The Investigation of Orientation and Preparation Activities: In Terms of Mathematics and Social Studies Attainments

The preparedness of children in our country for primary education is performed based on the calendar age. With the changing system, children turning 66 months old begin primary school. However, in addition to the calendar age of the child, it is necessary for them to reach a certain level of maturity in terms of physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and self care areas. In such a case, it can be observed that some children begin primary school at earlier ages and without benefitting from preschool education. The child encountering new conditions in the transition from home or preschool to primary school can experience problems in adapting to the primary school curriculum and its implementation. For this reason, instead of directly starting off with an area of teaching such as reading and writing activities in the 1st grade, for the purpose of having them start off such activities in a sound manner, it is important that education and teaching is presented by means of blended activities. In line with this, in the primary school 1st grade curriculum that has been renewed, activities have been organized under the scope of “orientation and preparation activities” covering a period of twelve weeks. The attainments that these activities serve have not been specified in the renewed primary school curriculum in a clear and detailed manner. Primarily, in this study, by taking into account the attainments of the old curriculum prepared for 1st grade children and children that are 66 to 72 months old, attainments have been determined for the mathematics and social studies courses under the scope of the orientation and preparation activities. Based on this, the purpose of the study is to investigate the orientation and preparation activities of the students and their level of achieving the mathematics and social studies attainments in the curriculum. For the purpose of investigating the status of children that have and have not received preschool education achieving mathematics and social studies attainments in the orientation and preparation process, the “Mathematics and Social Studies Attainments Achievement Scales” was prepared.