Kindergarten Skills Development: Month 11

Kindergarten Skills Development

Skills to Practice this Month

• Encourage social values such as helpfulness, cooperation, sharing, and concerns for others. Help your child to practice sharing toys, books, and other items. Talk to your child about what it means to be helpful and to cooperate with other children.

• Establish reasonable limits for behaviors and hold your child to them. Practice following directions and obeying commands. Talk to your child about what rules are and why it is important to follow rules.

Activities

• To teach your child about cooperation, have three-legged races or relay races.
• Play games where children must follow directions, like Simon Says or Mother May I?

Books for Children

• When You Go to Kindergarten by James Howe
• How Kind! by Mary Murphy
• Anna Shares by Barbara Baker
• The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems
• Slow Train to Oxmox by Kurt Cyrus
• The Lion and the Mouse by Aesop

Books for Parents

• Games for Learning: Ten Minutes a Day to Help Your Child Do Well in School- From Kindergarten to Third Grade by Peggy Kaye

• Ready, Start, School! : Nurturing and Guiding Your Child Through Preschool & Kindergarten by Sandra F. Rief

• Kindergarten: Ready or Not? A Parents Guide by Sean A. Walmsley and Bonnie Brown Walmsley

Getting Ready to Read

Skills to Practice this Month

• Read to your child every day. Talk together about the pictures and story. Show your child that you are reading the words from left to right, and that when you turn the pages, the story progresses from left to right. Let your child turn the pages. Hold the book upside down. See if your child turns the book around.

• Provide books, magazines and other print materials for your child to handle. Follow your child's interests by allowing him to choose books for himself. Choose books on subjects your child is interested in like trains or cats.

• Provide opportunities to play alphabet games, read alphabet books, and talk about letter names and sounds. Help your child see different shapes in letter and talk about the shape each letter makes.

Health and Wellness

Skills to Practice this Month

• See that your child has had required immunizations and a current health examination. Check with your child's doctor to be sure that she is up to date on required immunizations. Obtain a copy of your child's immunization record. Make an appointment for your child to have a physical examination.

• Help your child develop independence in eating and personal hygiene. Help your child practice blowing her nose and covering sneezes. Be sure your child knows the proper way to wash her hands. Talk to your child about germs and how they can make us sick.

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