1. Kindergarten Readiness
By: Markelle Dockter

2. Thank you!
You have a hard job.

3. Scope and Sequence Social and Emotional well being/support
Strategies and ideas to support
Routines and Schedules
Academic
Standards in Kindergarten
Transitioning from childcare to kindergarten

4. This is easier if you help the child/children prepare the whole year before kindergarten. Don’t wait until 2 months before.

5. Play
All of these things need supervision to help support a young mind/learner problem solve and communicate with each other.
But, don’t interfere too quickly (let the kids lead and talk to each other)
Dramatic Play (house, doctor, dress up, cars, etc.)
Loosely structured play
Blocks, puzzles, small figurine animals
These are taken out to play with at a certain time
Rotating these activities throughout the year helps with
novelty and interest
Outdoor play: Children will go outside every day in kindergarten (unless it’s raining or feels like below 15 degrees. Children will go out 3 times per day.
Even if it’s for 5 – 10 minutes it’s better than nothing!

6. Sharing
Sharing: It could look like taking turns, trading toys, or sharing.
Role playing in short mini lessons
You can do this with puppets, stuffed animals, etc. to role play
PROXIMITY: most important for support so the behavior doesn’t escalate.

7. Empathy Awareness of others and recognizing how other people feel.
How to support: expressing your feelings, or asking the child to look at the other child’s face and say things like, “look at her, she looks sad.” (identifying emotion)
(Second Step Program in BPS)
Being a role model of correct behavior you want the child to exhibit.
Calmly getting down to their level and hearing both children then helping them take control of their feelings and ownership.

8. Ways to Calm Down Very important social/emotionally
There are so many ways, but we will visit about a few that can help.
First, you will have to exclusively teach each of these things:
Breathing: Model the behavior (even if it’s hard because you’re upset too)
Finding a calm area or place to unwind
Fidgets to support calming down. (putty, books, calming bottle, hugging a stuffed animal, etc.)
I call my spot the “Safe Place”

9. Independence
It’s hard. It’s nice to have kids depend on us, but it can be very difficult for a transition to kindergarten if they have not had to problem solve and figure things out on their own. (within reason)
Letting them get dressed for outside play
Putting clothing on and taking it off is a very important skill to know (zippering, hat, etc.)
Putting their shoes on (some may need a little assistance)
Encourage children to “problem solve”
I.E. “Where can I find a band aid?” “I would like paper, where can I find that?”
Sitting and eating with others
and feeding them by themselves.
Also, visiting with other children
not just an adult.

10. Pre-Academic
Practicing listening to others and waiting their turn to speak!
Listening to a story
How to gather together to learn about something (Circle time or group time)
How to ask a question if they need help or don’t understand things
Allowing safe space between their friends
Trouble areas in school: touching all the time, grabbing, holding hands, etc.
Visit about safe space and your personal space as well as others
Boundaries with people and things
Have a start and end time for activities so student know what
to expect and how to come back or finish something later.

11. Academic Identify a space(s) as your learning area
Schedules help students transition and also let them know what’s
coming next.
It’s good to switch it up sometimes too to see how they react when things change. Help them through this if it’s hard.
How to hold a pencil, crayon, marker, etc.
How to hold and use a scissors. This can be very hard for someone who hasn’t had any projects with scissors (and glue sticks) (one per week at least)
Following at least 2 sets of directions

12. Standards: English/Language
Read, read, read and show children how to open a book, turn pages, point to pictures, and even ask questions about the book.
ABC Games are a fun way to also start to expose children to the alphabet
Beginning of the year in Kindergarten
K.RF.1d- Names upper and lowercase letters
K.RF.3a- Produce sounds for 26 letters of the alphabet
K.RF.2d- Isolating Initial, Middle and Ending Sounds
Student can write their name and know the letters in their name

13. Standards: Math Beginning of the year
K.CC.1 Can count to 100 by 1’s and backwards from 20
K.CC.3 - Write numbers from 0 to 20 and write a given number from (random).
K.CC.5 - Count to answer "how many?" questions about as many as 20 things. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral.
K.CC.6 - Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects, using groups up to 10 objects.
K.G.2 – Correctly names shapes and solids.

14. Other things to consider
Less or no screen time (they really don’t get much at all in school in the younger years)
Phase out naps: most schools do not have a rest time
Positive personal space between you and the children and how to respect others boundaries. They will come into a group of students from different cultures and backgrounds.
Questions?