Kindergarten Readiness Week 6- Last installment

This will be the last Kindergarten Readiness email for the summer!  We hope that you and your child have benefited from these tips as the new school year approaches. 

This week we ask that you continue to work on Rhyming.  Please remember that at this stage nonsense words, words that are not real words, are fine to begin rhyming skills.  Oral/talking skills are one of the biggest SOLS to begin the year, so the more you talk and communicate with your child the better.  Here are some rhyming activities that you can do to practice at home:

1.  Play rhyming memory.  Cut index cards in half and write words or draw pictures of objects and have your child find a match.

2.  Play I spy with rhyming words.  I spy something that rhymes with car, star.

3.  Play oddball out, ask which does not belong, cat, hat, and ball???

4.  Open a book and point to objects in the pictures and ask your child to think of a word that rhymes with the picture.

5.  Say a word and have your child say a word that rhymes with it!

Please continue to work on writing your numbers from 1-5.  This week we want the focus to be on numbers from 6-10.

1.  Use a variety of writing tools, shaving cream, sidewalk chalk, paint, sand, and mud, to write the numbers 6-10.

2.  Play number memory with all the numbers from 1-10.

3.  Put out objects for your child to count to match each number you write, be sure that your child points to each object as they count.

Enjoy!

Kindergarten Readiness Week 5

Here is another addition of Kindergarten Readiness!  We are counting down the days until school starts and are so excited to get started!  This week we will focus on rhyming words and numbers.

Rhyming plays a huge role in developing your child’s oral language or talking skills.  It is an SOL that will be graded most of the year.  Rhyming words are words that have the same ending sounds like;

cat-bat, cake-bake, pet-vet…..

Here are some ideas to help work on rhyming at home:

You say 3 words to your child, 2 that rhyme one that doesn’t and have them pick the ODDBALL, as we like to call it, the one that doesn’t rhyme.

You say a word and they say a word that rhymes.  ****At this early stage, nonsense words or words that are not really words, are okay.  We want to know if they can hear the rhyme!*****

Play I Spy with objects in your house…I see an object that rhymes with table, can say cable, bable, mable, or any other word that rhymes!

Math:  Focus on numbers from 1-5 this week.  Here are some ideas for working on this:

Have your child count objects, ONLY 5, noodles, chairs, windows, tiles anything you have around house.  You do not need to buy anything for this.

Write the numbers from 1-5 on paper, sidewalk, shaving cream, etc. 

You can write the number and have your child trace it using multiple colors.

Write the numbers and then have your child put out that specific number of objects.  For example:  you write the number 4 and they put out 4 beans, counting them as they do.

Shopping Trip

And so it begins.....the shopping for fun classroom/station items.  I went shopping this week with my bestie, also a teacher, and here are some things we found!  

These are drink stirrers.  We found them in the clearance section and plan to use them as pointers in reading groups.  They were $1.43 for a set of 12.

These are baskets for serving food @ a summer picnic.  Picked these up @ Jo-anne fabrics for about $1.50.  I thought I could use these to hold pencils, crayons, and other items.  The great thing about these baskets is the holes are small enough that pencils and crayons won't fall through!

I also got these on clearance @ Jo-anne fabrics.  They ended up being a little less than $.25 for each spoon. I might use them for a parent gift during the year or for a  gift for my students for some holiday!

 I got these on clearance @ Kohls.  They are the plastic cupcake holders that are able to be used at a high heat.  The top picture has number dots in the bottom and the students will add that specific number of items.  We will use this during a math station.  The smaller ones the students can use to create patterns.  

Kindergarten Readiness Week 4

This week we will continue with name review and working on our color poem from last week.  To help incorporate colors into your everyday wanderings with your children here are some helpful tips:

1.  Hold up different foods you are eating and ask what color it is.
2.  Use a different crayon to write each letter of your child's name and ask them what color it is.
3.  Lay out a pack of crayons and ask your child to find all the different colors.
4.  Look for colors in nature and play I spy....I spy something yellow; the sun!
5.  Too hot to go outside, play I spy inside!
6.  Ask your child to write different letters of the alphabet in different colors and create a beautiful rainbow alphabet!
7.  You can add food coloring to water and freeze it for fun colors, add food coloring to icing, or even the bath tub!  

Enjoy and keep learning!

Kindergarten Readiness Week 3

Kindergarten Readiness Week 3:

This week we are asking that your child continue to practice identifying letters in their name.  We are also asking that your child continue to practice writing their first name.  Some fun ways to do this:

        Spell name with magnetic letters, dollar store has these

        Spell name with playdough

        Spell name in shaving cream

Spell name by cutting letters out of old magazines, newspapers, etc…

Write name using one color, trace over it with another color and so on to make a beautiful rainbow name.

Spell name using noodles, they make ABC noodles

Write name using good old paper and pencil, pen, marker

Write name using sidewalk chalk

This week our poem will be I Love Colors.  Please teach your child the words to this poem.  Continue with the same pattern used for the poem The Wheels on the Bus.  You say the poem, have them repeat words after you, you say a line, they say a line, have them guess what word comes next.  The words to the poem are :

        I love colors, yes I do!

        Red and orange and green and blue!

        I love colors, dark or bright,

        Yellow, purple, black and white!