Kindergarten Curricula 2026-2027
Welcome! I'll be spending the next week diving into all our curricula choices for the 2026-2027 school year. I will be teaching Kindergarten, 3rd grade and 4th grade. I also will have a newly turned three year old who will participate in my Community Preschool.
When I was in the classroom, first grade was my favorite to teach but now as a homeschool mom I have fallen in love with the preschool and kindergarten years.
This will be my third time with a kinder baby and I could not be more excited to create a special learning experience for my son. Before I start any kindergarten curriculum, I make sure my child has a solid numerical foundation and knows all 26 letter sounds (letter names are not as crucial and can always come later).
Along with a few core subjects, he will join the breakfast table with his own morning work like his older siblings.
He will also participate in my community preschool with his three year old sister as it caters to kids ages 3-6.
Kindergarten
Morning Work
Each morning as soon as my children are dressed, they head down to the breakfast table where their morning work waits for them. They complete their morning work while sitting and enjoying their meal. I have found that for my children, having something to do immediately in the morning gives them a focus and direction that doesn’t usually come otherwise.
Morning Menu
I typically have my children do a morning menu for their pre-k, kindergarten and first grade years. This year I will be using these morning book pages in a restaurant menu and my son will use a dry erase marker to circle the weather and seasons as well as write the month and days each week. After that, he will turn over a day on our Treasures from Jennifer wooden calendar so he can have the tactile experience with a calendar.
Morning Warm Up
These morning warm up pages are fun, quick and give me an overall snapshot of how my kids are doing with their skills. They carry these from Kinder-5th grade and both of my older children have used this resource from the beginning.
Reading Comprehension
This comprehension notebook is a perfect start to reading comprehension. I will read the passage to my kindergartener each day and he will narrate his answers to me. Sometimes I may have him trace some of the words or draw pictures.
Every year I have tried something different for kindergarten math and I think this will be my favorite year yet! My son and I did the Pre-K together last year and we loved it. He asked to do it every day and it was the best. It was simple but engaging and hit all the various learning styles throughout the lessons. I liked that it could be open and go but also that if I wanted to, I could add fun seasonal manipulatives. Since we had such a wonderful experience, we will be continuing with their kindergarten curriculum this year.
I have found that adding both stickers and dot markers give it that extra novelty that keeps my son excited each day.
Language Arts
Harbor and Sprout
This will be my first year using a formal curriculum at age 5. My son is much different then both his older siblings were at this age in terms of desire and motivation.
For language arts with my first two children, I was much different in my approach to formal academics. They both were only interested in learning through play. With my oldest (whom I created my community preschool for) it was a lot of hands on games and craft activities from 4-6. My second needed big movement so it was a lot of learning counting through jumping jacks, racing monster truck around the living room after reading each sentence and overall just constantly moving while learning.
But my third is very interested in “book work” and formal learning. It could be because he watches his older siblings or simply because he is a different kid but he is my first to ask to do school on a consistent basis and genuinely enjoys workbook type activities.
He recently completed Harbor and Sprout Pre-K Language Arts and we enjoyed it just as much as the math so we will be continuing with their level K.
Phonics Readers
Dash Into Learning
My son will be using these sweet readers from Dash Into Learning as he begins his reading journey with blending sounds. It comes with a PDF activity pack that
correlates with the readers and we will pull them out from time to time as well.
*I don’t do a formal handwriting curriculum until my child turns 6 but I will add that in towards the end of the school year after his birthday in April. We use Dash Into Handwriting for our introduction to print. It correlates with the gentle readers he will be reading and he recognizes all the characters from his older siblings reading to him over the years so I know he will enjoy it.
Science/Art/Nature Study
The bulk of these subjects will be completed through my community preschool where we meet twice a week with our friends and follow a Seasonal Themed Curriculum I created. However, one extra thing he will be doing is the Me on a Map study from Little School of Smiths. I will be taking it very slowly by doing only one unit a month. This study will introduce him to his place in the world and I have added in some extra books I know my other children will enjoy listening to as well.
Another quick thing we will do each week is a lesson or two from The Good and the Beautiful’s Little Hearts and Hands science series. There are five different units to choose from and they each come with a parent guide and corresponding Big Book of Science Stories. Each lesson follows the same format and either has a video, an audio narration, an experiment or a read aloud from the Big Book of Science Stories. These lessons are extremely captivating and I really appreciate the beautiful illustrations with a variety of types of families and abilities that are seen in the stories.
My plan is to choose lessons from all five books that pertain to our theme of the week. I have put together a free guide here if anyone is interested in following along with us this year!
Me on a Map
Little Hearts and Hands
That’s a wrap for Kindergarten! All of the book work will take him less than 30 minutes each day and the rest of his academic time will be spent doing hand’s on learning activities in our community preschool.
I hope this post has been helpful to you as you navigate your own journey with your Kindergartener. Above all else, please remember these sweet babies are only 5-6 and to have FUN!
Happy Learning!
-Jen
Complete Kindergarten Curriculum List
Morning Work:
- Mornings Together Morning Menu
- Second Story Window Morning Warm Up
- Jodi Southard Reading Comprehension
Math:
Language Arts:
Science:
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