15 Things Every New Kindergartener Must Know before the 1st Day of School
This list is provided by Stacey Kannenberg, author of “Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten” (Cedar Valley Publishing www.cedarvalleypublishing.com ) While some school districts may vary, this is a good guide to give you something to shoot for with your in-coming kindergartener.
Introduce and practice these skills at home and school:
• Share, take turns and listen quietly
• Wait patiently and use words to communicate
• Recognize and know your full name
• Know your parents and/or caregiver’s first and last name
• Use toilet by yourself
• Dress yourself
• Know how to zip, snap, tie, button and fasten your clothing
• Recite and recognize alphabet letters
• Recognize your left and right hand
• Know basic colors, shapes and numbers 0-20
• Recognize a penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar bill
• Use positional words (over, under, up, down)
• Print your first name, uppercase for first letter only
• Know your address and phone number
• Know how to use a pencil, crayons, glue and scissors
Don’t worry, if your future kindergartener doesn’t know many or any of these skills; you still have several weeks before school starts in most places. You can also order Kannenberg’s wonderful books at www.cedarvalleypublishing.com to help make learning these skills fun. She also publishes a version in Spanish iA Prepararse Para Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready for First Grade too if you have an older child. Tell your school board about these books!
Kannenberg gives other suggestions to facilitate learning with your kindergartener: “The easiest way to empower a preschooler into the learning process is to make it so engaging, exciting and fun that they don’t even realize they are learning, she writes. “Turn learning moments into play and game time.”
Here are some of her suggestions:
• Let’s count how many blue cars we see on the way to the grocery store or how many bubbles we can blow, working on counting skills.
• Let’s name colors and shapes in our world while driving or exploring inside our house, working on colors and shapes.
• Let’s scramble all the alphabet letters and numbers 0-10 inside a hat and name them as we pull them out, working on knowing our alphabet and numbers.
• Let’s sort the coins by penny, nickel, dime and quarter, working on knowing our coins and counting objects to 10 or how many we have of each coin.
• Let’s see how far we can count to 100 together while we are waiting for the tub to fill up, working on counting to 100.
She also offers 7 things parents have as “homework” for a better student and a more fulfilling school experience for both of you:
- Stop, Drop (what you are doing), and Listen
- Unload the backpack/ homework folder with your kids daily
- Read with your kids every night for 15 minutes
- Play repetitive games with your kids
- Ask open ended questions to help your kids communicate
- Be involved in school activities and join your PTA/PTO!
- Build a community of support for your family at home & school
All of these ideas are copywritten by Kannenberg, the “Ready to Learn Mom” and Author, Publisher, Consultant, Speaker, Motivator, Blogger, Keynote, Spokesmom, Radio Host & Mom CEO. Her companies include Cedar Valley Publishing, Stacey Kannenberg Unlimited and a new media company, HerInsight, coming in 2010.
She has recently been selected by Parenting Magazine as the Wisconsin
Delegate at Mom Congress! You can join Mom Congress on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/momcongress.
You can listen to Kannenberg on-line at “Ready To Learn Mom” with Stacey Kannenberg Radio Show at 10 CST/11 EST every Wednesday! Next week, on July 14, 2010, Amy McCready Founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and Today Show Contributor joins Kannenberg to help her listeners with the entitlement epidemic, spoiling our kids and how to stop the nagging, yelling and screaming to become an empowered parent! Listen Live or past shows at: http://toginet.com/shows/getreadytolearnmom or download for free on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330036864
Follow Stacey on Twitter at www.twitter.com/StaceyKann or friend her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/stacey.kannenberg
