Well, hello everyone and welcome back to the Education Connection podcast.
I'm Robin and today we're diving into an important topic for parents, caregivers and early childhood
educators.
Kindergarten readiness.
Whether your little one is just starting their school journey or you're wondering how to
prepare them for success, I've got you covered.
So let's talk about essential skills children need before stepping into the kindergarten
classroom.
So what does kindergarten readiness mean?
Kindergarten readiness isn't just about knowing ABCs and one, two, three's and being able to
say them or count to 10 or count to 20.
It's about building a foundation of academic, social and self-help skills that will set
children up for success.
Kids develop at different paces and that's okay.
The goal is to ensure they feel confident and prepared for this new adventure.
Let's break it down into three key areas.
Academic readiness, number one, number two, social and emotional readiness and number three,
self-help skills.
So let's talk about academic readiness first of all.
Academics play an important role in kindergarten, but they don't have to be overwhelming.
Before starting school, children benefit from knowing the following.
Academic colors and shapes, some letters and their sounds.
So a couple of games that you can play for these is I spy.
So if you're teaching colors, you can I spy colors that are in the room that you're in.
I know when my little girl was little, we would sit on the front porch and play I spy
and I would say I spy something green and of course it was summer so a lot of things
were green, but then she would guess it and then I spy something yellow so maybe there
were some flowers around.
So we would play I spy a lot and even when we were driving, we would play I spy and that
helped identify colors.
You can also identify some letters and their sounds.
So if you are walking through a building and there's a bulletin board, stop for a minute
and show them that is a letter P and this is a letter L.
And just have them repeat that and then the next time you walk by, maybe you can ask them
where do you find the letter F?
See if you can find the letter B and even if they get it wrong and you point it out,
it's just making them aware of those letters and recognizing those letters.
You can also do the three by five cards and play games.
I'm having them find the letters, you know, put maybe five letters on a table and have
them find the letter that you call out.
So if you call out the letter S, they find the letter S and then we can say what the
sound is for the letter S.
So just even if it's just a few minutes, every few days, it doesn't even have to be every
day but you can just practice finding letters and don't forget to say those sounds.
So recognizing their name in print, you can write their name for them and have them trace
over that.
You know, do that every few days and then maybe have their name and put mom next to it
and dad next to it and then see if they can pick out which one their name is and that
they can recognize it among other print.
So counting to 10 is really good but it's also to recognize 10, 1 through 10.
So if the same is you're going to recognize the letters, you are also going to have them
recognize the numbers 1 through 10.
And another really good thing you can do is have them, if you have 10, let's count 10
things out or let's count 5 beans so you can get the beans out or the macaroni and have
them count 5.
So if you have the letters on a 3 by 5 card, you can actually have them, I'm sorry, I said
letters, I mean numbers.
So if you have 5 on a 3 by 5 card, on top of that 5 3 by 5 card, you could have them
put 5 beans or 5 pennies, 5 anything that you have multiples of around the house so that
they recognize not just the number but what that number means.
Have them hold a pencil or crayon correctly so practice holding that when they are drawing
when even when they're coloring or drawing.
Show them how to hold their pencils, show them how to hold their crayon using scissors
to cut along a line and understand basic concepts like big and little.
You, I am big, you are little or your sister is little and you are big.
Have them talk about more and less.
So I have 5 beans and you have 10 beans, who has more?
And they should be able to identify that.
They have more, if they have 10.
Also identifying same and different.
So this would be really good to show them if there's apples and oranges or different kinds
of fruits that these are the same and then these are different.
So you can show that in different ways.
So these skills can be taught through fun activities, reading books together about the
numbers, reading books about the letters, finding some alphabet books, playing sorting
games and practicing writing their name.
The next thing that I would like to talk to you about is their social and emotional readiness.
So when they transition to kindergarten, it can be a big change because they're just at
home, they always have you to help them and at school they're not going to have, there
are going to be adults to help them but not to the extent that they have that at home
because you know in a classroom you can have 20, 25 students and maybe two adults, sometimes
only one adult in the classroom.
And so they need to become a little bit independent in their social and emotional skills.
And that is just as crucial as academic ones.
You want them to feel confident when they go in that they can do the following.
So being able to follow simple directions and routines.
So you might ask your child, go into the kitchen and get an apple from the basket and bring
it back to me.
So just following simple directions, routines and you may already do this in your house.
If your young child is cleaning up, go to your room and pick up the blocks and put your
shoes in the closet.
So giving at least two step directions would be very helpful for them.
Putting them in situations where they are having to share or take turns.
And so you might join up at your local library.
If they don't have regular playtime somewhere, you could go to the library and see if there's
some playtime there or working in.
If they are in a daycare, something like that.
They've already had some of that experience.
But maybe at church, you know, if you go to the nursery and you have time that they they
are able to take time to share and take turns with others.
So think about your routine in your life and what they're doing day to day.
And maybe they already have siblings that they're having to take turns with and that
would be that's great.
But if they don't think about putting them in some extra curricular activities that you
are there and they would need to take turns with others.
They should be able to express their feelings with words.
So talk about if you're feeling sad, use your words.
I'm sad because that will help them identify with the adult in the classroom, the teacher,
if they are sad or if they're, you know, if they're feeling some sort of way that they
are able to express that in words so that it will help the adult know how they can help
them better.
Teach them how to sit and listen for a short period, five to 10 minutes.
So maybe reading a book to them is a good example.
But not only that, but if they're listening to someone talk, listening to you tell a story
for five to 10 minutes, just practicing for when the teacher is starting to teach small
lessons.
And I'll tell you in kindergarten and even in first grade, lessons are anywhere from
five to 10 minutes.
And in first grade, they get a little bit longer, sometimes 12 to 15 minutes even.
But even in the 12 to 15 minutes in first grade, we take little breaks in between if
I'm teaching a lesson.
So most especially at the beginning of the year, your lessons are going to be five to
10 minutes.
So your child should be able to sit, maybe crisscross and be able to listen to you telling
something or listening to you teach them some of the things we just went over in the academics.
Let them play cooperatively with peers at the playground.
Playground situations are really good if they can play together, they can get along, that
they can learn how to take turns in those situations.
Let them show or have them find opportunities to show curiosity and willingness to try new
things.
So maybe you're going to take them to the park and you're going to look for things with
nature and they're going to find things at the playground that they might not be looking
for.
So go find an acorn or go find a pine cone or a leaf and let them try new things that
they have not done before.
And you can do that even with tasting different kinds of foods, trying different things.
Maybe play a new game that they've never played before.
Look up a game or buy a new game and let them try something that they have never done before
is just a good activity because there's going to be a lot of new things coming to them in
kindergarten and introducing them to new things and new ways to do things will just help them
become confident when those situations arise.
Practicing these skills at home through structured activities and you know, you are their safe
people, you're their safe person, giving them the chance to practice at home with play dates
and role playing scenarios can make a big difference.
The next area is self-help skills.
Now this is very important.
Make sure that your kindergarten or your soon to be kindergarten is able to use the bathroom
independently and that they're able to put their clothes on and take the clothes off
and button the things they need to unbutton before they go to the bathroom.
Being able to take care of their personal needs with tissue paper appropriately and
that they can do all of those things independently because if not, they're going to be stuck
in a stall.
Teacher, I need help and of course a teacher is going to help.
She'll bring an assistant in and help but if they can do that themselves, it's much
better and I know a lot of times at our school the nurse is involved to come in to take care
of those personal situations.
So it's just much better if they already can take care of their personal needs all alone
independently.
Make sure that they can put on and take off a coat and their backpack.
So sometimes those little zippers and I didn't either, I didn't think of that when my kids
were little that they needed to know how to put the little tag down into the zipper before
they can zip it up.
And if that is difficult, maybe if they have fine motor skill issues or something, find
the kind that Velcros buttons are even harder to do.
So if you could teach them how to put the little, I don't know what that's called that
little insert thing into the zipper and practice doing that.
And here's why it's not that the teacher doesn't want to help.
She wants to help.
She has 25 students to zip up.
So even if she can get 10 of the kids that know how to do it independently, it's just
going to get everybody out quicker and get everybody outside quicker to be able to do
that.
So practice putting those coats on, taking them off, finding the gloves, putting them
in the pockets, teaching them how to put them in their pockets so that they don't lose them.
And being able to put the backpack on their back, putting things in their backpack and
taking things out of their backpack.
Like I said, it's not that the teacher doesn't want to help and she does, but she just has
too many little guys running around and it's so helpful if they know how to do these things.
And it just makes things go smoother and you get to where you need to go quicker as well.
So if you are going to send your child a lunchbox every day, make sure that the lunchbox
that you have purchased, they are able to open, close, take the snacks out.
You might even start working in the summer buying the things that you're going to be
putting in their lunch and teaching them how to open all the little pieces.
I will tell you that the fruit cups are the worst and they're the worst even for adults.
So when I'm helping students, because we have breakfast in the room and I'm trying to open
those, you know, I'm talking about those fruit things, I take the top off and I'm not kidding
you, every time I take one off, the juice just spurts out all over the place.
And if you've got 10 of those to do, the kids are waiting, they're hungry, they're needing
help and those fruit cups are awful, they're just awful to do.
So if you're going to send fruit, you might want to think about it and put it, you know,
transfer it into a different container that the child can use or can independently to
take care of.
Also the juice boxes are the best because then they can just poke that down in the juice
boxes but the juice pouches are really hard because they stick that straw and sometimes
it goes all the way through to the other side.
It's just so hard for their little hands to work all those things and if they've never
done it and they're coming to kindergarten for the first time, they can become very frustrated
and they're nervous already.
So just help them learn how to use whatever snacks that you send.
So if you have some sort of juice box or a juice cup or something that is syllable that's
easy for them, that would be the best for them.
Alright so opening lunch containers and snack bags and then being able to follow simple
two step instructions.
Sometimes at lunch it is okay, stand up, push in your chair and throw away your trash and
line up.
Sometimes it can be three to four directions and you just want them to be as confident,
that's the thing, just be as confident as they can that they have already practiced
these things and done them before.
So encouraging independence at home by letting children practice these skills daily will
help them feel more confident at school.
Some fine and gross motor skills are holding a pencil or crayon with control and we talked
about that up above.
Have them practice using glue and scissors so maybe do some crafts at home, some painting,
gluing, cutting, putting some things together and in my first grade class sometimes we just
get the scratch paper out, the scratch paper that we didn't use.
Maybe I made a couple extra copies here and it starts stacking up.
I let the kids have those, they get to cut them apart, they're gluing them together,
sometimes they're making things, sometimes they're just gluing things together and coming
up with their own little creation, they'll color those.
So just even scrap paper that you have laying around, old envelopes and things like that,
they can cut those apart and glue together to their hearts desire.
Let them hop, jump, run and balance on one foot.
That's fun, you can just let them hop, just practice hopping on one foot, jumping on two
feet and skipping and running and balancing.
Climb stairs using alternating feet so watch them climbing stairs, helping them go up and
down the stairs would be very helpful for them.
Outdoor play, arts and crafts and simple activities will help you get all of these accomplished
and these are the building blocks for the foundation of kindergarten.
The next thing is encourage parents and caregivers.
I just want to encourage you, remember every child is different and your kindergarten or
your soon to be kindergarten may not be able to get all of these things down but the fact
that you're practicing those and the fact that they're going to get better at them gives
them a little more confidence and it helps them be prepared to meet other students and
to come into new ideas daily that they're going to be seeing in the classroom.
If your child isn't mastering all of these skills yet, that's okay.
Learning happens in small steps and providing a supportive, engaging environment at home
will help them grow.
I do want to add one more thing that was not on my list but it just came to my mind.
Help them learn how to tie their shoes and if they are not coordinated enough to tie
their shoes, buy the tennis shoes that have the Velcro or slip-on so that they don't have
to be slowed down by that.
So shoe tying is also a big issue that students have trouble with in kindergarten and even
in first grade and I know even sometimes second graders struggle with that.
So it just gives them confidence to get those shoes tied and they will be able to get out
the door and start their play instead of being left at the front step before they go out
and they're on the ground trying to tie their shoe or waiting for an adult to get through
the five or six kids that don't have their shoe tied and they have to wait to get their
shoe tied.
So it just gives them a little bit extra support to get that going.
And if you're looking for fun activities, book recommendations or printable resources
to help with your kindergarten readiness, be sure to check out Robin Wilson First Grade
Love at Teachers Pay Teachers.
But before I wrap it up, I do want to mention that I have a specific product designed to
help your child get ready for kindergarten and it's actually called Get Ready for Kindergarten.
It's full of engaging activities and resources to support their academic learning.
So you can find the link in the show notes below.
And that's it for today's episode.
I hope this information gives you a clearer picture of what kindergarten readiness looks
like and how to support your child.
If you found this episode helpful, please be sure to subscribe and share it with other
parents or educators.
And until next time, keep learning, growing and having fun with your little ones.
wielada.org, goodbye.