5-year development

Gesell Institue of Child Development: Your Five-Year-Old

Characteristics of the ready child

• An entry unto themselves. Separation from mother is easy.
• Obedient – able to take in what you say and act upon it.
• Sustains as long as talk holds interest.
• Can sustain within the framework of the group.
• Better organized physically. Has heels on the floor?
• Able to cope with table work. Likes to stay within the lines.
• Now attempts to be grammatically correct.
• Anticipates next activity and wants to get to it.
• Gets very involved when participating in activities.
• Better able to participate in group discussion.
• Able to retain information.

Characteristics of the unready child

• Immature speech patterns persist.
• Many cannot separate without crying.
• Mercurial in behavior. Constantly on the run; can’t slow down.
• Likes all activities that involve movement.
• Needs frequent change of activity; short attention span.
• Shows limited fine motor ability – cutting, coloring, etc.
• Needs constant supervision on equipment. Forgets safety rules.
• Lacks desire to conform.
• Demonstrates aggressive behavior, sometimes disruptive, sometimes destructive. Argumentative.
• Needs rest but resists settling down.
• Easily distracted. Often out-of-bounds.
• Difficulty with change in routine.
• Often fails to finish task.
• Works better in a one-to-one relationship. More time needed for giving directions.
• Shows silly, boisterous humor.
• Poor bladder control evident – especially under stress.
• Absences may be more frequent.
• Tendency to forget or lose items and belonging-lack responsibility

Kindergarten aims and objectives

Your children want to learn. They need to be successful at what they do, so they’ll feel confident enough to try new thing. Our kindergarten program will offer many learning experiences to further the social, emotional, mental and physical development of your child. The pace of learning is determined by the child’s developmental level. A diagnostic/prescriptive approach is utilized for instruction.

Kindergarten will help your child…

• Learn to work, play, and share with other children and to appreciate and respect other classmates by participating in group activities as a leader, observer and contributor.
• Grow in responsibility through learning the proper care of equipment and learning to follow directions.
• Progress through reading readiness skills in a sequential manner.
• Increase language skills by sharing experiences, retelling stories, participating in dramatic plays and learning to listen and observe for details. Children develop concepts of language through concrete experiences in which they use all their senses – touching, smelling, hearing and listening and seeing.
• Develop math concepts and skills through meaningful experiences with concrete objects, pictures and the use of math symbols.
• Develop freedom of personal, expression while experimenting with such materials as clay, paper, paint, scissors, paste, crayons and tools.