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Your child is getting ready to begin Kindergarten and you can help your child learn. Try these activities, then visit your library to check out a book about it. Click here to print this list.
We are learning Language & Literacy Development
Do it!
Help your kindergartner write a letter to a friend or family member, then mail it. For children who do not write, have ask your kindergartner to dictate a letter to you, through words, sign, braille, or through pictures in a book or on an adaptive technology device which tell the story. If your kindergartner is learning to read braille, add the symbols to the words in the letters you are writing.
Read it!
With Love, Little Red Hen by Alma Flor Ada. The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg.
We are learning Social Studies Thinking
Do it!
Have your kindergartner draw a map of your home or other special place. Help them add labels to the map (example: kitchen, bedroom, etc.) You can be the artist while your kindergartner gets to label each room, add Braille, or sign the name for each room. Then they can describe features of the room with their senses. Your kindergartner can take or select photos to make the map, or add pre-made labels to the map. Later, play a game with the map, for example, "If we take five steps out of the living room, what room are we in?"
Read it!
Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy. Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney.
We are learning Scientific Thinking and Technology
Do it!
Go outside with your kindergartner once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening to look for your shadows. What does it look like? Do you see it every time you go outside? Use all your senses during this activity! Describe what the shadow looks like to them, and then using non-standard forms of measurement to record it, such as measuring the shadow with each other's shoe. Then ask them how the sun feels on their skin during each part of the day, what part of their body feels warmth and cool. How does that feel change through the day?
Read it!
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff by Dr. Seuss. The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers.
We are learning Health, Wellness and Physical Development
Do it!
Talk about something your kindergartner could not do before, but can do now. Maybe when they were four, they could not write their name, but now that they are five, they can. Talk about how your kindergartner learned that skill. Show them their preschool portfolio, with samples of their art and writing progress throughout the year. Share with them a story of something they learned, how they learned it, and where they learned the new skill. Look at old photos comparing how they have grown and changed.
Read it!
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont. My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook.
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