The primary school curriculum teaches students to read and prepares them for grammar study in future years of schooling. Primary school students learn basic reading skills through phonics, sight words and visual images. Beginning in kindergarten, students become familiar with the alphabet and simple word construction. Teachers demonstrate the appropriate sounds for each letter, then instruct students in how these sounds work together to form words. Teachers may also provide vocabulary lists for students to study at home with their parents. Primary school teachers often label items in their classrooms so that students can connect words with the objects they describe.
Primary school students learn fundamental mathematics concepts, such as counting, recognizing patterns, identifying numbers, addition and subtraction. Teachers may use manipulatives to demonstrate math practically. For example a teacher may teach subtraction by giving candies to her students, then taking a candy away and asking the student to count the number remaining. Teachers may also demonstrate patterns by using colored blocks, then ask students to build their own. Students at the primary level may benefit from using play money to practice counting quarters, nickels and dimes for a mathematics lesson.
Primary school teachers use music and art activities to reinforce concepts taught in other areas and also to encourage development of creative thinking. Students may participate in finger-painting, coloring, clay modeling and other activities. Teachers may ask students to draw a character from a storybook or an animal the class has discussed during a science lesson. Teachers may also use songs to teach days of the week, months of the year, seasons, letters and numbers. Students who learn best through auditory means may grasp these concepts more quickly if the class sings together daily.
Primary school science lessons often focus on nature, animals and the human body. Students learn to spell the names of animals and to identify them by visual image. Teachers may take their students outdoors to show them the differences among trees, grasses and other plants. Students begin to learn about the basic workings of human anatomy. Teachers may provide lessons on health, hygiene and nutrition. For example, a teacher may place one potato in a jar of clean water and another in a jar or dirty water. Students will learn that only the potato in clean water will continue to sprout.