What To Expect In Each Grade From Kindergarten To Grade 6
Thirty years ago, I was a young mom with two preschool-aged girls at home. I received my early childhood certification and operated a licensed day home for ten years during this time.
Trial and error was the “curriculum” and we had so much fun learning and playing together. As they started to reach school age, many of the children continued to pop in before and after school and share stories of their new adventures.
Parents would share their stories about school too and about how overwhelmed they were with what was expected of their children academically.
Comments of “the curriculum is so complicated” and “I find teachers are having a difficult time explaining or showing the evidence of my children’s learning at school” were often made.
Now that I’ve been a full-time K-6 teacher for nearly three decades and have experienced three curriculum changes in grades K-6, I can see how parents continue to be overwhelmed by grade-level expectations from Kindergarten to Grade 6.
Trial and error is inarguably the most effective way for students to learn, yet is not typically afforded in the formal school system.
Alberta Education (or LearnAlberta) being the latest moniker, creates the curriculum and then delivers it to school divisions to disseminate to their teachers.
Alberta Education also posts a digital version of the curriculum for anyone to access. This means that parents and teachers have access to the curriculum, therefore, parents and teachers should know what to expect.
However, this is a false assumption as the format, wording, and sheer quantity of learning outcomes and explanations create an overwhelming feeling for parents and teachers alike. So the reality is that it is a turn-off for many parents and a struggle for many teachers.
Alberta teachers were asked, after the fact, how they felt about the new curriculum and there were over 900 teacher responses.
The overarching concern was the lack of resources. I felt the same way and wanted to help parents and teachers.
This is why I created Education Rocks.
In 2021, I intuited there would be a significant disconnect between the government-created curriculum and the learning realities in the classroom so I started creating a platform that would work for both parents and teachers alike.
Education Rocks was developed as a teacher-developed curriculum that is aligned with the new LearnAlberta mandate.
On our website, you receive free access to all the student learning outcomes for the core subjects of English Language Arts & Literature and Mathematics rewritten in user-friendly language and in a numbered format for easy reference.
All student learning activities are organized by grade level and subject. When you are wondering how to help your child or students now with grade level expectations and/or to provide remedial and/or foundational basic skill development and/or offer learning challenges to advanced elementary students, you will find all of these options within our K-6 Learning Library.
You can even remove the grade level from the learning activities, so your child or student is unaware of the grade level at which they are performing.
Here are some real-life scenarios parents and teachers have asked me about and the solutions they found that worked well for them:
“My Grade 2 child/student struggles to read words fluently in books.”
Try: Grade 1 ELAL Understanding & Connecting
“My Grade 5 child/student is competent in their math skills and is bored in class.”
Try: Grade 6 Math Full Curriculum Days 1-90
“My Grade 1 child/student struggles to identify words accurately.”
Try: Kindergarten ELAL Reading Strategies
“I want to homeschool my child in Grade 4 and I’m worried that I will not be able to meet all the expected learning outcomes in ELAL and Math for the entire year.”
Try:
“We just moved here from another country so my Grade 3 child/student and ourselves have limited English skills.”
Try: Kindergarten ELAL Word Work
Thank you for reading this blog post on what to expect in each grade from Kindergarten to Grade 6.
The lesson plans in our K-6 Learning Library will help you and your child or students right now and for years to come. The best part is you can edit these resources so that your child or students can focus on what they can do right now and build on it rather than internalize that they are not performing at grade level.