Preparing for Kindergarten

If kindergarten teachers had one message for parents, it would be: “Let your children play!” Play is the work of young children. It builds essential skills for social-emotional growth, problem solving, creativity, motor development, math, science, language, and literacy. These playful experiences prepare children for school far more than worksheets or screen time ever could.

What Children Should Be Practicing

• Playing with parents, alone, and with peers

• Taking turns when playing, talking, or working

• Sharing play materials and cleaning up after themselves

Limit Screen Time

• Video games and excessive TV are not considered “free play” and are not healthy for young children: Keep it under 2 hours a day.
• Screen time should focus on high quality, educational programming
• Make sure screen time is not replacing other important activities such as family time, exercise, play, and sleep.

Read more here about the Mayo Clinic’s Screen Time Recommendations

Parent Tips for Encouraging Play

• Let your child lead playtime — follow their imagination!

• Provide lots of outdoor free play

• Offer open-ended toys (blocks, Magna-Tiles, loose parts, small world play sets, toy vehicles, animal figures, etc.)

• Encourage pretend play like house, grocery store, restaurant, or library

• Include your child in everyday tasks like cooking, setting the table, or yard work

Learn more about the Power of Play - Ted Talk -”How Every Child can Thrive by Five”, The Power of Play (Nikki Baldwin)

 

Strong social skills help your child thrive in school! Kids learn best when they can follow directions, manage emotions, and get along with others. We continue to practice and build social skills every day in Kindergarten.

 Key Social Skills for Kindergarten:

• Cooperation & Sharing
• Taking Turns & Resolving Conflict
• Expressing Emotions with Words
• Self-Control & Calming Down
• Working independently & with others
• Perseverance (Keep Trying!)

 A Ready-to-Learn Child Can:

• Listen, sit, and follow directions
• Attend to a task for an extended period of time (~10 minutes)
• Enter and play with a group of peers
• Use words to express feelings
• Keep hands to themselves
• Use calm down strategies when upset with support

 Parent Tips for Building Social Skills:

• Encourage: “You’re ready! You can do it!”
• Practice greetings & asking to join play (“Hi! Can I play with you?”)
• Let them solve small problems (e.g., trade, take turns, use a timer, play together)
• Allow safe risks—they learn from mistakes
• Visit parks, libraries, and have play dates with peers
• Model calm-down strategies like deep breathing and mindfulness
• Do fun activities that involve listening & following directions (Legos, baking, etc.)
• Play board games to teach patience, turn-taking, winning & losing gracefully

English Solution Cards are available here. - English, Get a Timer

Spanish Solution Cards are available here - Spanish

Teaching Emotions PDF: English / Spanish

Go Noodle: Bear Breath Video link

Go to Sesame Workshop: Bubble Breathing Video

Learn more about TCSD #1 Kindergarten Social Skills Curriculum Here (Michelle Brown)

 

Letting your child try on their own helps them grow stronger every day! Independence helps your child build confidence, solve problems, and face new challenges with courage. Kids can do hard things—especially when we give them the chance to try and practice those hard things!

 Parent Tips to Build Independence:

•  Provide small daily chores (set the table, feed the pet, load the dishwasher)
•  Encourage self-help: getting dressed, bathrooming independently, and cleanup after play
•  Let them put on clothes, jackets & shoes—even if it takes longer. Mismatched clothes are okay. It’s worth it for the gained independence!
•  When stuck, let them try solving the problem before stepping in
•  Be realistic in your expectations—focus on effort, not perfection! Trying is how children learn and build confidence

"Let them Shine- Promoting Independence through Age-Appropriate Tasks and Routines”

 

Strong bodies = ready-to-learn minds! Motor skills help your child build strength, coordination, and confidence. Motor skills can also impact attitudes towards learning. Gross motor (big movements) and fine motor (small hand movements) are both key for school success!

Gross Motor Skills (Big Movements):

Running, hopping, skipping, and climbing build balance, strength, and coordination. Strong bodies help kids sit upright and focus in class. Big body movements lay the foundation for the development of fine motor skills. 

Fine Motor Skills (Small Movements): 

Fine Motor Skills are built through play and hands-on activities, and they help with writing, cutting, dressing, and more throughout the Kindergarten day.

 Your Child Should Be Practicing:

• Holding and cutting paper with scissors (thumbs up!)
• Writing their name in uppercase (or close to it!)
• Tracing lines (straight, curvy, zig-zag)
• Packing and unpacking a backpack
• Putting on shoes, jackets, and Big 5 winter gear (snow pants, jacket, gloves, hat, boots)

 Parent Tips for Developing Gross & Fine Motor Skills:

•  Let them cut, color, glue, bead, and play

•  Draw, scribble, and write with crayons, pencils, and markers

•  Practice packing/unpacking their school backpack

•  Encourage dressing themselves—even if it’s not perfect!

•  Run, jump, climb, balance—go to the park and have fun!

•  Practice opening and closing lunch containers and lunchboxes independently

Click on the Fine Motor Milestone Chart

Click on the Scissor Skill Handout

Click on the Learning to Cut with Scissors - Fun things to Cut

Click on the Fun & Easy Fine Motor Play

 

Language-rich experiences—like reading, storytelling, singing, and conversation—help children express themselves, understand others, and develop a lifelong love of learning. Research shows that early experiences with play, books, print, and oral language, lay the foundation for later literacy achievement in school*. Start early, and repeat often—each story, song, and back and forth conversation builds literacy and language skills.

Child Should Be Able To:

• Express feelings and ideas in words
• Identify familiar objects and people by name
• Retell a story in order
• Recognize his/her written name
• Listen to a full story from start to finish
• Use and care for books appropriately
• Recognize letters and letter sounds, especially those in their name
• Know familiar rhymes and identify & produce rhyming words

 Parent Tips:

• Speak and read to your child in your native language
• Read with your child every day—stories, poems, and rhymes
• While reading, talk about the story, characters, and pictures. Ask questions like: “What do you think will happen next?”, “How do you think that character feels?”
• Narrate your daily routines to expose new vocabulary
• Point out and talk about letters, sounds, and print in the environment
• Help your child recognize their name in print
• Encourage scribbling, writing, and drawing for fun with crayons, markers, and pencils

Visit the Teton County Public Library to get a library card

Raising Ready Readers Information Guide

Click on the Cultivating Readers link for English Version
Click on the Cultivating Readers link for Spanish Version

Click on the National Institute for Literacy and the National Center for Family Literacy. (2008). (rep.). Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel

 

Children are naturally curious about the world around them — they love to ask questions and explore how things work! Kindergarteners learn math and science through hands-on discovery — counting, sorting, building, experimenting, and observing the world. Exploring patterns, numbers, shapes, and differences helps children make sense of their environment and builds a foundation for logical thinking and problem-solving.

Child Should Be Able To:

• Identify, draw, and sort shapes
• Name basic colors
• Count orally from 1 to 10 (or higher)
• Identify numerals 1–10
• Show 1-to-1 correspondence when counting (point to each item as they count)
• Subitize numbers 1–5 (recognize a quantity without counting)
• Recognize finger flashes up to 5
• Understand more and less
• Use positional words such as over, under, next to, between, beside, below, and above
• Understand the concept of same and different

 Parent Tips:

• Play number and guessing games or simple board games to make math fun. Board games with dice are great for subitizing practice!
• Invite your child to help with cooking; counting, measuring, and pouring build early math and science understanding.
• Explore music and movement — clapping and dancing to a beat helps develop rhythm and pattern awareness.
• Develop a sense of time by using short countdowns:  “Five minutes until dinner.”
  “You have three minutes until we clean up.”
• Encourage your child to notice patterns in nature, routines, or clothing — spotting similarities and differences builds observation skills.

 

Books
A Place Called Kindergarten by Jessica Harper

Countdown to Kindergarten by Alison McGhee

David Goes to School by David Shannon

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg

Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child

Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis

Look Out Kindergarten, Here I come! by Nancy Carlson

Mae’s First Day of School by Kate Berube

Off to Kindergarten by Tony Johnston

!Qué nervios! El primer dia de escuela by Julie Danneberg

School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Un Beso en Mi Mano by Audrey Penn

Welcome to Kindergarten by Anne Rockwell

Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes

Look Out Kindergarten, Here I come! /Preparate, kindergarten! Allavoy! by Nancy Carlson

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolf

Afterschool Programming
Click on the link for the Expanded Learning Collective for local programs