How to Prepare for Kindergarten

As your child is preparing to enter Kindergarten, there are a many ways to help foster the necessary skills to allow them to be successful in the classroom.  Remember, just a few minutes a day can make the biggest difference!  Also, be sure to just have fun.  If your child doesn't possess all of these skills, it doesn't mean they are not ready.  It just means they need more practice.

Social/Emotional Development:

• Leave your child with another adult for small amount of time to ease the transition of leaving your child on the first day.
• Play various games with your child to allow them to learn what it means to take turns.
• Model what it means to help clean up after playing with toys/game

Gross/Fine Motor Development:

• Put puzzles together
• Practice using scissors
• Build with blocks
• Use tweezers to move small items
• String beads
• Use playdough
• Run, jump, skip
• Throw/bounce ball back and forth 

Language Arts Skills:

• Ask questions - not just yes and no questions.  Examples:  how can we make this building bigger? How did you know that?  Why did you use the color red?  Tell me more.
• Practice upper and lower case letter recognition and sounds.
• Read, read, read!  It only takes a total of 20 minutes a day to help improve essential reading skills.
• Ask questions about books - who are the characters, what happened at beginning, middle and end of the story?  Look at the pictures and discuss what is happening. 
• Practice name writing - use chalk on the sidewalk, trace in sand/salt tray, use paints to paint name

Math Skills: 

• Practice counting objects
• Practice counting aloud to 20
• Look for shapes around the house/neighborhood
• Look for/practice making patterns 

 Art Skills:

• Use various tools to encourage art skills.  For example, chalk, paints, beads, crayons, markers
• Use pretend play each day - always encourage the use of the imagination
• Use imagination to draw and color on their own

I am giving away 2 Summer Preschool Packets.  This 60 page packet is filled with fun, hands-on activities to help develop many of the skills listed above.

Counting, number writing, fine motor skills:

Letter sounds, letter recognition, coloring, writing:

 

Come back soon for more kindergarten prep ideas!