I am a first grade teacher and I love it. I am in my first year as a teacher and think I made a great choice by going early elementary education.
I have been asked if I would consider teaching kindergarten next year. I have been told that I work extremely well with a few children that skipped kindergarten or were homeschooled. I was wondering what are the differences between teaching kindergarten and first grade?
Posted in Kindergarten information
KIndergarten is the biggest step in a child’s life. It is the first time they are away from protective parents, and it is the first time they really receive any discipline from anyone but their parents unless they’ve been to day care before.
The curriculum is only slightly easier for the students but a lot harder for the teachers.
Imagine, you started teaching your first graders 1+3, but in kindergarten, some children don’t even know what 3 really means! and to add to or subtract from it is confusing!
You need more patience and wait time for the kids to settle down and to be ready to learn, and you have to know that they have a problem, and some kindergarten kids will not let you begin class until you solve their problem, but by 1st grade, most of the kids should have learned to wait for appropriate times for certain problems.
The maturity level and the issues that you deal with are probably very similar however.
My guess is that first graders are a little more independent and can work on their own whereas kindergarten kids need a lot of attention and see learning more as play than work.
In first grade there is also the competition and discipline factors which do not exist in kindergarten.
As a teacher u see more progress with 1st graders.
I believe like u that it is the best grade in elementary school. U really see the kids’ leap in learning and becoming independent.