As the end of the school year approaches, questions about kindergarten readiness are on the minds of many parents. What if my child did not go to preschool? What kinds of activities help teach, maintain and improve my child’s readiness for kindergarten? Does my child need to know the alphabet? Should my child already know how to read? Whether your child attended preschool or not, the following activities can be effective in preparing children for kindergarten instruction.
- Read to your children. Simply reading a picture book every night will help your child master basic speech, teach text skills (i.e. reading from left to right), and increase his/her attention span.
- Have children tell a familiar story to you. This will help children become familiar with the basic structure of a story and teaches a skill being emphasized as part of the new national Common Core Reading Standards.
- Create flash cards with the letters of the alphabet. Flash cards will help children memorize their upper and lower case letters. These cards can also be used to teach letter sounds, which is essential for reading readiness.
- Make up fun counting exercises. For instance, try counting all of the objects on the kitchen table. Then group them into categories and count them again. This is a playful way to help develop the skills that will be needed for math instruction.
Use these activities throughout the summer and your child may happily enter school ready to learn even more. For even more assistance with assessing your child’s kindergarten readiness, try the STS Kindergarten Readiness Inventory (KRI). The KRI was created for at-home administration and offers parents a snapshot of their child’s current ability level. Visit www.ststesting.com to view a brief video about administering the KRI.
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