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Who Is The Kindergarten Child?
Kindergarten children have a growing sense of independence. Yet they also may be somewhat anxious as they branch out to new horizons. Five- and six-year-olds can be very enthusiastic about their endeavors. They love new places, new ideas, and new bits of information. Remember that as five-year-old children become six-year-olds, changes will occur rapidly in their growth and development.
Physical Characteristics
- Vary greatly in height and weight.
- Increased motor activity, may appear restless even when seated.
- Short attention span, may easily be distracted by things in the environment
around them.
- Coordination is not yet fully developed.
- Large muscles are usually developed, are quite good at adding movements
such as clapping, skipping, and hopping while they are talking or singing.
- Fine motor skills continue to develop; cutting is a skill that needs
practice.
- Learn best through touch, exploration, and movement, through activities
that engage the whole child, and through the presentation of concepts
one at a time.
- Display increased ability to sequence things in time, enjoy hearing
about the past.
- Reading skills are emerging.
- Enjoy boisterous play.
- Enjoy dress-up, fantasy stories, and puppet plays.
- Interest expanding beyond themselves and their immediate families.
- Show-and-tell often a favorite activity.
- Typically get along well with all classmates.
- Begin to understand rules, the concepts of winning/losing and working
together.
- Have difficulty losing, often will walk away from a team game and
pout when losing.
- Often view the teacher as always right.
- Affirmation of their abilities and dignity as persons vital to their
development.
- Often play best with friends in pairs rather than in larger groups.
- Natural sense of wonder and awe fosters a sensitivity to the sacred.
- Imagine God as a human person; form an image of God from parents,
guardians, and other significant people in their lives.
- Experience God's love through parents or guardians and other family
members.
- Prayer comes naturally, enjoy ceremony and ritual.
- Comfortable with formal and spontaneous prayer.
- Interpret Bible stories and other stories literally, cannot derive the symbolic meaning of stories.
Growing as Catholic Christians
The kindergarten year is a wonderful time for teachers and catechists
to support families in developing the Catholic identity of their children.
It is a time to celebrate simple rituals and the traditions of the Church.
Kindergarten is a time to introduce the children to a beginning faith
vocabulary and provide a readiness for future catechesis in the faith
of the Catholic Church.
Here are a few points to keep in mind:
We asked a group of kindergarten children what they would like a parent
to know about them. Here's what they said:
I Wish You Would...
