Was Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? E. J. Marshall Elementary September 17, 2014

Today’s Ideas Welcome and Introductions Readiness Skills Tips for Families Learning at Home

Kinder Rules for Discussion Pair-Share 4 L’s Look at your partner Lean toward your partner Lower your voice Listen attentively

Introductions Turn to the person next to you and introduce yourself by: Saying your name Talk about your family Reason you are here today Be ready to introduce your partner to the group!

Children mature and grow at different rates. Readiness Skills Children mature and grow at different rates. Not all children are ready for school at the same time. (tell Nathan story) Kindergarten readiness is academic. Kindergarten readiness is emotional. Kindergarten readiness is social. Kindergarten readiness is physical.

Readiness Skills Readiness is not all about academics, classroom survival skills are needed as well. Kindergarten is all about academics: letter flashcards, number flashcards, color words, adding and subtracting, reading, writing. Kindergarten is also about physical activities. Use ”10 classroom survival skills to teach your children before they go to school” handout to talk about how readiness is not just learning your colors, numbers, how to write your name.

Was Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? Readiness Skills Was Your Child Ready for Kindergarten? This is a checklist of developmental skill levels based upon evidence of school readiness in children. It has been prepared to help parents evaluate their child. Use the WAS YOUR CHILD READY FOR KINDERGARTEN HANDOUT –page 1 Predict your score and then take the test and then talk about their scores, reflections.

Encourage your child as Tips for Families Encourage your child as they complete tasks. You’re on the right track now! I knew you could do it! Way to go! EXCELLENT! That’s the way to do it. You did that very well. Keep it up! Nice going. You did a lot of work today! I’m proud of the way you worked today. That’s it! You must have been practicing. WONDERFUL! I sure am happy you’re MY child! You’re learning fast. You really make being a parent fun. Good remembering!

Excellent bilingual website! TALK! SING! READ! TIPS for FAMILIES Excellent bilingual website! TALK! SING! READ! Go over TIPS handout with parents ---presenter use third page of handout ---stress highlighted items SING Special Song here and/or Carpet Song here. Under READ ---read at home, take to library, have your child see YOU reading ---magazines, newspapers, online articles, cookbooks, manuals, books –different genres

TIPS FOR FAMILIES Preparing Your Child for Success! Recognize and name letters – UPPER and lowercase Recognize and count 0-20 Environmental print Practice writing name, letters Practice cutting Following directions

Learning At Home COME BACK IN TWO WEEKS! Check backpacks/folders Do homework with them….slowly let them do independently Online games/websites MAKE LEARNING FUN!! COME BACK IN TWO WEEKS!

Learning at Home - Literacy THANK YOU! Next session is October 1st Learning at Home - Literacy Same time, same place! PLEASE BRING A FRIEND carol_sweat@chino.k12.ca.us