Kindergarten Readiness Focus

Activities and Games to Promote Kindergarten Success

• Read, read, read. Reading with adults, looking at books independently, and sharing reading experiences with friends are ways to encourage a love of reading and develop the skills to be a confident reader.

• Play simple games. Games such as “Simon Says,” “Red Light, Green Light” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” help children learn to follow simple directions and develop self-regulation skills.

• Give children opportunities to make choices. Allowing children to pick a song for circle time or choose which fruit to have for breakfast strengthens decision-making skills.

• Allow enough time for children to complete projects. Making sure that children have enough time to complete an activity, such as block building or a creative drawing, improves focus and increases confidence.

• Use math in daily activities and routines. Sorting the blocks, creating patterns with beads, estimating the number of beans in a jar, and counting leaves on the ground outside are just a few ways to introduce math concepts.

Learning through MUSIC

Carmen has studied and taught the Kindermusik philosophy to 2-5 year old children during her post graduate years at Great Northwest Music in downtown Grants Pass. Music helps children's brain cells make the connections needed for virtually every kind of intelligence. When young children are consistently engaged by music in an age-appropriate, socially accepting environment, they benefit at many levels: early literacy, quantitative, social emotional, physical, and creative.

Learning through CHILD DIRECTED ACTIVITY

Child Directed Play (CDP) is one-to-one play interaction between an adult and child in which the child is helped to direct and lead the play in any way the child wishes, unless there is harmful or destructive activity.

Learning through IMAGINARY PLAY

Pretend play is strongly linked to language, narrative language, abstract thought, problem solving, logical sequential thought, creation of stories, social competence with peers, understanding a social situation, integration of emotional, social and cognitive skills, and the ability to play with others in the role of a ‘player’. [Read more on the connection between play and literacy.].  

Learning through COOKING

From measuring to mixing, every aspect of cooking contributes lessons that add to a young child's learning. Providing young children with measuring cups, spoons and other implements with numbers is a simple way to help them develop number recognition skills and explore the world of math. Fine Motor Skills are developed when young children can practice the intricate coordination that is necessary to pour, measure, mix and stir ingredients.

Learning through OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Preschoolers learn much through their senses. Outside there are many different and wonderful things for them to see (animals, birds, and green leafy plants), to hear (the wind rustling through the leaves, a robin's song), to smell fragrant flowers and the rain-soaked ground, to touch (a fuzzy caterpillar or the bark of a tree), and even to taste (newly fallen snow or a raindrop on the tongue). The outdoors has something more to offer than just physical benefits. Cognitive and social/emotional development are impacted, too. Outside, children are more likely to invent games. As they do, they're able to express themselves and learn about the world in their own way.

*every first Thursday of the month in lieu of normal class time, students will meet at a park from 11am-1pm for outdoor education and picnic