In this two-part series, ESK Kindergarten teachers Connie Noland and Kristie Saliba, along with Lower School Director Nancy Laurence, share their tips and tricks for being prepared as your child enters Kindergarten. This week, we take a look at what your child will learn and things you can do in the summer to prepare for you child for Kindergarten.
What will your child learn in Kindergarten?
Kindergarten is the starting point for your child’s education. This is where the foundation is created to allow for success in their school career. There are seven “Domains of Learning” that your child will be introduced to when they enter school:
- Social and Emotional Development: Can your child listen and follow instructions? Get along with peers? Work independently?
- Physical Development: Are your child’s Fine Motor skills developed – cutting, coloring, drawing, tracing and Gross Motor Skills– running, skipping, climbing, hopping.
- Language and Literacy: Does your child speak in complete sentences? Do they speak clearly? Can they sing familiar songs or nursery rhymes? Do they recognize rhyming words?
- Mathematical Thinking: Can your child sort items by color and shape? Can they count to 10? Recognize patterns? Understand positional words?
- Scientific Thinking: Can your child discriminate between things that are alike and different? Use five senses to explore new objects.
- Social Studies: Describe differences and similarities among people. Understand how habitats vary among people and animals.
- The Arts: Does your child enjoy singing? Making music? Painting? Drawing? Dramatic play?
Discuss your child’s strengths and weaknesses with their pre-school teacher and work with your child to support their learning in each of these areas.
What can you do over the summer to help prepare your child for Kindergarten?
- Join the library reading program
- Read at least 15 minutes per day
- Help your child start a summer journal. You can write down the events and have your child illustrate it.
- When shopping focus on a letter of the day and have your child help find items that begin with that letter.
- Sort socks, hair ribbons, dresses, shorts, etc. by color.
- Establish a writing station. Provide crayons, pencils, paper and scissors.
- Play outside, ride a bike, hula hoop, hop scotch, swing and climbing.
What can my child expect in a typical Kindergarten day at ESK?
Students begin each morning at 8 a.m. in the classroom and proceed to chapel. Following chapel, the children participate in SMART Activities. These activities focus on developing both Fine and Gross Motor skills. Following chapel, students return to their classrooms.
Morning rotations begin around 9 a.m. The children rotate through six centers (three Language and three Math centers). Each classroom is set up with two teacher-directed centers and one independent group. Once morning routines are complete, students proceed to the Dining Hall. Teachers and students enjoy lunch together in a family style atmosphere. One teacher is seated at each table to assist and monitor lunchroom etiquette.
Following lunch, the children participate in outdoor play, weather permitting. Afternoons are filled with enrichment classes: foreign language (Mandarin Chinese and Spanish), music, art, library, technology, physical education, guidance and religion. Once completing enrichment activities, our afternoons are filled with hands-on workstations and manipulatives rather than paper pencil centers. The school day ends at 3 p.m.
Click here to look back at Part 1 of the series where we give tips on how to determine if your child is ready for Kindergarten.
Categories: Summer Series
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