Ready Set Go 2020: Week 5

Hello new Breakthrough Schools families! 

If you are new to receiving this regular communication, Ready Set Go, for new families and scholars or if you have received previous editions I am really excited to connect with you, answer your questions, and share some resources and events happening around Cleveland.  This week I have been thinking a lot about how important preparation is when successfully accomplishing a new task.  A runner engages in hours of training before a race to help him or her prepare.  A scholar studies hard before a big exam.  For our new kindergarten scholars preparation is equally important.  Here are some activities from our kindergarten teachers that you and your scholar can work on together over the summer to prepare for kindergarten:

1. Self-help Skills –
   • Make sure your child knows and responds to their first and last names - not just family nicknames.
   • Practice buttoning buttons, zipping jackets, belts and tying shoes independently.
   • Kindergarteners must be fully potty trained and able to take care of their bathroom needs without adult assistance unless documentation of a diagnosed medical issue is provided. We understand that accidents may happen, so please be sure to provide them an extra set of clothes, including underwear, in a Ziploc bag to keep at school.
2. Following Directions & Paying Attention
   • Give your child a simple set of two and three step directions to follow. It could be something like; put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, and turn on your nightlight.
   • Play the classic "Simon Says" game with them. It's a great game for following directions and paying attention to the changes in the words.
   • Use preset timeframes to help your child successfully complete tasks. For example, you have 10 more minutes to finish your dinner. Set a timer and hold them to this time limit.
3. Develop Social Skills
   • Teach your child to express their feelings in a way that isn't aggressive or doesn’t involve crying.
   • Talk about problems they might have, don't just tell him/her something is wrong. Explain to him/her why it is wrong.
   • Discuss the difference between school behaviors and home behaviors. For example rough play may be okay at home, but not at school.
4. Shapes and Colors
   • Play games in which your child finds objects of particular colors and shapes around the house or in the neighborhood as you drive. Play “I Spy”
   • Teach difficult shapes such as pentagons and diamonds by showing them how to draw them on paper and then cutting them out.
5. Writing
   • Teach them how to write their name using proper capitalization.
   • Have your child practice writing the alphabet and pick out the letters that spell their name. Teach them the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters.
   • Use play dough and have them create different letters with it. This will not only help make reading and writing fun, but also improve their motor skills.
6. Letter Recognition
   • Get a large set of letter refrigerator magnets. This allows your child to make learning fun as they move letters around to make simple words.
   • Develop games and song rhymes to make learning letters fun and engaging.
   • Write a series of words on a piece of paper, for example, box, ran, back, fan, boy. Ask your child to circle all the words that begin with the letter b.
7. Number Recognition and Counting
   • Make counting part of everything. Have them count how many spoons are on the dinner table, how many socks you are folding.
   • Grab two dice and a piece of paper with the numbers two through twelve written on it. Have your child roll the dice, count all the dots, and circle each number until you've rolled them all.
8. Sounding out Letters
   • Teach your child that letters represent sounds and that each one makes a different sound.
   • Overemphasize the first sound in words to help your child hear the difference.
   • Find items around the house that begin with the same sound and have them identify the letter that makes that sound.
9. Reading Readiness
   • As you read to your child, run your finger under the words as you move through the sentence. This will help them to understand that words move left to right and top to bottom.
   • Playing a word game that separates the beginning and ending sound of a word. This allows them to put the sounds together to guess the word (example; say we are going to play a game. I am going to say the beginning and ending sound of a word, and you tell me what the word is. What is the word if I say b-all (ball), m-an (man), c-at (cat)
   • Read to your children every day using tools like song books, picture books, rhyming books and alphabet books. The library is a great resource to get a variety of books.  You can change them out every few weeks.  Speaking of books keep reading Ready Set Go for regular suggestions by grade level.