Build Academic Foundations
Develop early reading, writing, mathematical and general knowledge skills that prepare students for future learning.
OpenBook Kindergarten
Big beginnings for little learners.
Kindergarten is where the OpenBook journey begins—a welcoming introduction to reading, mathematics, science and the world around us, designed to help young learners build skills, curiosity and confidence.
Kindergarten Learning
Four Core Subjects
A connected foundation for the first OpenBook grade.
Language Arts
Letters, sounds, words & early reading
Mathematics
Numbers, counting, shapes & patterns
Science
Nature, observation & discovery
Social Studies
Families, communities & our world
📖 Learn
Clear age-appropriate instruction
✏️ Practice
Activities and assignments
⭐ Progress
Build skills step by step
✓ Check
Review understanding
Kindergarten Goals
More than learning ABCs and 123s.
Kindergarten introduces essential academic skills, but it should also help children become curious, confident learners who are comfortable exploring new ideas.
Encourage Curiosity
Give children opportunities to observe, ask questions, explore ideas and discover how the world around them works.
Build Confidence
Create achievable learning experiences that allow students to recognize their progress and feel proud of what they learn.
Develop Thinking Skills
Encourage children to compare, classify, recognize patterns, solve simple problems and explain what they notice.
Strengthen Communication
Help students listen, speak, build vocabulary and begin expressing their ideas through words and early writing.
Encourage Independence
Gradually help young students follow directions, complete activities and take increasing responsibility for learning.
Core Curriculum
What will Kindergarten students learn?
The initial OpenBook Kindergarten curriculum is organized around four core subjects. Each subject can be divided into units, lessons, activities and assessments.
Core Subject
Language Arts
Kindergarten Language Arts begins the journey from recognizing letters and sounds toward understanding words, sentences and simple stories.
Learning Areas
- Uppercase letters
- Lowercase letters
- Letter sounds
- Beginning phonics
- Rhyming words
- Vocabulary
- Sight words
- Story sequencing
- Listening comprehension
- Early reading
- Letter formation
- Beginning writing
Core Subject
Mathematics
Kindergarten Mathematics helps children understand numbers, quantities, patterns, shapes and the basic relationships that form the foundation of later mathematics.
Learning Areas
- Counting
- Number recognition
- Comparing quantities
- More and less
- Basic addition
- Basic subtraction
- Shapes
- Patterns
- Sorting
- Measurement concepts
- Position & direction
- Mathematical reasoning
Core Subject
Science
Kindergarten Science encourages children to observe their surroundings, ask questions and discover patterns in nature and everyday life.
Learning Areas
- Living & nonliving things
- Plants
- Animals
- Habitats
- Weather
- Seasons
- Earth & sky
- The five senses
- Materials
- Motion
- Observation
- Simple investigations
Core Subject
Social Studies
Kindergarten Social Studies begins with the child's own world—home, family and community—and gradually introduces larger ideas about people and places.
Learning Areas
- Families
- Homes
- Communities
- Community helpers
- Rules & responsibilities
- Good citizenship
- Maps
- Land & water
- Past & present
- Holidays & traditions
- Cultures
- Our country & world
From Subject To Lessons
A curriculum with a clear path forward.
Each subject can be organized into units. Each unit contains individual lessons that move students toward specific learning goals.
Here is an example of how part of the Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum could be organized inside OpenBook.
1
Letters Are Everywhere
Recognizing letters and understanding
that letters represent sounds.
FOUNDATION
2
Learning Letter Sounds
Connecting familiar letters with
their common sounds.
PHONICS
3
Sounds Make Words
Listening for beginning and ending
sounds in simple words.
PHONICS
4
Words Make Sentences
Discovering how words work together
to communicate an idea.
READING
5
Stories Have Meaning
Identifying characters, events and
simple story sequences.
COMPREHENSION
6
I Can Write
Practicing letters, words and early
written expression.
WRITING
Inside A Lesson
Small steps can lead to big discoveries.
Kindergarten lessons should be manageable for young learners. Instead of overwhelming children with long blocks of material, a lesson can introduce one clear idea and reinforce it through several short activities.
Activities can vary according to the subject and lesson. Some may happen on screen, while others may encourage a child and parent to step away from the computer and explore, draw, count, read or observe something together.
Sample Kindergarten Lesson
Meet the Letter A
Discover
Meet uppercase A and lowercase a
and notice how they look.
Listen
Hear the common sound associated
with the letter.
Connect
Find familiar words and pictures
that begin with the sound.
Practice
Trace or write uppercase and
lowercase forms of the letter.
Check Understanding
Identify the letter and its sound
from a few simple choices.
Flexible Learning
What could an OpenBook day look like?
Homeschooling does not have to reproduce a traditional classroom schedule. Families can organize lessons around the needs, attention span and pace of their child.
Language Arts
Reading, phonics or writing activity
Mathematics
Numbers, shapes or problem solving
Explore & Move
Break, play or hands-on discovery
Science or Social Studies
Explore the world through a new topic
Progress & Assessment
Find out what the student understands.
At the Kindergarten level, assessment should help parents understand progress without turning every learning experience into a high-pressure test.
Lesson Checks
Short questions and simple activities can confirm whether a child understands the concept before moving forward.
Practice Activities
Students can reinforce skills through matching, sorting, identifying, drawing, counting and other age-appropriate work.
Unit Reviews
At appropriate points, a unit review can revisit important concepts and help identify material that needs more practice.
Progress Records
As the OpenBook student system is built, completed lessons, assignments and assessments can contribute to an organized record of student progress.
Learning Together
Parents remain an important part of Kindergarten.
OpenBook provides structure. Parents provide something technology cannot.
Young children often benefit from an adult nearby to read directions, answer questions, encourage effort and participate in hands-on activities. OpenBook is being designed to support homeschool families, not to replace the relationship between the parent or guardian and the child.
Kindergarten Curriculum Is Being Developed
OpenBook Homeschooling is currently building its Kindergarten curriculum. Curriculum outlines, units, lessons, activities and assessments may be revised as development continues. OpenBook is an educational curriculum and learning resource and does not represent itself as an accredited school unless accreditation is specifically obtained and stated. Homeschool laws and requirements vary by location, so parents and guardians remain responsible for understanding the requirements that apply to their family.
Open the book. Begin the adventure.
Kindergarten is the first chapter of the OpenBook learning journey—and the foundation upon which every future grade will be built.
Get Started With OpenBook →