How to support what's happening in Kindergarten.

Reading :

We encourage ALL families to be sure to make reading a daily ritual with your child. It's important to read to your child, and now your child will begin to have opportunities to read to you!

Just after fall conference, all kindergartners will begin the Sunshine Book At Home Reading Program. Your child's teacher will explain the program at conference time. Every day, you will have the opportunity to sit down with your child and read their Sunshine book. Instructions are included in every bag. A letter-sound sheet will also be in the bag for daily practice. These sounds will be explored as we go back and cover each letter of the alphabet more thoroughly.

Writing:

Encourage your child to write on their own using what we refer to as "inventive spelling". At this early stage of writing development, we encourage children to write the sounds they hear. In many cases ,this won't appear as conventional spelling. It does, however, show what phonetic sounds your child is hearing and provide opportunity to focus on particular sounds.

Your child can write their own stories, letters, thank you notes, lists for the grocery store, etc. Many of our writing activities take place in our playhouse areas; in the restaurant we take orders, at the grocery store we make lists, at the post office we write letters, in the hospital we write prescriptions.

Math:

Counting objects around the house, recognizing shapes in everyday items, addition and subtraction story problems in "real life", number recognition (out of sequence)

Social/Motor Skills:

Tying shoes, buttoning, zipping, cutting with child-sized scissors, using playdough. As you practice writing with your child, use salt trays, shaving cream, pudding (for you brave souls), and paint!