Kindergarten

Students in kindergarten will be assessed with the Kindergarten Readiness assessment in the winter and again in the spring. Parents can access resources to help support their child on the assessment here. 

• Decisions on academic supports and retention will use results from the assessment to support each child. 

Language and literacy development begins at birth and provides the foundation for a child’s success in school. It encompasses the skills related to listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Early literacy skills are defined as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that come before, and lead up, to conventional reading and writing.

Did you know that your child begins using early reading skills to read from the time they are born? You may not know it, but when you talk, sing, read and play with your child, you are building important skills and teaching them to love books. The more stories you can read and tell your child, the better!

No matter what book you read to your child, here are a few things to remember:

• Choose books that you and your child enjoy! If you start a book and decide it’s not for you, it’s OK to put it down and try a different one. Ask your local librarian or bookseller for books they recommend.
• Read with expression.  Make sound effects, do different voices for characters—whatever makes it fun for you and your child!
• Make it interactive! Are there words or phrases that get repeated?  Have your child join in.
• Read the pictures.  Did you know you can read a book without ever reading the words? Look at the pictures and have your child tell you the story they see.  You can help them out by asking questions like, “What’s happening here?” “What do you see?” or “What do you think will happen next?”
• Talk about the book.  
• The story doesn’t have to end on the last page. Talk about what you read.  What did you like?  What didn’t you like? Can you connect what you read to your life?

You can help your child build early math skills by talking about numbers and how we use them in everyday life. This will help your child develop basic problem solving skills, understand patterns and sequences, and support early literacy. Counting every day objects and finding patterns and shapes around them are important ways that children understand how to use early math.

Below are tips to support your child’s early math skills development:

• Encourage Counting
  • Ask children to count items in picture books: How many cats do you see? How many windows are there?
  • Suggest children count real, everyday, objects using one number for each item.
• Sorting and Matching
  • Ask children to match pictures of things that go together in storybooks: “Show me the picture of the bed for papa bear. Show me baby bear’s bed.”
  • Ask children to help with simple household tasks such as sorting and matching socks.
• Put Events in Order
  • Talk about the fact that stories have a beginning, middle and end.
  • Use words that help children understand the order in which things happen, such as “first” and “second.” “First we need to wash our hands. Second we will eat apples.”
• Identify Simple Shapes
  • Look for different shapes in your house and neighborhood: What shape are the windows? What shape are the plates?
  • Help children point out circles, squares, and triangles in books.
• Understand the Number Line
  • Play board games like Candy Land or Hopscotch in which children count the number of moves.

Gross motor skills refers to coordination of the large muscle groups in the body, which is important to the development of a young child. Those are the muscles that allow us to walk, run, hop, skip and throw a ball. Muscles are strengthened by use and practice.

Well-developed gross motor skills won’t only help your child physically; it will also help their brain to mature. Our brains rely on our bodies to receive information through our senses and the more movement that our bodies have, the better developed language centers are, children are more spatially aware and it even aids their ability to regulate their emotions.

Here are some activities to support the development of your child's gross motor skills:

• Play with a ball: Roll a ball toward your child and let her kick it back to you. As your child progresses, they will be able to run toward the ball and kick it. This requires the use of both sides of your child’s body and their brain, which is also beneficial for learning skills. Catching a ball requires eye-hand coordination and with practice, your child can learn do it with ease.

• March to bed: This not only makes going to bed fun, it also requires the use of large muscles. Also, when your child brushes their teeth before bed, brushing requires them to crosses the midline of their body, which is beneficial for coordination and brain development.

• Dance: Move and clap in rhythm to music, which develops coordination and awareness of their body in relation to others.

• Unstructured playtime at a local park or playground: Swing, climb on the monkey bars, play chase. Let your child burn off some energy. They will be happier and sleep better!

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the way children and adults learn to recognize and manage their emotions, learn to show care and concern for others, make friends and develop relationships with children and adults, and learn to problem solve and make responsible choices.

Children with strong social emotional skills have the:

• Ability to develop good relationships with other children and adults by making friends and get along with others

• Ability to identify, understand, and express their own feelings/emotions and the feelings/ emotions of others

• Ability to handle strong emotions, being able to calm down when angry

• Ability to stick to tasks

• Ability to listen and follow directions

• Ability to develop of empathy toward others

• Social Emotional Learning provides life longs skills that help children be successful in school and for a life time. Social Emotional skills build resiliency in children – the ability to face challenges and overcome adversities throughout life.

ACTIVITIES/TIPS TO SUPPORT SEL

Building a positive relationship with your child is one of the easiest ways to teach your child social emotional skills. These activities encourage talking, laughing, taking turns, sharing and most of importantly an opportunity to get hang out and spend fun time with your child:

• Reading a book together and talk about the characters

• Taking a walk

• Singing favorite songs together

• Eating dinner together

• Talking/singing in car, on bus

• Hugs, high fives, kisses, winks, thumbs-up

• Saying “I love you” 

• Asking your child about his/her day

• Letting your child be your special helper (helping with dinner, laundry, etc.

• Playing together

• Encourage and compliment them when they are successful doing a task

For additional resources, visit the National Center for Pyramid Innovations.

Math  

• Counting 1-20 Printable
• Counting 1-100 Printable
• Counting Practice
• Number Writing Practice

ELA 

• Tracing Letter Practice 
• Read and Write Practice
• Read and Write Practice
• Sound Cards 

Fine Motor Skills

• Line Tracing Practice (Could also be used to practice cutting skills) 
• Trace and Color Practice
• Cutting Practice

Before children learn to read, they need to know how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of individual sounds (phonemes). A child's ability to hear and work with sounds is a strong predictor of later reading success. Families can help children gain these important skills by engaging in sounds-first games—like the ones below—at home, at the store, in the car, or at the park.  

Game 1: Have your child close their eyes while you slowly say a word out loud. While saying each syllable, have your child touch a different finger. Try playing this game before bed. See below for a demonstration!

Game 2: Say a word and then give your child a choice of two words, one of which rhymes with the word and one that does not. Then ask which of two word-choices rhymes with the original word. “Which word rhymes with steam? Drain or dream?” Try this rhyming game during bath time, getting ready for school, or getting ready for bed.  See a demonstration below!