Attempting to do things too difficult for him/her
  • Aware of the world outside home
  • Ready for anything new

 

Will Probably Have:

  • Good reasoning powers
  • Ability to plan and carry out plans and short-term projects
  • Desire to speak plainly and use new words.
  • Ability to relate experiences
  • Much enjoyment from dramatic play
  • Lengthening periods of calmness and self absorption
  • An interest in collecting things and property rights to the things collected

 

Family Activities that Support Learning in First Grade:

  • Continue to read to and with your child daily, pointing our simple words and sounds.
  • Continue to encourage older siblings to read to and tutor younger siblings
  • Make regular visits to the library with your child
  • Point out printed words in the community or home—stop signs, words in the newspaper, signs in stores,
  • Discuss and monitor television programs
  • Take walks around the neighborhood, counting common objects such as trees, talking about local businesses, street names, and interesting points in nature.
  • Tell stories about family history and culture
  • Ask your child to count pennies or other coins when at the market
  • Point out and discuss various shapes and sizes around the home—the circle on the clock face, size of a milk carton, etc.
  • Link scheduled family activities to the time of day—lunch at noon, bedtime at 8:00, etc.
  • Give your child responsibilities to contribute to the family such as cleaning his/her room, recycling
  • Provide opportunities for your child to interact with members of the extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc

The Second Grade Child:

 

Will Probably Be:

  • Two or three inches taller than last year
  • Sturdy and healthy
  • Still for only a short while at a time
  • A problem eater
  • Losing baby teeth
  • Showing a desire for freedom
  • Showing independence from adults
  • Aggressive sometimes and sympathetic others
  • Emotional, particularly fearful of imaginary and improbable dangers
  • Sensitive to ridicule, failure, loss of prestige
  • A good listener
  • A boaster
  • Enjoying secrets with friends
  • Interested in everything of the present time and immediate environment
  • Enjoying some time alone
  • Demanding of self
  • A fan of riddles and simple jokes
  • A complainer and moody
  • Literal in thinking; not quite ready for abstract

 

Will Probably Have:

  • A strong liking for anything that runs on wheels
  • Much enjoyment from dramatic play
  • Lengthening periods of calmness and self absorption
  • Increased interest in team and group activities
  • A well-developed competitive spirit

 

Family Activities that Support Learning for the Second Grader

  • Let your child plan meals and cook with you focus on measuring and how foods and liquids change when heated
  • Help your child make a map of his/her home or neighborhood, label simple items
  • Encourage your child to do homework independently, while still expressing an interest in his/her work
  • Teach your child to write simple thank you notes to grandparents, etc.
  • Encourage your child to read books that contain factual information about dogs, plants, etc.
  • Use reference materials in your home with your child—dictionaries, simple encyclopedias, computers, atlases, etc.
  • Find the country of your ancestors on a map and trace their route to America.
  • Talk about your job and how it affects others in the community.
  • Have your child become familiar with the prices of common items.
  • Gradually increase your child’s level of home responsibility.

The Third Grade Child:

 

Will Probably Be:

  • More able to control large muscles than smaller ones
  • Interested in cliques, teams, and own gender
  • Sensitive to ridicule, failure, loss of prestige
  • Developing better eye-hand coordination
  • Somewhat inclined to hit, tease, and punch
  • Careless about how dirty he/she gets for the fun of it
  • Unable to maintain a long attention span
  • Serious about self and ability to imitate adult behavior

 

Will Probably Have:

  • A desire for group play activity and teams
  • Growing ability to make social responses
  • Interest in dressing up and playing parts
  • Tendency to use unacceptable language
  • A strong sense of justice as he/she sees it
  • Contradictory skills
  • Varying emotional patterns of fear, joy, jealousy, and affection
  • Fear of such things as blood, ghosts, lightening, robbers, dark, solitude
  • Ideas and desires to create things beyond his/her ability.
  • Sexual modesty
  • Eagerness for new experiences
  • Enthusiasm and energy
  • Difficulty with follow-through

 

Family Activities that Support Learning in Third Grade

  • Continue to read to and with your child daily, choosing a variety of literature and longer books that can be read over an extended period of time
  • Share your enjoyment of reading with your child
  • Visit museums, parks, aquariums, and cultural events and discuss them with your child; as possible, connect family outings to your child’s school studies
  • Talk to your child about what you do to help your community and involve your child where possible; for example, participate in the Human Race or other community event as a family
  • Provide your child with access to the local newspaper and discuss current events at the dinner table.
  • Help your child memorize multiplication facts in a fun, game-like manner.
  • Involve your child in developing family traditions for holidays, special occasions and times of seasonal