Kindergarten Curriculum Picks 2023-2024

Here we go! I’m so excited to share curriculum!

All this week I’ll be sharing curriculum picks for our upcoming school year! We take a nice break in summer and will start our new school year in August. I like to try and choose our curriculum and have it purchased at least by June, so I have all summer to look through everything, plan, and gather any extra notebooks or supplies we might need. I also like to have everything decided so I can share with you, and you are able to see other options and ideas to help you decide throughout summer.

This coming school year I will have a Kindergartener, 2nd, and 4th grader. I will be sharing a blog post for each grade and the core curriculum they will be using. Next week I will share our family studies that we will do all together (history, science, geography.)

So today let’s start with my Kindergartener!

Kindergarten is one of my favorite grades to teach and this will be my 3rd time around. I love to keep Kindergarten very simple, with lots of time to play and be creative. I like to focus on learning to read and some math, and really only add in extra subjects (science) they are personally interested in. I don’t like to pile on too much, so they find a love for learning and have fun.

Here is all the curriculum my Kindergartener will be using in the 2023-2024 school year.

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Morning Time: Morning Menu Set by Arrows and Applesauce

In Kindergarten, I love to start our lessons with some calendar work. Learning the days of the week, months of the year, dates, seasons, etc. I love these morning menus from Arrows and Applesauce to get us started each day. I put them in restaurant menus and pair them with a dry erase marker so they can be used over and over each day. My kids have always loved doing these and they just take a few minutes each day.

Language Arts- The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Prep

I love to use The Good and the Beautiful in the early years for Language Arts to really build a strong reading foundation. We previously used their Preschool Course this past year, taking it very slow, and really enjoyed it. I have used their Level K Language Arts program twice before and while I love it, I feel like it is a big jump from their preschool course. I like to start with their Kindergarten Prep course book first. This is a shorter book, only 30 lessons, but really helps make sure they have mastered their letters and beginning sounds. We do one lesson a day (4 day a week,) so when he finishes this book, we will move on to the Level K Language Arts Course. *They have placement tests on their website to help you decide where to start.

Phonics- Explode the Code Book 1

All my kids have loved Explode the Code. These workbooks are so simple and take no time at all. I love to use these books alongside our Language Arts curriculum for some extra phonics practice. They have helped a lot with learning how to read, decode words, and beginning spelling. We typically just do one page each day.

Reading- Dash Into Learning Set 1

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I have taught 2 kids to read now with these precious books and I can’t wait to use them again. Beautiful pictures, simple text, and fun stories! We will start with Set 1 for kindergarten. Each set comes with 10 readers. The first page in each book helps you know what letter sounds, sight words, and word blends will be used in that story. I like to look at these ahead of time, before we read each book, and practice working on those sight words to help build their confidence in reading.

You can read all about how I teach my kids to read HERE. This blog post has a lot of the games and other resources I use throughout the year to help teach reading.

To help learn the sight words and letter blends for each book, there is also activity packs that go with each story. These are so fun and my kids love them! Fun games, crafts, handwriting, puzzles, and more to help them learn reading fluency. We don’t use these activities every day, but it is a great way to break up our lessons with some fun hands-on activities.

Math- The Good and the Beautiful Math K

We love the math courses from The Good and the Beautiful. They are full of color, short lessons, and incorporate fun games to learn math concepts. I love that it comes with a small math box that has all the math manipulatives you need to complete the curriculum. This is a spiral method, so they are always reviewing the concepts they have previously learned throughout the course book. This always becomes my kids favorite subject thanks to this fun curriculum!

Handwriting- A Reason For Level K

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For handwriting, I like something very simple to help beginning penmanship practice. The Level K book from A Reason For is great at teaching the correct letter formation and has fun pages to color. I have them complete just one page each day in this book.

Science- The Good and the Beautiful: Little Hearts and Hands

Little Hearts and Hands science curriculum is perfect for preschool to 2nd grade. It uses captivating stories, hands-on activities, and videos to introduce science topics to young learners. They will learn about different plants, insects, frogs, fish, tress, and other nature topics. While we usually do science all together, I thought this would be great and simple enough for my son and I to do on our own each day while my oldest two are doing their independent reading. We can read the story and watch the video together one day and complete the lesson and activities the next. Some of the topics we might all do together because they will also tie in really well with our bible curriculum. I’ll share all about that next week.

Social Studies- Me on the Map

For Kindergarten, I always love to do the unit study Me on the Map. Me on the Map is a great early introduction to social studies by teaching an overall picture of how they fit into the larger world. This study guide is compiled of 8 units to help them learn all about their home, street, city, state, country, continent, and planet. Included is great book lists, activities, projects, and more. Learn more about it and see more photos HERE. We will be saving this guide to complete next spring.

Some extra things that I love to have on hand that are super useful during our Kindergarten year:

Moveable Alphabet Letters

Word Wheels & Sight Word Flashcards

Sun Swamp

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That is everything for our Kindergarten year! Very simple, but so much fun, and he is going to learn so much!

For Kindergarten I don’t focus heavily on extra subjects, like history or science unless they are interested. He will be included in our family studies that I am doing with his older siblings for history and science. However, if he isn’t interested and doesn’t want to participate, I don’t push him to. He will learn everything as he gets older, just like them. These beginning years are for intentional time together and full of play.

Our schoolwork for Kindergarten takes no longer that an hour each day. We work on Language Arts, Math and Handwriting first in the morning. We like to have those finished by lunch and our afternoons are for any extra subjects or projects. I’ll share more about our daily routine/rhythm later on.

I hope you enjoyed this post today! Come back tomorrow as I share curriculum for my 2nd grader.

Praying you have a joyous day!

– Lindsay

Kindergarten Curriculum Round Up:

Morning Menu- Arrows and Applesauce

LA- The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Prep and Level K

Explode the Code Book 1

Math- Simply Good and Beautiful Math Level K

Handwriting- A Reason For Level K

Dash Into Learning (code: SMITH20 for 20% off)

Science- The Good and the Beautiful Little Hearts and Hands

Social Studies- Me on the Map