National Courses of Study
Kindergarten
Excerpt from
"MATHEMATICS PROGRAM IN JAPAN"
(Japan Society of Mathematical Educatoin)
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CURRICULUM FOR THE KINDERGARTEN
Revised by the Ministry of Education in 1989, and to be put in force beginning in l990.
Excerpt from the Course of Study for the Kindergarten
1. Lessons must be given over at least 39 weeks a year.
2. Standard number of class periods per day is 4 hours.
3. Objectives and content are classified into four domains as follows :
Health, Human Relations, Environment, Language.
(Arithmetic is not specified as a subject.)
Notes :
1) Children can enter the kindergarten between the ages of 3 and 5.
2) Objectives and content concerning arithmetic are involved in the third domain,
ie, Environment.
Environment
1. Objectives
(1) To help children become familiar with the environment around them and become
interested in various phenomena through contact with nature.
(2) To help children become involved in the environment around them and become
attentive it by incorporating it into their lives.
(3) To help children enrich their sense of the properties of things, numbers and
quantities, by seeing, thinking and treating the phenomena around them.
2. Content
(8) Children feel interested in numbers, quantities and geometrical figures in their
daily lives.
[(1) ` (7) & (9),(10) are omitted, since those items have no relation with arithme-
tic.]
3. Remarks
(2) As for number and quantity, the teacher should evaluate children's experience
based on their needs in their daily lives. Their interest, concern and sense of the
number and quantity should be fostered naturally.
[(1) is omitted, since the item has no relation with arithmetic.]
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