Your Childs Experience in Kindergarten

1
Your Childs Experience in Kindergarten

• How to Prepare, What to Expect

2
Children Ready for School Have These Skills

• Social-Emotional Skills
• Get along with other children
• Share space and materials
• Interact with familiar adults
• Sit in a large group
• Follow directions
• Use words to resolve conflict

3
Children Ready for School Have These Skills

• Academic Skills
• Have conversations with adults and other children
• Ask questions
• Know their name
• Like books and talking about the stories
• Know about letters and sounds
• Know about numbers
• Scribble or begin to write

4
Children Ready for School Have These Skills

• Approaches to Learning
• Curious about many things
• Like to solve problems
• Play make-believe games
• Imaginative
• Persistent
• Like to learn even when it is a bit hard

5
Most 5 and 6 Year Olds

• Think that life is good
• Want to please adults
• Are cautious but also like to experiment
• Can be compliant but also contrary ?
• Are egocentric but learning to pay attention to
  others
• Are eager to learn

6
In Kindergarten, Children Need Many
Opportunities for Learning

• Repetition
• Encouragement
• Physical activity and quiet activity
• Structure predictable schedule and routine
• Well planned learning centers to explore
• A balance of self-direction and teacher-direction
• High expectations
• To feel good as competent learners

7
In Kindergarten, Children Learn

• Pre-academic skills to be ready to read
• Letters , sounds and numbers
• Learn best through active exploration of
  materials ( blocks, puzzles, dramatic play)
• Build an academic foundation
• From kindergarten to 3rd grade, children learn
  to read
• From 4th grade on, children read to learn

8
Two Important Things to Remember for the
Transition to Kindergarten

• Temperament
• Adaptability
• Intensity
• Preparation at Home and at Preschool
• Talk about going to school
• Read books about kindergarten
• Visit the school and meet the teacher
• Play in the school playground
• Play school

9
The BKA(Beginning Kindergarten Assessment)

• Children are tested in September/October
• Literacy (pre-reading) and numeracy (pre-math)
  skills
• Vocabulary
• Phonological awareness (sounds)
• Concepts about books and print
• Alphabet
• Counting
• Ordering numbers
• Kindergarten teachers use this information to
  plan their teaching