Kindergarten Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Kindergarten science in the Alabama Course of Study, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Pushes and pulls, plants and animals and their needs, weather and the sun's warmth
- Science and engineering practices: observing, sorting and asking questions
- Engineering design: solving real problems in Alabama and beyond
Easy ways to practice science at home
- Go on a nature walk and name what you see: leaves, bugs, clouds, puddles.
- Plant a bean seed and check it together each day.
- Ask “What do you notice?” before you explain anything.
- Talk about the weather each morning and what to wear for it.
What each unit covers
Push & Pull
Telling pushes from pulls, and seeing how a bigger push, an object's shape and its weight change how it moves.
Make It Work
Practices the first steps of engineering: noticing a problem to fix, seeing how an object's shape helps it do its job, and comparing two designs after a test.
What Living Things Need
Telling living from non-living things, and what plants and animals need to live: food, water, air, shelter and sunlight.
Living Things
Sorting living and non-living things, telling plants from animals, and what living things need to grow.
What Living Things Need
The six basic needs of living things (air, water, food, heat, shelter and space) and how plants, animals and people help each other.
From Seed to Plant
Practices the simple plant life cycle (seed, seedling, plant, flower, fruit) and noticing that young plants look like the plant they came from.
Natural or Made
On a walk, point out natural things (trees, rocks, water) and things people made (benches, roads). Ask your child to wonder about what they see.
Where Animals Live
Practices matching plants and animals to places that meet their needs, and noticing how animals and people change their surroundings to get what they need.
Sun & Shade
Practices noticing that sunlight warms the ground, water, sand and objects, and choosing ways to make shade to keep a place cooler.
Weather & Seasons
Dressing for the weather, the four seasons in order, day and night, and how plants and animals change with the seasons.
Four Seasons
Practices describing each of the four seasons: the weather, what people wear and do, and what plants and animals do.
Stormy Weather
Practices what weather forecasts are for and how families get ready for, and stay safe in, storms, wind, snow, heat and floods.
Care for Our Earth
Show how your family reuses and recycles. Spend time outside, and talk about taking only what you need and leaving nature as you found it.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Alabama report card guide.
Common questions
Go on a nature walk and name what you see: leaves, bugs, clouds, puddles. Plant a bean seed and check it together each day. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Alabama Course of Study Kindergarten science units include Push & Pull, Make It Work, What Living Things Need, Living Things, What Living Things Need, From Seed to Plant.
Free printable Kindergarten science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.