Parent Info

Summer Skills Check off Sheet

Kindergarten Skill for the week of July 6

Improve Self Help Skills

Begin this week to teach your child to do more things for him/herself. There are several areas to consider: Using the bathroom, Getting dressed, Eating, Cleaning up. Think about what your child is already doing and what you have to help them with. Pick one or two skills in each area listed below and make it a summer goal for them to become independent in those skills. In Kindergarten, the teacher is always available to help the child with what they need. However, the first step will be to show the child how to do that skill and assist them instead of doing it for them. If you want to see your child’s confidence blossom, spend time on self-help skills.

Here is a great article on self help skills.

https://www.veritasacademy.com/resources/news/get-ready-for-kindergarten-with-these-10-self-help-skills

Bathroom

Wash hands: keep water in the sink, turn water on appropriately, follow these steps: hands wet, soap and bubbles, rinse, dry with one-two paper towels, throw paper towel away
Focus on the job of using the toilet without silliness and making messes
Flush toilet
Manage clothing while using bathroom
Be able to open/close doors in public restrooms

Eating

Use utensils when needed instead of fingers
Stay at the table for meals
Learn to put food on a plate, get a drink in a cup
Open food containers and put lids back on when finished
Clear table, put containers away, learn what to do with dirty dishes, throw trash away

Clothing and Backpack

Be able to put on/take off shirt, shoes, socks, underwear, pants, sweatshirts and coats
Learn to turn clothing right side out after taking off, especially sweatshirts and jackets
Put dirty clothes in proper place
Open and close backpack zipper
Put water bottle in and out of backpack
Wear backpack correctly (using both straps)
Manipulate fasteners: buttons, velcro, zippers

Cleaning up

Pick up anything you drop
Clean small spills
Put items used away in their correct spot
Put toys away and organize them
Learn to use a broom or vacuum

Kindergarten Skill for the week of July 27

Playing well with your toys

Playtime is learning time and kindergarteners still need to have time to explore with toys. They need to be able to stay with a toy or set of toys for 30 minutes or longer. Think about how your child plays with toys and coach these skills if needed. They should spend more time playing with toys they can manipulate than using Ipads.

Treating toys nicely

Children can use their imagination and change the purpose of a toy as they play. But at no time should they throw them, be too rough with them or purposely try to break them. This also includes storing their toys so that all the pieces are together for a particular set.

Using imagination

Making up stories and using dialog and conversation is an important part of play. Encourage this by asking questions about their play. Five year olds should be acting out their life experiences with their toys as well as creating imaginary situations. Hopefully your child has opportunities to do this alone and with other children. Adults can get children started in creative play by making suggestions as needed.

Playing with other children

Turn taking and respect for others are important. A five year old should be able to wait for a turn with a toy they desire by playing with something else. Grabbing from others isn’t acceptable.

Learning to play games by following rules and taking turns

Playing board games is very important. Children can work on turn taking, rolling dice properly, and following game rules. They also need to learn how to lose and how to win. Bragging is not helpful and getting unreasonably upset when losing is not helpful. If this is hard for your child, discuss how they will handle this before you play the game. Make time in your week to play a board game or card game with your child.

Great toy playing brings lots of pleasure as well as growth in social/emotional skills!

Summer Skills

Parents of students for the 26-27 school year will receive information via email on a social skills to work on each week. New information will be added here each week in the summer.

Kindergarten Skill for the week of June 29.

Listening to stories for at least 15 minutes:

Your child should be able to listen to an adult read to them for at least 15 minutes. They should sit beside the reading adult where they can see the pictures. They can help turn the pages and make comments, but should be able to stay in one spot for the duration of the story. It is a great idea to discuss the story as you go, but make sure that the child does not interrupt you as you read the text. If this is difficult for them, you may need to teach them what interrupting means and why they can’t always do it. This will help your child develop listening skills that are needed to be successful to learn new skills. You can also show them the text you are reading by saying, “I start here and when I finish the next line, this is where I go.” Also talk about the title and the author. When you are finished, have them talk about their favorite parts or retell some of the story. If you ask questions, make them very open ended, such as, “Have you ever felt like the boy in the story?” or “Has anything like this ever happened to you?” “What would you change about the book?”

If your child can’t sit for 15 minutes, don’t worry. Start with a reasonable time for them and work up to it. If your child is already doing this, work towards 30 minutes.

Week of July 13

Listen to others talk

There are several different areas I would like you to work on:

Listening to adults talk to a group
Listening to adults give individual directions
Listening to other children
How to politely interrupt adult conversations

Skills to develop for large group listening

Go with your child to a place where they will be expected to listen such as story hour, church, Sunday School, or an entertainment event. Are they able to sit relatively still? Observe how long they can do this. Do they look at the person talking? Do they refrain from talking to you when someone is presenting? Do they refrain from raising hands to ask questions if the presenter has not asked for that? If your child has trouble with any of these, then you can instruct them about how to listen to a presenter.

Skills to Develop when listening to individual directions.

There are many skills that a child can develop to listen to you and others in authority when they are given directions. However, the way adults give directions can either be a help or a hindrance to your child’s ability to respond. Watch this very short video for some help:

Dr. Becky Bailey Answers, "How Can I Get My Child To Listen To Me?"

When your child successfully listens to your requests and follows them, be sure to point out what they did correctly by saying things like, “I noticed that you were looking at me when I talked to you. You stopped what you were doing and came to the table. You followed my direction the first time. Thank you.”

Listening to other children

Observe your child interacting with other children. Do they look at the child they are talking to? Do they stop their talking when the other child talks? Do they ask or answer questions with the other child? Do they refrain from behavior such as covering their ears or pretending not to listen? Are they able to compliment another child? The more conversations they have with you to practice these things, the better they will do with children.

Politely Interrupt Adult Conversation

Teach your child that they need to wait to speak when you are talking to another adult or child. Teach them to approach you and wait quietly for you to acknowledge them. You do not need to respond to them immediately. You may also want to teach them to say, “Excuse me” and then wait. This is a good time to talk about when you should be interrupted and when you should not. If there is an emergency, the child should interrupt you, otherwise they need to learn to wait.

Kindergarten Skill for the Week of July 20

School Tools: Scissors - Glue - Crayons - Markers - Pencils

Kids get very excited about getting their new school supplies! So do teachers! Here are a few general concepts to talk about concerning our supplies

Here are some activities to do:

Scissors - Put your thumb up and then grab your scissors. Have them cut on lines you have drawn on a blank piece of paper - some straight and some curvy. In kindergarten, we only use scissors on paper. Scissors always point straight ahead. Turn the paper as you cut.

Gluestick - Set the cap down so it won’t roll. Push the glue stick up only a little bit. (This is the biggest mistake kids make.) Put glue around all the edges and make an X throught the middle. After glueing, move the glue back down into the holder and firmly put the top back on.

Crayons - Hold them with a pencil grip (tripod grasp) near the tip. The heel of your child’s hand should move across the paper. Work on moving just the fingers and wrist as you color, not the whole arm. Color a small section at a time. Try not to break crayons by using them gently.

Markers- The same things apply to markers as crayons. Put the cap on the bottom of the marker and put the cap back on as soon as you finish using it. Listen for a click to make sure the cap is on tightly.

Pencil - If your child has trouble using a pencil (incorrect grasp, pushes too hard, doesn’t push hard enough, etc) spend more time having them write with crayons and markers. Children need to learn to keep pencil in good shape (no chewing or breaking eraser or tip on purpose)

Encourage your child to draw with their crayons, markers, and pencil. Drawing is more motivating than writing letters. It is something you can do together. They can draw shapes and cut them out and practice gluing.

Kindergarten Skill for Week of Aug. 3

Participate and Imitate

One of the main ways that children learn new things is by modeling what they see. Sometimes children do not want to do what the rest of the group is doing. In Kindergarten, just as in preschool, we do many large group activities. The expectation is that each child will model the actions and words that are presented. If they don’t, they miss a lot of learning, or may choose unacceptable behaviors.

You can have fun practicing modeleing at home. Simon Says is a great game for that. Follow the leader is also a good one. You can also sing familiar songs and add actions.

Please talk to your child about being a good participant at school. A good participant is a happy child who will fully enjoy learning every day.

Here are some video links to use so a child can practice

Sing The Bicycle Song with Nancy (FULL SONG w/ACTIONS)

Sing Everybody Clap with Nancy (FULL SONG W/ ACTIONS)

Simon Says Game - THE KIBOOMERS Preschool Songs - Brain Break

Tips to Help Children learn letter names and sounds

Read alphabet books. Point out lowercase and uppercase letters and their shapes. Describe the shapes of the letters. Look at the pictures of the objects that start with that letter. Name the pictures and stretch out the first sound as you name each one. (s-s-s-s-s un)
Talk about letters wherever you go. Example: " Look at the Subway sign. It starts with /s/, just like your name."
Play board games with letters. Make up your own simple board games. Write letters in the squares. Roll a dice to move and name the letters, or make cards with no. 1 2 3 to draw.
Play the “slap” game. Divide a piece of paper into 4 parts. Write a letter in each part. Name the letter and race to touch or "slap" the letter.
Say the alphabet every day by looking at the letters and either tracing them or pointing to them.
Use rapid naming boards. On a piece of paper make 12 squares. Put letters the child knows and a few he does not and see how fast he can say them. Repeat a letter several times.
Use the videos posted on the video section to say the letter names and sounds.

ARticles of interest

RR_tips_kindergarten.pdf

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