Transitioning to Kindergarten

5) Parents trust teachers to understand their children's needs and they value their efforts to promote their children's education.

6) There are collaborative efforts between schools, parents, community groups and social service organizations.

Starting early to prepare for kindergarten does not mean learning "kindergarten skills" in preschool. Rather, it involves making sure children have important skills such as the ability to retell a simple story and to recognize the letters in their names when they enter kindergarten. The year before kindergarten is the time to learn skills such as tracing the shapes of letters and numbers on paper, following simple instructions, recognizing the title of a book, and matching rhyming sounds.

All of these skills are important for future school success, because together they form a foundation of strong prereading and prewriting skills necessary for future work with letters and sounds in kindergarten. If young children are ready with these skills, they are more likely to have a strong start in kindergarten. On the other hand, if a child is having difficulty with these skills, relaying that information to the kindergarten teacher will help the teacher give that child the extra attention and support necessary to be successful right from the start.

The year before kindergarten is also the time for parents and teachers to think about a child's strengths, talents, weaknesses, and personality as well as how that information will be passed on to the child's new school. Social skills such as feeling comfortable in a group, asking for help when it's needed and knowing personal information (name, age, gender) are important skills for young children to develop as they get ready for school. Helping young children and their families prepare for the transition to school requires planning and sensitivity. Nationally known experts on kindergarten transition, Robert Pianta and Marcia Kraft-Sayer (Kraft-Sayre & Pianta, 2000), suggest a 5-step process to ease transition planning. These steps should occur on both the community and school levels, and include:

• forming a collaborative team,
• identifying a transition coordinator,
• developing a timeline,
• implementing specific transition strategies, and
• evaluating and revising.

In this section, you will find Transitioning to Kindergarten: A Toolkit for Early Childhood Educators. This toolkit includes tools and materials that will help you implement strategies to facilitate this process and enhance children's transition to kindergarten. Whether you are a school administrator, pre-K teacher, child care provider or kindergarten teacher, you will find practical and easy-to-use tools, materials to pass along to parents, and resources and guides to steer you through the process. You can use everything in this toolkit, or just pick a few pieces that will be most helpful for your particular situation.

Recognizing a child's strengths and early signs of difficulties with learning, responding with appropriate activities and learning experiences, and passing that information on to the child's parents and future teachers are all necessary steps for a child's success in school.

Click here to go to the toolkit.

Click here to go to the Research and Resources page, which includes the references for this article.

Transition to Kindergarten: Policy Implications for Struggling Learners and Those Who May Be at Risk for Learning Disabilities

The National Center for Learning Disabilities has published a report on Transition to Kindergarten. The purposes of this report are to briefly review the relevant research, programs, and policies on kindergarten transition, especially as they pertain to struggling learners including those with learning disabilities; identify gaps in research, programs, and policies related to this population; and recommend future policy directions to more adequately address the needs of children with suspected or identified learning disabilities.