The seeds of literacy are planted in most kindergarten classes. The alphabet is taught along with corresponding sounds. Students are tasked with practicing writing letters and identifying the sounds each letter makes. Where students are expected to possess the ability to sight read some basic words, such as "dog" or "cat," kindergarten focuses its literary objectives on improving reading skills and writing.
Lessons in mathematics are limited at the kindergarten level. Students learn to identify basic geometric shapes, such as circle, triangle and square. Counting and identifying numerals is also taught. Addition and subtraction may be introduced in some kindergarten classes. Students also are tasked with learning to identify different coins in the currency and the correlating denominations.
Kindergartners are expected to develop and exercise social skills such as cooperating with others, listening attentively while someone else speaks and sitting quietly during a lesson. Students also practice raising hands to ask questions and taking turns when speaking. Teachers work with students to develop speaking skills, such as clarity, following a single thought pattern and maintaining an appropriate voice volume. Kindergarten is also a time to practice and grow accustomed to following visual and verbal directions.
Logical reasoning lessons in kindergarten establish classification of objects, comparison and measuring of different objects and arranging objects in a series. These objectives give students a basic framework for logical thinking. Tasks may include identifying all circle-shaped objects or gathering all square-shaped objects into a bin. Students may be asked to tell a story that compares different types of animals. Kindergartners may also work on arranging items such as the colors of a rainbow in the correct order.