As I write this post my sweet preschooler is asleep after a weekend full of fun. I can't believe that she will be in kindergarten in just a few short weeks, which is surprising since I have been thinking about it for the last few months.
When I do think on this change there are a lot of thoughts that go through my head as a parent, but I was most surprised by the ones that came in as a teacher. As a teacher I noticed that the expectations of what preschoolers are supposed to know by the end of preschool is very different from what is expected for them to know as they walk into kindergarten on day one. What made it even more interesting as we were looking at schools was that the expectations between private, charter, and public were all different. We eventually decided on the charter school that I will be teaching at next year and that led to the actual reason for this blog post.
I created a summer review packet for my daughter that was specific to the skills that I saw charter and private schools requesting knowledge of and public school teachers hoping their students had exposure to before walking through their doors. I did this so that my daughter could walk into her classroom calmly and not become overwhelmed by all the expectations. I wanted her to enjoy kindergarten and not feel stressed or anxious so below you will see and hear about some of the pieces that are in this packet.
There are 44 days worth of activities in this packet that cover number writing and identification, letter writing and identification, shape recognition, color recognition, cutting skills, direction following, patterns, basic bar graph building, reading, and coloring. I used a variety of activities to ensure that it would capture my daughters attention and help her learn and grow.
For reading we try to read a total of twenty minutes throughout each day. If all our reading times add up to twenty minutes then she gets to color in an object on one of the sheets. Each time she fills up a sheet she gets to pick a special treat or small toy as a reward.
For alphabet practice I created pages that require her to trace and write, sort, cut and paste, color, and follow a path.
For math I created sheets that required her to trace and write, count, color, build, sort, and order. The variety will help build her ability to identify the numbers and manipulate them. There are also different ways to use some of the sheets which I show you below. The more options you have the better the chance of you holding the attention of your preschooler.
When I have her write her numbers or letters, I have her use an eraser to put space between her numbers and letters. This way she is still practice but only having to 3 or 4 on each line which is less tiresome. We also use crayons and markers for coloring because it gives her options. For the ten frames I give her the choice of stickers, crayons, markers, or painting with a Q-tip. We also use paint for several other math sheets that you will see below.
The things I have shared are a few of the different activities you can find in the summer packet I created for my daughter. If you are interested in using this for your little one this summer you can find it here. If you have any questions feel free to ask it in the comments.
Have a wonderful evening and fantastic summer!
Ashley
