Make Curriculum Alignment Easy with My Kindergarten Reading and Writing Curriculums!
I have said it before and I will say it again, there is a whole lot going on in kindergarten. You are teaching students to walk in the hallway, sit at their desks, and hold a pencil, while also teaching them to recognize letter sounds, sound out words, and read short sentences, while simultaneously teaching them to write those letters and sentences.
It is a lot. And it is so worth it because seeing your students’ massive growth at the end of the year is pretty awesome.
You can give students the chance at even more growth, while also giving yourself a little breathing room, if you can align your curriculums and core subjects so you are teaching similar standards that build off of each other throughout the day. Unfortunately, this is often extremely difficult.
I have spent many a summer with teacher textbooks spread out over my kitchen table and a massive Excel spreadsheet on my computer attempting to get the perfect alignment in place. And I was tired of doing it.
So I did what every teacher would do if they had the time to do it, I created my core curriculums that align perfectly with each other while meeting common core standards AND engaging students in developmentally appropriate ways.
You can read all about all three of these curriculums, or go straight to my blog where you will find ALL the details about each unit in my big Kindergarten Writing Bundle.
But don’t just take my word for it, let's talk about these curriculums and how well they align.
What are these three curriculums??
My Alphabet Curriculum is a 26-day unit that will walk your students through each letter. For every letter, students will learn the sound and formation, and then work on recognizing it as a beginning sound. Each lesson is developmentally appropriate and engaging, allowing students to practice through multiple modes, from creating a craft to reading a poem, to coloring and reading a decodable.
My Writing Curriculum will walk you and your students through the beginning of writing, illustrating, and drawing, all the way to the end of the year where students can write their own poetry. The units build on each other and give students ample practice with fine motor and phonics.
Finally, my Reading Curriculum. As with all of my resources, these are developmentally appropriate lessons built to extend your student's knowledge throughout the year. You’ll start the year off building the basics with concepts of print and move on to retelling stories and sequential order eventually making your way to poetry.
One important note: My reading curriculum is currently a GROWING bundle. I have the first two units completed and you will gain access to the others as I finish and release them, you’ll just need to hop on and re-download.
You can save big bucks by buying The Big Bundle of all three! And when you do, you’ll also get a bonus scope and sequence PDF!
There is SO MUCH to teach in kindergarten, how do these curriculums align?
Before I walk you through 8 months' worth of curriculum alignment, here are a couple of things to note!
- Each unit inside the Kindergarten Reading Bundle and the Kindergarten Writing Bundle is about 1 month long but can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of your classroom. Extend lessons if your students need extra support, double up a day or two if you have parent-teacher conferences.
- These curriculums are built to take you through the entire year! Most school years are longer than 8 months, but this gives you the time to add in themed weeks or account for breaks, teacher work days, and hopefully one or two snow days.
Alright here is a summary of how the three curriculums, included in this big bundle, align!
You’ll start in month one working your way through my Alphabet Curriculum while also completing the Illustration Unit (unit 1 of my writing curriculum). These will build super solid foundations as you move forward!
In month two, you’ll continue building foundations and maybe even reviewing those previous units. But it’ll be time to move on to Reading Unit 1: Print Concepts, and Writing Unit 2: Labeling. As students learn the basics of reading a book (tracking print, moving left to right, letters vs. words vs. sentences) they’ll also be learning the basics of writing (writing left to right, adding labels to pictures, writing a sentence).
Next, in month three, you and your students will begin to learn about the magic of storytelling! Reading Unit 2 focuses on retelling stories using beginning, middle, and end while Writing Unit 3 focuses on Narrative Writing.
In month four, the alignment continues. While you discuss sequential order and build up comprehension skills in Reading Unit 3, students will use their writing time to learn all about ‘How To’ writing.
During month five, you will introduce nonfiction texts while you teach Informational Writing. In month six, Reading Unit 4 focuses on cause and effect, predictions, and theme while Writing Unit 5 will teach Opinion Writing.
As you near the home stretch of your school year, your students will already have a firm understanding and foundation for both reading and writing. You and your students will complete Reading Unit 6: Fantasy Stories while working on, you guessed it, Fantasy Writing!
Finally, in month eight, you’ll teach about poetry across the board.
You can find a peek at the scope and sequence when you preview The Big Bundle!
Will I meet all the right standards using these curriculums?
I created these resources based on a few things:
- What is developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students
- The Science of Reading
- The Common Core Standards (I’ve listed the standards met within each reading lesson)
With all that being said, it’s important as educators to know our own state’s standards and look for their application within our own classrooms! You know your students, school, and state best which may mean that you need to adjust slightly to meet those needs.
You can find all of my developmentally appropriate resources in my TpT store!
