Kindergarten Skills Development: Month 12

Kindergarten Skills Development

Skills to Practice this Month

• Talk with your child about your family, your culture, and your values. Talk about to your child about his relationship to others in your family: son, big brother, nephew, grandson, etc. Talk about family traditions and customs.

• Provide opportunities for your child to learn about other cultures in your community. Read books that feature characters from other cultures or countries. Listen to music created by another culture. Talk about the holidays your family celebrates and holidays that other families celebrate.

Activities

• Gather family photos and make a photo album or scrapbook with your child. Try to find pictures of as many relatives as possible. To practice writing skills, help your child write short captions for the photos in the album or scrapbook. Talk and write about the people in the pictures, what makes them special, their relation to your child and the significance of the occasion.

• Play "My Family" charades with your child. Write the names of family members on slips of paper and drop them into a bowl. Have each person playing choose a slip of paper and act out that person while others guess.

• Do you know the countries from which your family originated? Find books that feature photos of the people, clothing, and terrain of those countries. Learn and talk about the food, toys, games, holidays, and customs that may have been part of your relatives' or ancestors' lives.

• Make family collages. Find pictures of family groups and individuals of all ages and races in magazines. Have your child cut them out and glue them to construction paper. Ask your child to sort them into groups of gender, race, relationship, age, etc. Ask "What do you think....?" questions about the people in the pictures.

Books for Children (Further listings available at http://www.getSet4k.org)

• The Family Book by Todd Parr
• There's Only One of Me by Pat Hutchins
• Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Susan Elizabeth Copsey
• Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

Books for Parents

• Howdy Do Me and You: Getting Along Activities for You and Your Young Child by Allison and Martha Weston
• The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everyday by Meg Cox
• The Values Book: Teaching 16 Basic Values to Young Children by Pam Schiller and Tamera Bryant

Getting Ready to Read

Skills to Practice this Month

• Invite your child to help with grocery lists, grocery shopping, and sending cards. Read aloud everyday-words in printlabels, signs, lists. Write words that interest your child (like "banana") using crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

• Read poems and sing songs together. Read some poetry together. Make up short poems together and say words that rhyme. Say rhymes and make up your own silly, nonsense rhymes together. Sing songs. Songs have different notes for each syllable in a word.

Health and Wellness

Skills to Practice this Month

• Help your child develop independence in dressing. Help your child practice putting on and taking off a jacket or coat. Practice snapping, buttoning, and zipping shirts, pants, and jackets. Practice fastening belts and tying shoes.

More information available at http://www.getSet4k.org