Transitional Kindergarten Curriculum

Serving as a bridge between Preschool and Kindergarten, our Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program provides students with time to develop fundamental skills needed for success.

TK is an opportunity for your child to get ready for Kindergarten. Your child will learn to be independent, share, follow class rules, complete tasks, and develop responsibility. Parents and teachers work together as a team to achieve these goals.

In Religion, TK will learn the Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Hail Mary, Angel of God, and to pray before meals. They will learn to celebrate the Catholic Faith during Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. They will learn about and experience the love of God and to be more like Jesus. There are no Christian Service requirements for TK students. They participate in Mass once a month.

In Language Arts, TK will learn to follow words from left to right and top to bottom. They will recognize their own name and other common words including sight words. They will learn to recite the alphabet and read alphabet letters, both uppercase and lowercase. They will learn to associate the sounds with the letters and correctly write their first and last names.

In Reading, TK will learn to identify the author and illustrator of a book. They will make predictions and identify the difference between fiction and nonfiction as well as the characters, setting, and main idea of a story. They will recognize and produce rhyming words. 

In Math, TK will learn the relationship between numbers and quantities. They will learn to recognize and write numbers in sequence to 35. They will learn to count to 100 by 10’s. They will be introduced to addition and subtraction. They will sort and classify objects by measurable attributes of length and weight. They will identify, describe, and build shapes. They will make patterns and graphs. They will learn to tell time by the hour.

In Science, TK will learn about the five senses and how to use them to discover the world. They will study the properties of matter (liquid, solid, gas). They will be able to recognize the four seasons and describe daily weather conditions. They will be able to recognize the differences between the living and non-living and learn the life cycle of a butterfly, frog, and plants.

In Spanish, the TK students will develop vocabulary and knowledge of key phrases in the Spanish language, and cultural differences between our culture and those of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. They will also be learning in many different ways including singing, dancing, role-playing, and crafts. In addition, students will learn Prayers (Sign of the Cross, Hail Mary), greetings and salutations, numbers 1-20, colors, shapes, body parts, family members, objects and people in the classroom, and Cultural traditions and holidays in Spanish-speaking countries.

In Social Studies, TK will learn about what it means to be a good citizen and study good citizens including Jesus, Mary, George Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They will learn about history in the past, present, and future. They will learn about the purpose of holidays and different cultures. Included in Social Studies will be geography and, in particular, map reading. They will learn about American symbols like the bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty and the American flag, and also about our election system.

In PE, children love to move for the pure joy of it. Students discover their own body image through various activities. The St. Mary TK program provides an environment where the children can feel success and achievement through various physical activities.