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First Steps News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 13, 2006
[ link to pdf ]
Countdown to Kindergarten Tip: What Skills
Do Teachers Expect Kindergarteners to Have?
You might think it’s most important for children to enter
kindergarten knowing their ABCs, numbers, shapes, and colors
so they can keep up with the curriculum. While teachers would
love for children to come in with some letter and number recognition,
there are equally important readiness skills that set the stage
for your child’s learning.
Enthusiasm Toward Learning – Does your child
approach learning enthusiastically? Is she eager to explore
and discover? Does she ask questions, take initiative, and
persist when tasks are difficult? As you drive or walk along
in the park, point out your child’s surroundings –
the different trees or the various birds at the feeder. Demonstrate
how things work. The more kids notice, the more curious they’ll
become.
Solid Oral-Language Skills – One of the best
predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral
vocabulary. Build language skills by taking your child to
new places and giving him words and descriptions for what
he is seeing. At the zoo, explain, “There’s a
tiger. See how he has stripes and looks different from the
lion.” When children are learning to read and they come
to words that they don’t know, they can make better
guesses if that word is in their vocabulary.
The Ability to Listen – Kindergarten students
must be able to concentrate on what the teacher is saying,
listen carefully for directions, and tune in to the sounds
in letters and words. Reading to your child can help develop
attention skills necessary in a kindergarten classroom. When
reading, ask kids to clap or stomp when they hear a rhyming
word, or ask questions like, “Why do you think that
happened?” and “What do you think will happen
next?”
The Desire to Be Independent – Though it may
be quicker for you to do things for your child, encourage
her to develop self-help skills. Teachers expect children
to: Get coats on and off and hang them up, follow simple two-step
instructions such as “take off your boots and put on
your sneakers,” go to the bathroom and wash their hands,
blow their nose and cover their mouth when they cough, fasten
and unfasten simple buttons and snaps, and eat neatly and
pour into a cup.
The Ability to Play Well with Others – Kindergarteners
should be able to share, take turns, compromise, problem solve,
and express their feelings in words. If you and your child
are building with blocks and he reaches for one you’re
using, encourage him to ask, “May I have the block?”
Then model sharing by saying “I’m glad to share
my block with you.”
Strong Fine-Motor Skills – Your child’s
hands must be strong enough to master coloring, cutting, pasting,
and holding a pencil – fine-motor tasks that kids use
every day in kindergarten. Kids can develop the small muscles
in their palms and fingers by activities like drawing and
cutting with scissors.
Basic Letter and Number Recognition – Kindergarten
teachers hope incoming students can recognize most letters
by sight, count to 10, identify numbers 1 to 5, and know some
shapes and colors. Show kids how letters are all around us.
Say, “that spells K-Mart. Let’s spell it together.”
Point out objects that contain the letters in your child’s
name.
Source –
www.scholastic.com
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