What is VPK?
VPK stands for Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program, designed for four-year-olds to prepare them academically and socially for kindergarten. This curriculum outlines what your child will experience and learn each day at Sunshine State Academy.
A Standards-Based Curriculum
Sunshine State Academy is dedicated to the implementation of a standards-based curriculum, requiring all the students to master standards composed concepts and skills which are critical to their school success: preparing them for graduation, post-secondary education, and employment.
The prekindergarten standards are based on the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards for Four-Year-Olds.
This packet has been developed by the Early Childhood Education Department. Detailed information by grade level is available for review at each elementary school.
How Parents Can Help
- Encourage reading by having newspapers, magazines, and books around your house.
- Read aloud to your children to build their vocabulary and listening skills.
- Share and discuss books and stories at home to motivate your children to read
Websites that provide reading lists and guidelines for parents:
- National Institute for Early Education Research www.nieer.org
- National Association for the Education of Young Children www.naeyc.org
- Colorado- A bilingual site for families www.colorincolorado.org
- Reading Rockets www.Readingrockets.org/audience/parents
Curriculum Overview
Explore the core subjects and learning goals that shape our engaging VPK experience for the pre-kindergarten (Age 4) student.
Emergent Literacy
- Enjoys reading and uses books and other reading materials appropriately
- Recognizes that spoken sounds are connected to letters in words, written or read, and that words are made up of sounds
- Demonstrates age-appropriate phonological awareness of:
- Combination and deletion of compound words (e.g., base + ball= baseball; railroad – rail= road)
- Combination of syllables to make words (e.g., bro + ther= brother)
- Deletion of a sound from a word (e.g., pin-/p/= in)
- Rhyme and combination of sounds in one-syllable word (e.g., when teacher says /b/ + /at/, child selects the picture of a bat)
- Words with the same beginning and ending sound (e.g., bike, book; bat, cat)
- Recognizes and names most letters of the alphabet
- Recognizes and names some letter sounds
- Retells, asks, and answers questions about a story after it is read aloud
Language
- Listens attentively to age-appropriate stories read aloud
- Listens and responds to familiar songs
- Follows two and three step oral directions
- Uses age-appropriate grammar in conversations
- Speaks clearly and is understood by most listeners
- Expresses ideas and feelings through sentences
- Describes a recent event and can answer simple questions about it
- Initiates a conversation with a familiar adult
- Tells a story using words, props, and gestures to convey meaning
- Describes objects, actions, and events through expanded vocabulary
- Understands and uses age-appropriate vocabulary words
- Uses category labels (e.g., fruit, vegetable, transportation, tool)
- Uses complete sentences consisting of four or more words
- Understands and follows verbal and non-verbal conversation rules
- Understands and uses language appropriate for different contexts and purposes
- Describes an event or object using words to provide ideas, show feelings, or actions
- Repeats familiar songs, poems, fingerplays, and predictable patterned stories containing rhyme, rhythm, and repetition
- Engages in conversations with peers
Reading
- Demonstrates understanding of books read aloud
- Retells a story after it is read aloud
- Enjoys reading and related activities
- Answers questions about the pictures in a story
- Makes meaningful predictions about text using picture clues
- Identifies own name, labels, and signs in his/her classroom
- Identifies words that name persons, places, or things and words that name actions
- Names and sorts common items (e.g., colors, shapes, and foods)
- Understands that print contains a message
- Asks and answers questions about material that has been read or heard
- Points to words as they are being spoken
- Predicts what might happen next in a story
- Retells familiar stories and rhymes through conversation, writing, or drama
- Makes connections between characters, events to real-life people, or events through questioning and discussion
- Recognizes how books are read (front-to-back) and basic characteristics such as title, author, and illustrator
- Understands print conventions such as moving from left to right and top to bottom when reading
- Demonstrates interest in different kinds of literature, such as fiction, non-fiction, and poetry
Writing
- Intentionally uses pencils, crayons, markers, chalk, and/or a keyboard to represent thoughts
- Draws a picture relating to a class experience and dictates text to teacher
- Writes some letters on request
- Uses letter-like shapes, symbols, and letters to convey meaning
- Demonstrates age-appropriate ability to write letters
- Shows knowledge of structure of written composition
- Scribbles on paper and may describe what he/she has “written”
- Scribbles on paper for real purposes (e.g., making a sign, a shopping list, a thank you note, etc)
- Writes own name not necessarily with correct spelling or well-formed letters
- Recognizes that writing is a way to communicate for a variety of purposes, such as giving information, sharing stories, or giving an opinion
Number sense, concepts, and operations
- Recognizes numbers and quantities in the everyday environment
- Understands that numbers come “before” and “after” one another
- Understands and uses one-to-one correspondence when counting
- Counts and constructs sets of 10-15 objects
- Uses the number name of the last object counted to represent the number of objects in a set
- Compares two sets to determine if sets are equal, if one set has more or less
- Understands that numbers can be represented by words and begins to understand the relative size of those numbers
- Understands the pattern of counting by adding one, up to number 31, with teacher support
- Begins to separate sets into a maximum of four parts, with teacher support
- Understands and names ordinal positions (e.g., first, second, third, fourth, fifth)
- Shows understanding of addition and subtraction by combining and removing objects from a set
- Identifies the new number created when numbers are combined or separated
Measurements
- Weighs objects, explores concepts or heavier and lighter
- Describes concepts or time and temperature (e.g., before, after, day, night, hot, and cold)
- Sorts, measures, and orders objects by length or size
- Measures and compares objects by length, height, and weight
- Uses measurement vocabulary (e.g., more, less, shorter, longer, heaviest, and lightest)
- Represents and analyzes data using charts and graphs with teacher support
- Uses standard and non-standard tools to measure and compare
Geometry and spatial sense
- Identifies, describes, and sorts two dimensional shapes (e.g., circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, and other shapes)
- Identifies, describes, and sorts three dimensional shapes (e.g., sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, and pyramid)
- Understands and uses language to describe spatial relationships (e.g., in, out, above, below, over, under, next to, beside, on top of, inside, and outside)
- Follows directions to move or place one object in relation to another (e.g., beside, in front of, and below)
- Understands orientation words such as diagonal, horizontal, and vertical
- Predicts and analyzes results of data collection with teacher support
- Recognizes shapes in real world objects
- Uses materials that fit together and come apart in algebraic thinking
- Sorts objects or pictures of objects and classifies them on the basis of one characteristic (color, shape, size)
- Compares the size and shape of objects
- Identifies and recognizes simple patterns of sounds, physical movements and/or concrete objects
- Repeats simple patterns of sound, physical movement, and/or concrete objects
- Uses concrete objects to create and extend a pattern
- Begins to use simple strategies to solve mathematical problems in data analysis and probability
- Collects and analyses information
Technology
- Is aware of technology and how it affects life
History
- Says his/her first and last name
- Identifies the relationships between members of a family (e.g., mother, father, sister, and brother)
- Begins to understand family needs and roles
- Begins to understand some people’s jobs and the work associated with them
- Interacts easily with familiar adults
- Demonstrates understanding of rules
- Demonstrates awareness of people, places they live, and how they change over time
- Demonstrates awareness of the environment
- Differentiates between past, present, and future
- Recognizes events that happened in the past
Geography
- Plays, learns, and is aware of different areas of the school and classroom (e.g., playground, centers, office)
- Identifies outdoor places and indoor places through photographs, drawings, and pictures
Civics and Government
- Participates in classroom event
- Follows classroom materials and cooperates during learning and playing activities
- Seeks adult assistance appropriately
- Interacts easily with one or more children
- Shows empathy in caring for others
- Shows awareness of what it means to be a leader
- Understands similarities and respects differences among people
The Nature of Matter
- Sorts, describes, and compares objects in nature (rocks, leaves, nuts)
- Compares objects in nature by color, size, texture, and other physical properties
Energy
- Knows that the sun supplies light and heat
Force and Motion
- Understands that different things move at different speeds
- Knows that one way to change how something is moving is to give it a push or pull
Processes That Shape The Earth
- Recognizes patterns in weather
Earth and Space
- Observes and describes the nighttime sky including the moon and the stars
Processes of Life
- Observes, describes, and compares living things in a pond environment, in a forest, and on a farm
- Asks questions and uses sense to observe and explore materials and natural phenomena
- Uses simple tools and equipment for investigation
How Living Things Interact with The Environment
- Takes a walk inside and outside his/her home and describes and compares things that are living and non-living
- Recognizes that people share the environment with other people, animals and plants
- Understands that people can take care of the environment through activities, such as recycling
The Nature of Science
- Uses sense and tools, including technology to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships
- Collects, describes, records information through discussions, drawings, maps, and charts
- Observes and makes comparisons over a short period of time
- Guesses and makes predictions about events that will occur next and evaluates them
- Participates in simple investigations to form hypotheses, gather information and make generalizations
Physical Health
- Shows characteristics of good health to facilitate learning
- Performs oral hygiene routines
Knowledge of Wellness
- Shows that basic physical needs are met
- Makes choices
- Performs self-care tasks independently
- Communicates understanding of the importance of health and safety rules and routines
- Distinguishes from most healthy to least healthy foods
English 
Русский