KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Send comments to Mike Tillman Head, Curriculum/Juvenile Library, California State University, Fresno

NEW Internet content for specific California Kindergarten Standards - Student Activities * although each state has its own standards, by and large, they are quite similiar and as such the student activities included here are generally appropriate for other states

 

NEW Internet content for specific California Kindergarten Standards - Lesson Plans and Other Teacher Resources * although each state has its own standards, by and large, they are quite similiar and as such the lesson plans and other teacher resources included here are generally appropriate for other states

Purpose

The purpose of Kindergarten Teacher is to provide a comprehensive and organized collection of substantial educational content available via the Internet and of value to those who teach or intend to teach kindergarten.

Compiler's Qualifications

Mike Tillman, who directs the Curriculum/Juvenile Library at California State University, Fresno, created Kindergarten Teacher while on sabbatical during the spring of 2002.  He has obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in education and taught at the K-12 level for many years prior to obtaining his present position. 

Suggestions for Additions to Kindergarten Teacher

The intent is to continuously improve Kindergarten Teacher.  To suggest possible additions to the site please click here Mike Tillman.

What Every Kindergarten Teacher Should Know About Surfing the Internet

1. Links can and do change.  A link that used to lead to a collection of lesson plans or a student activity could now lead to pornography.  One way this happens is when an individual or organization registers a domain, creates useful educational content, and places it on the Internet.  Many people link to and enter the site.  Time passes and the original owner of the site forgets or declines to renew the domain.  The domain becomes available and is purchased by somebody else who is free to post whatever type of content they like, so a link that led to chemistry teacher resources or primary undersea activities yesterday could lead to pornography today.

2. The best original content for kindergarten teachers can be found on practicing kindergarten teacher's Web pages.  However, most practicing kindergarten teacher's Web pages do not include a large amount of original content.  Many of the sites with significant original content are hosted by providers that set limits on the number of visitors, provide relatively slow connections, and insert pop-up ads.  If a site includes a lot of pictures it loads at an even slower pace.  Despite these minor inconveniences practicing kindergarten teacher's Web pages are the primary resource for kindergarten teachers because of the quality and relevance of the content found on these sites.

3. Kindergarten teachers can retrieve practical curricula such as lesson plans, thematic units, and literacy centers on the Internet.  They can also retrieve many other types of useful content via the Internet, including full-text education research, theory, and practice; classroom management and organization; booklists; professional development resources; standards; teacher tools; pictures of bulletin boards, word walls, and literacy centers; technology integration; worksheets; assessment; etc.  For instance, the ERIC Digest site includes nearly 2000 full-text reports covering a wide variety of topic of interest to kindergarten teachers.

4. The intent of most commercial Internet educational content providers is to make money.  Over the past seven years a significant portion of free Internet educational content either disappeared, began to charge a fee for access, or began to include advertisements.  What is available today might not be available tomorrow.  What is free today might not be free tomorrow. What is ad free today might not be ad free tomorrow.

5. Don't overlook kindergarten related listservs as a source of practical ideas and curriculum.  Many commercial and noncommercial sites facilitate this type of information exchange.  Even if you don't participate, the archives of various listservs can prove invaluable because topics covered were selected by people in the field and content provided was (in general) created by people in the field.  Try to find a listserv that specifically addresses your interest.  As with anything else on the Internet, use caution when providing personal information.  Also remember that listservs and chat rooms are often undermonitered/unmonitored and inappropriate messages are sometimes posted.

6. The most efficient path to Internet content is through sites specifically developed for kindergarten teachers.  The next most efficient path is through sites specifically developed for early childhood education (generally recognized as birth through age eight), preschool, and kindergarten through second grade.  Due to the design of most sites, a significant portion of kindergarten related content is accessed via sites targeted specifically for either preschool or kindergarten through second grade.  Please remember that education sites targeted for prekindergarten through twelfth grade education, such as Gateway to Educational Materials, and sites not targeted for education, such as Google, can (if used correctly) provide a wealth of kindergarten related content including lesson plans. 

7. Many kindergarten teachers depend on listings of items (directories) to access Internet content.  Search engines are an overlooked avenue to Internet content.  Search engines generally allow you to search by entering keywords rather than scanning a listing of items.  Lesson plans and education research, theory, and practice can sometimes be found most efficiently via search engines if the user has a basic understanding of appropriate search terms and search strategies.  Please see Kindergarten Topics for a listing of possible search terms.  See Search Engines (Education) and Search Engines for possible search engines and related search strategies.

8. On almost all occasions kindergarten teachers surf the Internet in order to access full-text materials.  They want the entire unit plan or journal article online rather than a citation for a particular item.  On some occasions it might be appropriate to surf the Internet for items that are not available in full-text online.  Access to both the ERIC Database and the Library of Congress Online Catalog can be gained via the Internet.  They provide citations for and descriptions of more than a million education journal articles, books, and reports.  If something has been published on an education related topic it will probably be included in one of these datatbases.  The databases can be used to access information that can make teaching more fulfilling and more productive.  The databases are somewhat complex and even though this Web site provides potential topics and instructions on how to use the databases you will need to spend some time searching them in order to use them proficiently.  Also, you will need to record the citation and contact a local university, college, or public library to obtain the item directly or via interlibrary loan.  Even though this process is much more involved than finding something full-text on the Internet it is sometimes worth the work.  You can access Kindergarten Topics, the ERIC Database, and the Library of Congress Online Catalog via this Web site.

9. Sites that target kids like Yahooligans and Ask Jeeves Kids include information and activities that may be appropriate for inclusion in the kindergarten curriculum.

Kindergarten Topics - kindergarten related topics for curriculum; lesson plans; thematic units; literature units; literacy and developmental centers; classroom organization, management and practice; education research and theory; etc.

*Remember to use variations of the following topics.  For instance, if you don't find what you are looking for when you use the term "family," try "families."  Generally it is best to use lowercase letters when utilizing search engines.

100th day of school
Abraham Lincoln
activities
activity books
addition
airplanes
alphabet
alphabet books
animals
animals of the night
ants
apples
art
assessment
attention deficit disorder
automobiles
bats
bears
bibliographies
big books
bilingual
Bill Martin
birds
black
blends
blue
body
brown
bulletin boards
butterflies
calendars
capitalization
careers
cars
Cesar Chavez
character
children's literature
Christmas
Christmas around the world
Cinco de Mayo
circle
citizenship
classroom management
Clifford
coloring
colors
communications
community
community helpers
compound words
computer
concepts
consonant
contractions
cooperation
cooperative learning
cooking
counting
counting books
cowboys
crafts
curriculum
cvc
day
days of the week
decoding
deserts
developmental centers
developmental play
developmentally appropriate practices
diagraphs
diamond
dinosaurs
discipline
Dolch word list
Dr. Seuss
dramatic play
drawing
drugs
early childhood education
earth
easter
economics
education law
elephant
emergent literacy
end of the year
environment
Eric Carle
evaporation
experiments
fall
family
farms
father's day
felt boards
field trips
fine motor
finger plays
fire station
first day of school
fish
flashcards
flowers
following directions
food
food pyramid
Four Blocks
Friedrich Froebel
friendship
fruits
full day kindergarten
games
Gail Gibbons
garbage
geography
George Washington
grapes
green
grey
grocery store
guided reading
Halloween
handwriting
Hanukah
harvest
health
heroes
high frequency words
hippopotamus
history
holidays
home
hospital
how I look
hyperactivity
ice
inclusion
insects
instructional materials
interactive story books
Internet
Internet projects
investigations
Jan Brett
jobs
journals
Joy Cowely
Kid Pix
kindergarten
kindergarten activity programs
kindergarten children
kindergarten curricula
kindergarten fiction
kindergarten methods and manuals
kindergarten teachers
Kwanza
ladybugs
land
language arts
learning centers
learning strategies
learning styles
legends
Leo Lionni
lesson plans
letters
library
liquid
listening
literacy centers
literary analysis
literary response
literature units
lion
magnets
mainstreaming
manipulatives
maps
Martin Luther King
matching
math
me
measurement
Mercer Mayer
money
monkey
Montessori Method
months
Mother Goose
Mother's Day
mountains
movement activities
multicultural
music
Native Americans
newsletters
night
number recognition
nursery rhymes
nutrition
observation
occupation
oceans
open house
orange
oval
painting
parent information
parent participation
parental involvement
Pat Hutchins
patterns
penguins
people
phonemes
phonemic awareness
phonics
physical education
picture books
pilgrims
pink
plants
poems
poetry
police station
portfolios
prediction
presidents
President's Day
printables
project approach
projects
pollution
punctuation
pumpkins
puppetry
purple
radio
rain
rainbows
reading
reading comprehension
reading lists
recipes
rectangle
recycling
red
Reggio Emilia Approach
research
rhymes
rhyming words
rivers
rules
safety
scarecrow
scheduling
science
sea
seasons
seeds
senses
sentences
sequencing
shapes
shared reading
sight words
size
snow
social skills
social studies
software
solid
songs
sorting
sounds
speaking
spelling
spiders
spring
square
standards
stories
storytelling
subtraction
summer
syllables
symbols
technology
telephone
television
texture
Thanksgiving
thematic units
themes
tiger
time
trains
transportation
triangle
trucks
turkeys
Valentines Day
valleys
vegetables
visual discrimination
vocabulary development
vowels
water
weather
Web sites
weight
white
whole language
wind
winter
word analysis
word families
word recognition
word walls
words
work
worksheets
writing
yellow
zebra
zoo
Zoo Phonics

Kindergarten Teacher Bibliography - listings of books, journal articles, ERIC documents, and juvenile literature (books about kindergarten for kids) that may be useful to kindergarten teachers
If you would like to obtain an item call your local university, college, or public library and ask if they have the item or can help you obtain the item via interlibrary loan.  If you are not a current student at the local college or university you will probably have to borrow or obtain the item via interlibrary loan from your local public library.

Books - for kindergarten teachers

10 Minutes a Day to Reading success: Activities and Skill Builders to Help Your
Kindergartner Learn To Love Reading
Fairweather, Gari
Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c1998

101 Educational Conversations with Your Kindergartener-First Grader
Perrone, Vito
New York : Chelsea House, c1993

Changing Kindergartens: Four Success Stories
Goffin, Stacie G.; Stegelin, Dolores A.
Washington, DC : National Association for the Education of Young Children, c1992

Child's Garden: The Kindergarten Movement from Froebel to Dewey
Shapiro, Michael Steven
University Park PA : Pennsylvania State University Press, c1983

A Child's Work: Freedom and Play in Froebel's Educational Theory and Practice
Liebschner, Joachim
Cambridge : Lutterworth Press, c1992

CLAS Kindergarten
Plourde, Lynn
Tucson, AZ : Communication Skill Builders, c1995

Communication Station: Learning Center Projects for Language
Babler, Susan
Torrance, CA : Totline Publications, c1998

Creation Station: Learning Center Projects for Art
Warren, Jean; Bittinger, Gayle
Torrance, CA : Totline Publications, c1998

Developmental Tasks for Kindergarten Readiness - II, DTKR II: Assessment of Prekindergarten Children to Determine Kindergarten Readiness
Lesiak Walter J.; Lesiak, Judi Lucas
Brandon, VT : Clinical Psychology Pub. Co., c1994

Discovery Science: Explorations for the Early Years, Grade K
Winnett, David A. 
Menlo Park, CA : Innovative Learning Publications, c1994

The Dramatic Difference: Drama in the Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom
Brown, Victoria; Pleydell, Sarah
Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1999

Early Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten
Rog, Lori Jamison
Newark, DE : International Reading Association, c2001

Educationally Appropriate Kindergarten Practices
Spodek, Bernard
Washington, DC : NEA Professional Library, National Education Association, c1991

Emergent Literacy in Kindergarten: A Review of the Research and Related Suggested Activities and Learning Strategies
Robinson, Violet B.; Ross, Gretchen; Neal, Harriet G.
San Mateo, CA : California Kindergarten Association, c2000

The Full-Day Kindergarten: Planning and Practicing a Dynamic Themes Curriculum
Fromberg, Doris Pronin
New York : Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, c1995

Great Beginnings: Creating a Literacy-Rich Kindergarten Program
Ditzel, Resi J.
York, ME : Stenhouse Publishers, c2000

I Teach Kindergarten!: A Treasure Chest of Teaching Wisdom
Campbell-Rush, Peggy
Peterborough, NH : Crystal Springs Books, c2000

IDEAL: Integrated Developmental Experiences for Active Learning : A Kindergarten Program
Burton, Leon H.; Witt Diane M.
Lewisville, NC : Kaplan Press, c1996

Inventing Kindergarten (kindergarten history)
Brosterman, Norman.
New York : H.N. Abrams, c1997

Investigation Station: Learning Center Projects for Investigation
Bittinger, Gayle
Torrance, CA : Totline Publications, c1998

Joyful Learning in Kindergarten
Fisher, Bobbi
Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1998

Kids' Poems: Teaching Kindergartners to Love Writing Poetry
Routman, Regie
New York : Scholastic, c2000

Kindergarten Architecture
Dudek, Mark
London ; New York : E & FN Spon, c2000

Kindergarten: Fours and Fives Go to School
Seefeldt, Carol; Wasik, Barbara
Upper Saddle River, NJ : Merrill, c2002

Kindergarten: It Isn't What It Used to Be : Getting Your Child Ready for the Positive Experience of Education
Golant, Susan K.; Golant, Mitch

Los Angeles : Lowell House, c1999
Kindergarten Policies: What Is Best for Children?
Peck, Johanne T.; McCaig, Ginny; Sapp, Mary Ellen

Washington, DC : National Association for the Education of Young Children, c1988
Kindergarten Teacher's Survival Guide
Stull, Elizabeth Crosby

West Nyack, NY : Center for Applied Research in Education, c1997
Ladders to Literacy: A Kindergarten Activity Book
O'Conner, Rollanda E.; Notari-Syverson Angela; Vadasy, Patricia F.
Baltimore, MD : P.H. Brookes Pub., c1998

Learning Center Activities for the Full-Day Kindergarten
Bergman, Abby Barry
West Nyack, NY : Center for Applied Research in Education, c1990

Listen for the Bus: David's Story
McMahon, Patricia
Honesdale, PA. : Boyds Mills Press, c1995

The Lively Kindergarten: Emergent Curriculum in Action
Jones, Elizabeth; Evans, Kathleen; Rencken, Kay Stritzel
Washington, DC : National Association for the Education of Young Children, c2001

The Mailbox Superbook, Kindergarten: Your Complete Resource for an Entire Year of Kindergarten Success!
Goren, Ada H.
Greensboro, NC : Education Center, c1998

The Mommy and Daddy Guide to Kindergarten: Real-Life Advice and Tips from Parents and Other Experts: A To Z
Bernard, Susan
Lincolnwood, IL : Contemporary Books, c2001

Montessori in the Classroom: A Teacher's Account of How Children Really Learn
Lillard, Paula Polk
New York : Schocken Books, c1997

More Than Painting: Exploring the Wonders of Art in Preschool and Kindergarten
Moomaw, Sally; Hieronymus, Brenda
St. Paul, MN : Redleaf Press, c1999

Moving and Learning Series: Preschoolers & Kindergartners
Pica, Rae
Albany, NY : Delmar, c2000

Off To School: A Parent's-Eye View of the Kindergarten Year
Hannigan, Irene 
Washington, DC : National Association for the Education of Young Children, c1998

The Origins of Nursery Education: Friedrich Froebel and the English System
Brehony, Kevin J.
New York : Routledge, c2001

Pictures & Words Together: Children Illustrating and Writing Their Own Books
Johnson, Paul
Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1997

Ready for Kindergarten: An Award Winning Teacher's Plan to Prepare Your Child for School
Wilkins, Sharon
Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan Pub. House, c2000

Ready-Start-School!: Nurturing and Guiding Your Child through Preschool & Kindergarten
Rief, Sandra F.
Paramus, NJ : Prentice Hall Press, c2001

Teaching Kindergarten
Walmsley, Bonnie Brown; Camp, Anne Marie; Walmsley, Sean A.
Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c1992

Thematic Units for Kindergarten
Schlosser, Kristin
New York : Scholastic Professional Books, c1994

The Whole Language Kindergarten
Raines, Shirley C.; Canady, Robert J.
New York : Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, c1990

Journal Articles

Beautiful Me! Celebrating Diversity through Literature and Art
Strasser, Janis Koeppel
Childhood Education; v77 n2 p76-80 Win 2000-2001
Constructing Literacy in the Kindergarten: Task Structure, Collaboration, and Motivation
Nolen, Susan Bobbitt

Cognition and Instruction; v19 n1 p95-142 2001
Cooking Up Mathematics in the Kindergarten
Partridge, Elizabeth
Teaching Children Mathematics; v2 n8 p492-95 Apr 1996

Developing a Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness Program: An Action Research Project
Reiner, Kathleen
Reading Teacher; v52 n1 p70-73 Sep 1998

Developmentally Appropriate Career Guidance: Building Concepts to Last a Lifetime
Harkins, Margaret A.
Early Childhood Education Journal; v28 n3 p169-74 Spr 2001

The Effects of Physical Materials on Kindergartners' Learning of Number Concepts
Chao, Shaw Jing; Stigler, James W.; Woodward, J. Arthur
Cognition and Instruction; v18 n3 p285-316 2000

Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Assessment I Can Learn in Kindergarten
Martin, Ruth A.
Science and Children; v35 n1 p50-53 Sep 1997

Exploring Young Children's Literacy Development through Play
Saracho, Olivia N.
Early Child Development and Care; v167 p103-14 Apr 2001

How Play and Work Are Organized in a Kindergarten Classroom
Polito, Theodora
Journal of Research in Childhood Education; v9 n1 p47-57 Fall-Win 1994

Integrating the Visual Arts: Building Young Children's Knowledge, Skills, and Confidence
Fox, Jill Englebright; Diffily, Deborah
Dimensions of Early Childhood; v29 n1 p3-10 Win 2001

Kindergarten Children's Initial Experiences in Physical Education: The Relentless Persistence for Play Clashes with the Zone of Acceptable Responses
Sanders, Steve; Graham, George
Journal of Teaching in Physical Education; v14 n4 p372-83 Jul 1995

Kindergarten Mathematics: Teaching or Controlling?
Hegland, Susan M.
Arithmetic Teacher; v39 n2 p34-37 Oct 1991

The Kindergartner
Howe, Frederick C.
Child Study Journal; v23 n4 p239-52 1993

Kindergartners "Choose" to Read
Henderson, Alayna M.
Reading Teacher; v49 n7 p590-91 Apr 1996

Kindergarteners Talk about Print: Phonemic Awareness in Meaningful Contexts
Richgels, Donald J.
Reading Teacher; v49 n8 p632-45 May 1996

Readers' Workshops in a Kindergarten Classroom
Bryan, John W.
Reading Teacher; v52 n5 p538-40 Feb 1999

Verdi Invades the Kindergarten.
McGirr, Paula 
Childhood Education; v71 n2 p74-79 Win 1994-95

Where Have the Children Gone? Storyreading in Kindergarten and Prekindergarten Classes
Peters, Sandra Jane
Early Child Development and Care; v88 p1-15 1993

Writing Workshop: Early Writing
Amberg, Margaret Alice
Learning; v21 n2 p92-94 Sep 1992

Young Children Make Maps!
Lenhoff, Rosalyn; Huber, Lynn
Young Children; v55 n5 p6-12 Sep 2000

ERIC Documents

Developing Literacy among Kindergarten Children through the Implementation of Child Centered Activities Based upon Reading Recovery Principles
Landry, Maureen D.
1991
90 pages
ED335641

Drug and Alcohol Awareness for Kindergarten
Drexler, Nora L.
1994
41 pages
ED381729

Implementing a Training Workshop to Improve Parent Use of Appropriate Home Activities with Kindergarten Children
Neitzey, Sharon C.
1992
104 pages
ED354989

Increasing Literacy Development of At-Risk Kindergarten Students through Cross-Age Tutoring.
Henriques, Marlene
1992
97 pages
ED350088

Kindergarten: Authorized Resources Annotated List
1999
58 pages
ED438035

The Kindergarten Center: An Early Childhood Concept
Trezza, Janet M.
1992
13 pages
ED356876

Music Literacy in Kindergarten
Casiano, Gloria M.
1998
9 pages
ED429914

The Phonological Awareness Handbook for Kindergarten and Primary Teachers
Ericson, Lita; Juliebo, Moira Fraser
1998
112 pages
ED418404

Reading Instruction and the Kindergarten Student.
Ediger, Marlow
2001
8 pages
ED455491

Teachers' Perceptions of the All-Day, Alternating Day Kindergarten Schedule
Good, Linda
1996
45 pages
ED396853

Juvenile Literature - books about kindergarten for kids

Hello School!: A classroom of Poems
Lillegard, Dee
New York : Alfred A Knopf, c2001

Hide and Seek All Week
dePaola, Tomie
New York : Grosset & Dunlap, c2001

Kindergarten ABC
Rogers, Jacqueline
New York : Scholastic, c2002

Kindergarten Kids
Senisi, Ellen B.
New York : Cartwheel Books, c1994

Learning Is Fun with Mrs. Perez
Flanagan, Alice K.
New York : Children's Press, c1998

Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!
Carlson, Nancy
New York : Viking, c1999

Mama, Don't Go!
Wells, Rosemary
New York : Hyperion Books for Children, c2001

Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten
Slate, Joseph
New York : Dutton Children's Books, c1998

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
Slate, Joseph
New York : Dutton Children's Books, c1996

Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten
Slate, Joseph
New York : Dutton Children's Books, c2000

Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten
Slate, Joseph
New York : Dutton Children's Books, c2001

We Share Everything!
Munsch, Robert
New York : Scholastic, c1999

When You Go to Kindergarten
Howe, James
New York : Morrow Junior Books, c1994

Art

 

Booklists Coloring Pages Conferences Discipline Employment - general information, state certification requirements and contacts, school district locator, help-wanted listings Free Items Full-Text - ERIC digests, books, journals, newspaper articles, newsletters Full-Text Kindergarten Related ERIC Digests - select obtain to retrieve the full text of an item Grants Health Holidays Kindergarten Specific Technology Integration Kindergarten Teacher's Web Sites - containing significant, original curricular or organizational content Languages Lesson Plans Collections Lesson Plans Search Engines - sites that incorporate keyword search capabilities (some search engines listed below also allow access to other types of materials); see Kindergarten Topics for terms that may be helpful when utilizing these search engines

Math

Metasites - sites that attempt to comprehensively cover a particular discipline, subject, or level; they may include lesson plans, themes, education resources for teachers and/or students, classroom management/organization information, student online activities, focused collections of links to other sites, etc. Music Physical Education Professional Associations Reading and Writing