The goal of the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten program is to stimulate the healthy growth of each child's intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills.

Pre-Kindergarten is followed by a traditional Kindergarten experience, and then First Grade.

Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K)

Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) is a time for children to experience the joys of learning in the classroom, on the playground, and beyond. Manatee Elementary's beautiful campus is a place for young children to investigate their social, intellectual, and emotional powers by using a variety of materials, resources, and tools. Pre-Kindergarten curriculum introduces children to the organization and routines of school. As the youngest children in the school take on their role as students, academic skills are introduced in a nurturing, caring environment. Building on the Pre-Kindergarten foundation, Kindergarten (K) students begin to focus on the skills that will be needed to tackle the rigors of first grade. Opportunities and expectations for reading, writing, mathematics, and science are incorporated into play and work. Offering two unique, yet complementary pre-first grade years supports the range of skills and developmental needs of the youngest learners in the Manatee Elementary community.

Kindergarten

Curricular content for all kindergarten subjects integrates critical-thinking, problem-solving, and workforce-literacy skills; communication, reading, and writing skills; mathematics skills; collaboration skills; contextual and applied-learning skills; technology-literacy skills; information and media-literacy skills; and civic-engagement skills.

Mathematics

In Kindergarten Mathematics, instructional time will emphasize three areas: 

1. developing an understanding of counting to represent the total number of objects in a set and to order the objects within a set;
2. developing an understanding of addition and subtraction and the relationship of these operations to counting and
3. measuring, comparing and categorizing objects according to various attributes, including their two- and three-dimensional shapes.

Language Arts

Instruction in Language Arts in Kindergarten is characterized by a focus on explicit and systematic approaches to teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. These systemic approaches are each divided into four strands: Foundations, Reading, Communication, and Vocabulary.

Social Studies

In Kindergarten, students will learn about themselves, their families, and the community. Students will be introduced to basic concepts related to history, geography, economics, and citizenship.

Science

In Kindergarten, instruction is focused on four scientific strands. These strands are investigations and experimentation, earth sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences:  

• Investigation and Experimentation. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three threads, students will develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will: 
  
  • Observe common objects by using the five senses.
  • Describe the properties of common objects.
  • Describe the relative position of objects by using one reference (e.g., above or below).
  • Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size,weight). 
  • Communicate observations orally and through drawings.
• Earth Sciences. Earth is composed of land, air, and water. As a basis for understanding this concept, students will investigate and understand: 
  •  Characteristics of mountains, rivers, oceans, valleys, deserts, and local landforms.
  • Changes in weather occur from day to day and across seasons, affecting the environment and its inhabitants.
  • How to identify resources from Earth that are used in everyday life, and understand that many resources can be conserved.
• Life Sciences. Different types of plants and animals inhabit the earth. As a basis for understanding this concept, students will investigate and understand:
  • How to observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects). 
  • Stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.
  • How to identify major structures of common plants and animals (e.g., stems, leaves, roots,arms, wings, legs).
• Physical Sciences. Materials come in different forms (states), including solids, liquids, and gases. Students will investigate and understand that:
  • Solids, liquids, and gases have different properties, and
  • The properties of substances can change, when the substances are mixed, cooled, or heated.
• Physical Sciences. Properties of materials can be observed, measured, and predicted. As a basis for understanding this concept, students will investigate and understand that:
  • Objects can be described in terms of the materials they are made of e.g., clay, cloth, paper) and their physical properties (e.g., color, size, shape, weight, texture, flexibility, attraction to magnets, floating, sinking).
  • Water can be a liquid or a solid and can be made to change back and forth from one form to the other.
  • Water left in an open container evaporates (goes into the air) but water in a closed container does not.