16 Things Kids Now Learn in Kindergarten

Time to stock up on alphabet soup. Your kindergartener will learn how to recognize and identify letters in the alphabet—in all their forms—and their corresponding sounds. They will also learn about letters and sounds that go together to form words and may be expected to read words before the end of the school year.

Let the countdown begin! Your kindergarten student will work on recognizing numbers – even when they are out of order. They will also work on counting to 100, so get ready to study all of those '100 Days of Kindergarten' projects on Pinterest.

It's time to (hopefully) start your kindergartener's lifelong love of books. Reading fluency is not necessarily a priority for K students, but they will be exposed to the fundamentals during the school year. They will learn letter sounds, phonemic awareness, word families and to recognize words that rhyme.

They won't be able to write their own absence notes yet but students will spend their kindergarten year learning to print capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet. They'll also learn how to print their own names, a few short words and numbers up to 20.

If you have two chicken nuggets and I eat one, how many do you have left? Your student will learn simple math concepts, like using objects to solve simple addition and subtraction problems. They will also learn the concepts of more and less, ordinal numbers and creating patterns. I also remember my kids' kindergarten years as the last time I was able to understand their math homework.

Your kindergarten student will learn science basics about plants and animals, weather and seasons and perform simple science experiments to introduce them to the concept of scientific inquiry. They may observe and record the weather, plant seeds, watch them grow, and observe animals and insects.

For kindergarteners, social studies starts off with the focus on "me"—learning about their families and extended families, their personal information like addresses and phone numbers and their own interests. Their study then broadens to include the study and understanding of different families, cultures and communities.

The visual understanding of shapes is crucial to many other studies like math and science, so your kindergartener will learn how to name and describe common shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle) and also to identify, sort and classify objects by color, size and shape.

Even if your child doesn't experience seasons (hello, California!), they will learn about the weather associated with each of the seasons, which months fall under each season, activities that occur in each of the seasons and how seasons are observed in other cultures and countries.

Learning to work with others in groups is an essential skill and your kindergartener will learn the basic rules and concepts of working as a team towards a shared goal. Kindergarten teamwork can lay the groundwork for successful peer interactions that are crucial and will become more frequent in upper grades as group projects become the norm.

But being able to work alone is an important skill, too. Your student will not only learn how to do things for themselves (opening lunch items, putting on shoes and jackets, etc.) but also how to work by themselves: solving problems, studying independently and being a self-starter.

Learning how to behave properly in a classroom is essential to facilitate learning not only for your child but for their peers, too. Kindergarten students are exposed to basic guidelines, like how to follow directions, proper behavior for different situations and appropriate interaction with their classmates. It's elementary!

To their health! Your kindergartener will learn about basic habits of a healthy lifestyle, like proper hygiene, dental health, good sleeping habits and how to nourish their bodies with the proper foods.

Hide their iPhones! Your kindergartener will learn how to read an actual clock, how to measure time, how to differentiate between days, weeks and months and how to read a calendar.

It's never too early to learn how to get along. Your kindergartener will be exposed to basic conflict-resolution skills, like how to calm themselves when upset, how to speak and listen to each other, how to be honest and kind when interacting with classmates and how to come up with solutions to their problems.

Chances are, your kindergartener already knows how to boot up a computer, navigate a website and place orders on Amazon. If not, many schools have computer labs where K students will become familiar with a computer and screen, learn basic mouse skills and find their way around a keyboard.