Preparing for Kindergarten

Starting Kindergarten is a big milestone for both you and your child. Being prepared for Kindergarten will help both of you feel successful in school!  We are looking forward to the learning adventure that will begin in August!

Teacher Tip #1 - Use the "Resources-to-Help-at-Home" tab to support your child's Kinder readiness:

https://sites.google.com/nisdtx.org/berkshirekindergarten/resources-to-help-at-home

Teacher Tip #2 - Encourage your child to work/play with small materials such as Legos, blocks, playdough, etc. to build stronger fine motor skills. This will enhance their ability to manipulate pencils, crayons, and scissors. 

Teacher Tip #3 - Here is one teacher's personal wish list for each Kindergartener that walks into the classroom –

Self-Help Skills

• can hold and cut with a pair of scissors

• can put on and take off a jacket

• can use the restroom independently, including opening and closing clothing

• has practiced with automatic flushing toilets, as these can cause fear and in turn, cause restroom accidents because the child is trying to avoid using the restroom ALL day until they get home

Academic Skills

• can manipulate sounds through phonological and phonemic awareness activities

• can count at least 10 objects accurately

• can hold their pencil correctly with coloring or writing their name

• can write their first and last name with correct upper and lowercase letters

• can hold a book, turn the pages, “read” the pictures to tell/retell the storyline or information gleaned from the pictures and from the oral words read to them.  In other words, read with your child for pure pleasure and take the time to model that enjoyment of story and information.  Yes, fiction and nonfiction.  I am not concerned about the actual reading of words for the incoming Kindergartener.  That will come in Kindergarten, but if they are beginning to recognize some words by sight, this adds an extra layer of readiness and can help them get to our lofty goal of reading at a Level 8 when leaving Kindergarten.  Our librarian has this quote on her email signature which I love –

  • • "Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift." — Kate DiCamillo

• can write letters in correct formation (this one is a biggie for me and here is why – most students who walk into Kindergarten have been “writing letters” for years, but not in correct formation and those habits are SO difficult to correct.  Let me give you an example, take the lowercase letter d.  Many 5 year olds will make a circle and then pick up their pencil to make the stick.  We teach left-to-right and top-to-bottom formations.  The “Resources to Help at Home” houses the curriculum pieces we use to instruct, including a verbal pathway and set of directions for making each letter.  The lowercase d goes like this – “Bump back around and stop. Line up. Line back down.”  This letter d formation is done without picking up the pencil.  Now I will cheat and add my own helpful tip of “Make a letter c and stop. Line up.  Line down.”  Obviously I would teach the letter c before the letters a, b, d, e, g, o, q because each of these letters utilize the letter c formation as their beginning step.