Is My Child Ready For Kindergarten?
Are you being asked that question a lot lately? Do you need some answers to give parents, or are you a parent trying to make a difficult choice?
Hopefully my checklist and the information in this article will be helpful.
Deciding whether your child is ready for kindergarten depends on a lot of variables. They may be extremely intelligent, but that is only one portion of “readiness”.
The rigors of a full day in K, also requires a child to sit for long periods of time and have an attention span, as well as be coordinated and work well with other children. Are they physically and socially ready as well as mentally prepared?
Remember, life is a journey to be enjoyed, not a race to be completed. When a child is ready they will enjoy the journey so much more.
On a personal note, both my sons were not “ready” for kindergarten. They had November 13th and June 30th birthdays. Developmental Kindergarten was available for the first time, when I needed to make a choice for my oldest son, Jason. I hopped on the bandwagon. I have NEVER regretted that choice.
It was the PERFECT spot for both of them. They LOVED school and were truly “ready” the following year.
My daughter, with an April 17th birthday, on the other hand, was “more than ready” for kindergarten. She waved to me at the outside door, and didn’t even want me to come in with her! I was the one who cried the first day.
All three of my children were honor students and graduated from college. I think my sons would have struggled in K had I not put them in DK. Every child is different and should not be pushed or rushed just because of “age”.
Having taught Y5’s for 10 years as well as K, I can tell you many sad stories filled with an ocean of tears cried by these little ones who were just not ready.
All of them disliked school, hated coming, and many ended up repeating kindergarten.
Some were “saved” because we were able to put them in the Y5’s program where they should have been placed from the get-go. They flourished there.
The government is no longer having us teach an age-appropriate curriculum anymore.
With so many mandatory standards, Kindergarten does not have the luxury of time for all of the fun things that we used to be able to do.
A child rarely can be a child anymore and simply have fun!
Many parents do NOT realize this. It is up to the teachers to educate them on the rigors of their child’s day, so they can make wise choices and pre-plan ahead of time.
Hopefully this checklist will help out.
Click on the link to view/download Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
I hope you can pop back tomorrow for more teaching tips.
Feel free to PIN anything you feel might be helpful to parents and teachers. Thanks for visiting! Be blessed.
123 Come Count With Me!
Since the 123 Count With Me Booklets have been so popular, I wanted to design some with May themes in mind.
I just finished 123 Count Flowers With Me, 123 Count Frogs With Me and 123 Count Insects With Me!
Click on the links to view/download any or all of the booklets.
These are easy readers that are perfect for an independent math center or Daily 5 activity.
Students really enjoy doing them, and feel empowered. Their independence, frees the teacher up to work one-on-one with other students, or do assessing.
The booklets review a variety of math concepts and are a great plug-in for when students complete other work, super for a sub folder or to send home with a struggling student.
Children trace then write the number and number word and circle it in the sequence.
Using a bingo dauber they make dots in a ten-frame to equal the number.
Have students use 2 colors and make an ABAB pattern to reinforce yet another standard!
Finally, students cut and glue the matching numbered group/set of objects to the numbered box in their book.
The last page ties everything up and repeats the number 10.
123 Count With Me booklets include traceable word and number cards, with matching covers, so that students can make Itty Bitty booklets, as well as a +1 more worksheet, a graphing extension and a certificate of praise.
Click on the link to view all of the 123 Count With Me books that are available.
Thanks for visiting today. I hope you can click on over tomorrow for more ideas.
Feel free to PIN anything from TeachWithMe.com that you think others might enjoy.
Scroll down for article #2 today: A helpful Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
- counting books
- flower booklet
- flower activities
- frog booklet
- frog activities
- bug booklet
- bug activities
- math booklet
- math activities
- math centers
- Patterning
- 10 frames
- 10 frame booklets
- counting centers
- Graphing
- graphs for early elementary
- Daily 5 Activities
- number word activities
- daily 5 activities for may
- daily 5 activities for spring
Yahoo! Red White and Blue...
More flags than usual will be flying soon.
Memorial Day is coming up, followed by Flag Day on the 14th of June and then 4th of July.
It’s time to think of reasons why you are proud to be an American and pose that question to your students as an interesting writing prompt.
I’m not a world traveler, but I have friends who are, + others in the mission field.
When they share their stories of the deplorable conditions in some countries, where people are thrown into jail for no reason, or worse yet, shot or beaten, it makes one not only proud to be an American, but extremely grateful.
I’m proud to be an American for all of the wonderful freedoms we have, yet so many take for granted. Dreams really do come true in America; one can aspire to be anything they want to be.
We’re free to be whom we want, dress how we want, come and go as we want, believe as we want and express our feelings and opinions openly without trepidation.
I’m proud to be an American because we are a caring country that defends human rights and comes to the aid of hurting countries in their time of need.
I’m proud to be an American, where we get a say, we get to vote, we have a president, not a dictator, and although things are far from perfect, we don’t live in constant fear.
I’m proud to be an American, because we are a diverse melting pot of many cultures, rich in diversity. We strive to live peacefully, treat everyone equally and stand united.
Why are you proud to be an American?
Here's a writing prompt template to give your students an opportunity to answer that question.
Run off 2 sets of your students’ school photos; cut them into ovals.
Have children glue their picture + a friend’s to their page and color it.
Brainstorm with students why they are proud to be an American.
Write their answers on the board.
Pre-cut 3-4 yellow stars for each child. Have them write why they are proud to be an American on the stars.
Students glue the stars to their “Proud To Be An American” page.
Everyone shares their “pride page” with the class. You can send them home or collage them on a bulletin board. Caption: Remember to be proud! Happy Memorial Day.
Click on the link to view/print the Proud To Be An American activity.
Another quick "crafivity" that you can do, is this patriotic windsock.
I like making windsocks throughout the year. They are an excellent way to show children what a cylinder shape looks like and reinforce that 3D shape vocabulary word.
Click on the link to view/download the Patriotic Windsock.
I hope you can flit on over tomorrow for more fun.
Feel free to PIN anything from my site or blog that you think others might find helpful. Thanks for visiting!
Tweet! Tweet! Life Is Sweet!
It’s now all the rage to “tweet” news, so why not make tweeting a fun writing prompt.
I’ve designed 2 “craftivity” headers for your students to pick from, that will make writing even more fun.
The results will make a lovely springtime bulletin board as well.
Make a robin template by tracing, then cutting the birds out of old file folders.
Students trace them onto recycled newspapers and cut out their robin.
They can leave the bird as is, or add a bit of color to the orange breast, yellow beak and add a black dot for an eye.
Run off the nest master on brown construction paper and have students cut around it.
The robin’s blue eggs can be pre-cut. Review and discus what a main idea is.
Students’ write the main idea of their “newsflash” on the whole egg.
Print off their school photo and cut the headshots into ovals. Students glue their photo to the back of the “hatched” egg.
Children glue the eggs and newspaper bird to the nest and the nest to the top of their “Tweet” paper, writing one to two “tweets”.
The other option is a word art robin. I made this on the awesome website Tagxedo.
You can use my template, (run it off and have students cut it out and glue it to a sheet of brown construction paper & trim.) or you can have students go to the site and type in their own word list, using adjectives that describe their news, or have them type in their entire tweet!
The site is easy to navigate.
Since they did not have a bird shape, I imported one and have provided the clip art for you. Simply use my pdf, save it as a jpeg to your desktop.
When you click on shapes on the left, you’ll get a window with all the blue shape options, on the bottom is a box that says “add image” click on that.
Make sure “desktop” is in the top file window. Scroll down ‘til you find the "robin" file. Click on it to import, then click "accept" in the bottom right box.
The robin is a state bird for several, so make it a teachable moment with a few facts about your state and the bird if you like.
There’s also writing prompt about those “tweet” friends your students have and a mini certificate of praise to tweet the good news to family.
If you have an I Pad or e-mail account at school, with a real Twitter account, (easy to set one up for pupil praise purposes) why not let students who have done an especially fine job with this activity, really Tweet about it!
Let them know about this bonus ahead of time, for added incentive!
Click on the link to view/download the Tweet Stuff packet.
I hope you can fly on back tomorrow for more fun tips! It's OK to PIN anything you think might be helpful or interesting to others too.
Happy Tweeting!
Scroll down for article #2 today...More preschool kindergarten graduation ideas.
Announcing: Preschool and Kindergarten Graduates!
I wanted to see if there were any fun templates in Word for graduation and I found this one.
I think it turned out to be a cute keepsake and quick gift for the kiddo’s.
Click on the link to view/download the pdf file for graduation announcement and cards.
I made a pdf master for you to make things easier, but if you’d like to personalize things, I’ve also left my template in a word doc that you can click on to type in a different year as well as your students’ names for the business cards.
The file for the announcement was too big and would not let me save it in a doc that you could click on, even though I only had one on a page, but you can easily source it in your word docs. Not sure what was up with that, but oh well...
If you like the font, it’s called Tonight's The Night and is from free fonts by Kevin and Amanda. Click on the link to download it.
Click on the link to view the doc graduation business card.
I also found this cute “World’s Best” certificate that I thought you might enjoy.
Click on the link to view the doc World’s Best Certificate and adapt it with your students' information.
I hope these keepsake items help you out.
Do you have a treasure you'd like to share? I'd enjoy hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to leave a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas.
Thanks for visiting. I hope you can pop by tomorrow for more fun.
You have my permission to PIN anything you feel might be interesting or helpful to others.
