Kindergarten Readiness
Here are some ideas to help prepare your child for a successful start to their kindergarten year.
Skills to Practice
· Teach your child socially acceptable ways to disagree. Talk to your child about how to cooperate with others and ways to express anger, frustration, or a different opinion without hitting, biting, or other unacceptable expressions.
· Demonstrate common expressions of courtesy and praise your child for using them. Say "please" and "thank you" and encourage your child to do so also.
· Encourage exploration, manipulation and dramatic play. Provide toys, games and household objects that encourage your child to explore, ask questions, and use her imagination. Allow your child to manipulate small objects to improve her fine-motor skills.
· Provide opportunities to play with other children. Allow your child to interact and play with other children in a variety of settings: the park, playground, library, etc. Talk to your child about taking turns, sharing, and cooperating with others.
· Encourage your child to practice writing the letters in her own name. It's important for children to know their first and last name. Provide opportunities for children to talk about the letters and sounds in their name. Provide pencils, markers, and paper and encourage your child to practice writing the letters in her name. Write your child's name often.
· See that your child can understand and follow oral rules and directions. Upon entering kindergarten your child should be able to sit for brief periods of time, about 15 minutes, and should be able to follow directions given out loud by a teacher
· Encourage social values such as helpfulness, cooperation, sharing, and concerns for others. Help your child to practice sharing toys, books, and other items. Talk to your child about what it means to be helpful and to cooperate with other children.
· Establish reasonable limits for behaviors and hold your child to them. Practice following directions and obeying commands. Talk to your child about what rules are and why it is important to follow rules.
· Invite your child to help with grocery lists, grocery shopping, and sending cards. Read aloud everyday-words in printlabels, signs, lists. Write words that interest your child (like "banana") using crayons, markers, or colored pencils.
Health and Wellness
· See that your child has opportunities for rigorous physical activity, outside when possible, everyday. Your child should be able to run, jump, climb, swing, and know how to use balls.
· Help your child to develop independence in eating. Upon entering kindergarten, your child should be able to sit at a table, eat unassisted, and use silverware.
· Encourage work values such as effort, persistence, and initiative. Your child will encounter new experiences every day at school. Upon entering kindergarten your child should be willing to try new things and to try to complete tasks.
· See that your child has opportunities for many different types of physical activity. Upon entering kindergarten, your child should be able to run, jump, swing, and use balls. Most 4 and 5 year olds should be able to kick a ball, throw a ball, catch a bounced ball, climb, stand on one foot for a brief time, hop, and do a somersault. Some may be able to skip.
· Help your child develop independence in dressing. Help your child practice putting on and taking off a jacket or coat. Practice snapping, buttoning, and zipping shirts, pants, and jackets. Practice fastening belts and tying shoes.
Activities Further listings available at http://www.getSet4k.org
· To encourage your child's sense of exploration, have a scavenger hunt indoors or outdoors.
· Improve fine-motor skills by encouraging your child to make simple patterns using a string and large beads, hollow pasta noodles, or buttons.
· Allow your child to practice sorting small items by placing various items of differing sizes, shapes, colors, and textures into a box or bowl.
· Play board games and other games with your child. These types of games require children to wait for their turn and encourage patience and cooperation.
· Create a dramatic play area in your home with clothing items and other household items that allow children to use their imagination to pretend to be all kinds of things.
· Talk to your child about introducing him/herself to others when first meeting someone new and making new friends.
· To encourage persistence and initiative, talk to your child about what it means to be committed to a task and determined. Talk to your child about a time when she was persistent and her hard work and effort paid off.
· Ask your child to tell you what the world would be like without cars, telephones, or computers. Ask him if he thinks it was easy or difficult for someone to create all these things.
· Plan a project with your child that requires several steps to complete. Try planting a vegetable or flower garden or just plan and prepare a meal together. Be sure to finish each step of the project before moving on to the next step or starting something new.
· Be sure to incorporate time into your day with your child where you are sitting quietly for brief periods of time. Book sharing time is a perfect time to sit still and quietly for about 15 to 20 minutes.
· Listening and following directions are important skills that span several areas of child development. They are essential in the ability to learn in a group, to follow along in a lesson, and to understand the information being given. Talk about ways in which your child can be a good listener. Ask him to suggest ways he can learn to listen and follow directions at the appropriate times. Talk about the importance of school rules to keep your child safe and content.
· Help your child practice his listening and direction following skills by playing "Follow the Leader" with your child. The first one to be the leader does a movement, a facial expression, or positions himself a certain way and everyone else copies the leader.
· Play games where children must follow directions, like Simon Says or Mother May I?
Getting Ready to Read
Talk to your child about the stories that you read together and ask your child to tell the stories back to you. Being able to tell or retell a story helps children understand what they read. Practice letter naming, sounds, and shapes each letter makes.
Books for Children
A String of Beads by Margarette S. Reid
Enrico Starts School by Charlotte Middleton
When You Go to Kindergarten by James Howe
How Kind! by Mary Murphy
Anna Shares by Barbara Baker
The Lion and the Mouse by Aesop
The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piperv
The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone
Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley
If You're Happy and You Know It by Jan Ormerod
No Laughing, No Smiling, No Giggling by James Stevenson
Books for Parents
1-2-3 Games: No-Lose Group Games for Young Children by Jean Warren
Everybody Wins: Non-Competitive Games for Young Children by Jeffrey Sobel
Making Make-Believe: Fun Props, Costumes, and Creative Play Ideas by MaryAnn F. Kohl
The Values Book: Teaching 16 Basic Values to Young Children by Pam Schiller and Tamera Bryant
Games for Learning: Ten Minutes a Day to Help Your Child Do Well in School- From Kindergarten to Third Grade by Peggy Kaye
Ready, Start, School! : Nurturing and Guiding Your Child Through Preschool & Kindergarten by Sandra F. Rief