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READING
Read to Your Child Daily - You may want to establish a nightly routine of a bedtime story. Allow your child to select the story that he/she would like to hear, even if you have already read it 100 times. Repetition is an important part of learning how to read. Often point to the words while you read to help your child make the connection between the oral word and the written text.
Allow Your Child to Read to You - At first your child will probably just read from memory, sometimes creating a slightly different version of the story. Accept his/her version during this early stage of reading development. A feeling of success can inspire a child to want to learn more letter sounds and more words, and that will lead to improved reading accuracy. Please provide guidance when necessary to your child by assisting him/her in developing the important basic skills (i.e. learning letter sounds) that will enable him/her to confidently achieve the next level of reading.
Talk with Your Child About Stories - When reading to your child, start asking questions about the story. Ask how the characters are feeling. Talk about the sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end). Ask your child to predict the ending or make up a different ending. Sound out words together. Look for words that start and/or end with the same letter, words that rhyme, etc.
Have a Variety of Reading Materials - Select different types of books and have a wide variety of reading materials for your child to choose from (i.e. magazines, newspapers, recipies, nursery rhymes).
Keep Books in a Special Place - By providing a special place for your child to keep books, you will send the message that books are important.
Point Out Print in the Environment - Signs, menus, cereal boxes, banners, etc.
Get a Library Card for Your Child - Make frequent trips to the library and let your child pick out books that interest him/her.
Give Books as Gifts - Select high quality books that have detailed illustrations. Write a personal message to your child on the inside of the cover. Be sure to sign it and include the date. As your child grows up, these books and messages can bring back fond memories, especially if your child had the opportunity to share some special time with you while reading the books.
Reading is a Special Life-Long Skill - Reading is a very important skill that can help your child discover interesting
opportunities and reach his/her full potential. Please do all that you can to help your child get off to a good start with
positive early reading experiences.LETTER IDENTIFICATION
Letter Name Recognition - Go through a set of alphabet cards with your child (these may be store bought or can be created at home - index cards can work well). Take out those he/she does not know and review those he/she does not know.
Alphabet Slap Game - Spread out the alphabet cards. Say a letter and have your child slap the card. Continue until all or most of the cards are identified.
Alphabetical Order - Mix up the alphabet cards and have your child put them in alphabetical order.
Reversed Alphabetical Order - Mix up the alphabet cards and have your child put them in reverse alphabetical order, from Z to A.
Missing Letter - Put the letters in alphabetical order. Have your child close his/her eyes while you remove one or more cards. Have your child open his/her eyes and identify the missing letters.
Vowels and Consonants - Identify which letters are vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and which ones are consonants (the other letters of the alphabet). Explain that letters have letter names as well as letter sounds. Have your child divide the alphabet cards into vowels and consonants.
Consonant Sound Recognition - Follow the same instructions as Letter Name Recognition, only check for letter sound recognition.
Tracing Letters in the Sand - Materials: A shallow pan filled with sand. Trace a letter in the sand with your finger and have your child copy the same letter in the sand. Have your child say the letter name, the letter sound, and praise your child for his/her correct responses.
Letter Hunt - Pick a letter and see how many everyone in the family can find. Look on street signs, cereal boxes, envelopes, in books, etc. Make it a game!
Sandpaper Letters - Cut the letters of your child's name out of sandpaper. Glue these onto a piece of cardboard so your child can trace his/her name with his/her finger and identify each letter.
Play Dough Letters - Draw a letter on a piece of paper and have your child roll out pieces of play dough and fit and mold them together to make that letter's shape. Have your child try lots of letters and have lots of fun!
Magnetic Letters - Place magnetic letters (capitals and lowercase) on the refrigerator or a cookie sheet. Help your child
find and put all of the capital letters in one group and the lowercase letters in another. Next help your child match the
correct capital and lowercase letters (B with b, H with h, etc.). Talk about the letter name and the sound that it makes.
Grab Bag - Materials: A cloth or plastic bag filled with 3-4 letters (the magnetic letters might work well for this activity).
Have the child close his/her eyes and reach into the bag of letters and select one. Based on his/her touch only, have him/her identify the letter. Have the child pull out the letter from the bag to see if he/she is correct. Variation: After your child pulls the letter from the bag, have him/her write the letter on a piece of paper, say the name of the letter and the letter's sound. Try mixing upper and lowercase letters in the bag as your child's skills develop.
Letter of the Day - Materials: Newspaper, construction paper, pencil or crayon, scissors. Choose a letter for the day or go through the alphabet in order, assign a letter for each day. Trace the letter for the day on construction paper and have your child color it and cut it out. Give the child a page from yesterday's newspaper and ask the child to circle the letters on the page that match the letter of the day (both capitals and lowercase). Give assistance as necessary. Snacks, activities, meals, etc. can all be chosen because they start with the letter of the day. Example: On "A" day, apples can be the afternoon snack, visit Andy or Anne for play, go to the aquarium, identify all the As on signs, billboards, and businesses along the way.
Post-it Notes - Write single letters onto small Post-it Notes and place them on items in the house that begin with the sound made by that letter. Ask your child to identify the letter name and the name of the item. The next step would be to ask your child to put the Post-it Notes on items around the house. Then he/she can show you the items that he/she labels (help your child make corrections if necessary; keep it positive).
Alphabet Book - Cut a piece of paper into fourths, staple them together on the side, and write an alphabet letter on the cover. Using a magazine that is no longer needed, your child can cut out the target letter and/or pictures that begin with the target letter and glue them onto the pages in the alphabet book. Label the pictures.MATH
Below are some activities that your child can do at home to help develop his/her math skills.
Logical Thinking
* Classify blocks by size (i.e. small, medium, and large)
* Sort crayons, markers, and pencils into containers
* Sort laundry
* Sort objects, such as buttons, keys, coins, pasta, cereal, fabric or paper scraps, marbles, balls, stamps, postcards, jar
lids, leaves, shells, playing cards, etc. and explain why
* Sort toys for storage, such as zoo and farm animals
* Go on a shape or color hunt (in a book/magazine or around the house)
* Compare sets using the terms more and less (i.e. "There are more crayons than pencils.")
* Estimate how many items are inside a grocery bag - count to see if the estimation was correct
Measurement
* Measure shoes, height, length of table, etc. with yarn or hands
* Use blocks to build towers with length or height equal to other objects
* Count the number of steps it takes to get somewhere
* Measure ingredients for cooking
Shapes
* Hunt for shapes throughout the room
* Hunt for shapes in a magazine, cut them out, and paste them on a page
* Create a drawing using a variety of shapes
* Trace shapes then color them
* Use 20 inch long shoelaces or string to create shapes or numerals by placing the laces/string on top of shapes or numerals that are written on paper
Numerals
* Tell how many of each body parts a person has - How many eyes, ears, chins, fingers, etc.
* Use ten index cards - on the left-hand side of each, write a numeral from 1 to 10 - then, on the right side, punch a matching number of holes with a hole punch
* Number the inside bottoms of six paper baking cups from 1 to 6 -place the baking cups in a 6-cup muffin tin - get 21 counters (pennies, small buttons, beans, etc.) - identify the numerals in the bottoms of the paper baking cups and drop in the corresponding numbers of counters
* Make a blank book by stapling 10 pieces of white paper together with a colored paper cover - write "My Counting Book" on the cover and number the pages in the book from 1 to 10 - look through magazines or catalogs and tear or cut out small pictures - glue one picture on the first page of the book, two pictures on the second page and so on
* Practice counting - by the end of the school year, your child should be able to count by 1s to 100, count by 10s to 100, count by 5s to 50, count by 2s to 20, and count backwards from 20
* Count the telephone poles as you pass them when in a car - this not only practices counting but also gives children a sense of rhythm and its relationship to time and space
* Look for numbers in the environment, like the numbers on street signs, storefronts, or license plates - talk about the different things people use numbers for: like finding things, naming things, or giving out other information like prices
* Parent thinks of a number between 1 and 10 (or 1 and 20, etc.) - give your child clues like "bigger" or "smaller" and ask him/her to guess the number - this will help your child develop a "mental number line" as he/she thinks about different numbers and how they relate to one another
* Practice basic addition and subtraction (i.e. "We have 3 plates and 3 bowls on the counter...how many all together?"
or "We bought 5 apples and today we ate 2 of them...how many apples do we have left?")
* Play board games, using a spinner or dice
Patterns
* Make patterns with beads or blocks (i.e. red, blue, red, blue, or red, red, blue, red, red, blue or red, blue, green, red, blue, green)
* Explore patterns in wallpaper, gift wrap, clothing, furniture, music, etc.
* Create patterns using sponge painting, collage materials, geometric shapes, gift wrap, wall paper, etc.FINE MOTOR SKILLS
Fine motor skills are used often in school, especially when writing, coloring, and cutting.
Suggested Activities to Improve Fine Motor Skills
* Give your child opportunities to put together puzzles, complete dot-to-dot worksheets, build block towers, color within lines, cut and paste on lines, fold paper designs, and string beads. Give feedback and assistance when needed.
* Allow your child to hide and retrieve marbles, buttons, or beads from play dough. Emphasize the use of thumbs. Also,
encourage your child to use both hands to make balls and other shapes with play dough.
* Give your child plenty of opportunities to practice tracing lines and pictures. After tracing over a shape, have your child
draw smaller and larger samples of the shape.
* Guide your child in learning how to independently fasten clothing such as zippers, snaps, buttons, and tying shoe laces.
* Encourage your child to draw pictures with pencils, crayons, markers, and chalk. Provide stencils and templates of shapes, letters, and numbers for your child to use.
* Let your child string spools of thread with buttons, macaroni, or fruit loops. Encourage your child to create a pattern.
* Give your child opportunities to play in sand or water by filling and transferring the contents into various containers.
* Provide marshmallows and toothpicks and encourage your child to build a person, house, etc.
* Have your child match lids with their paired jars or containers.
* Let your child use tweezers to pick up various objects such has cotton balls, beads, and pom-pom balls.
* Have your child duplicate patterns or configurations of beads and/or blocks with and without the use of a model.
* Have your child tear paper, use a hole punch and scissors for art projects.
* After seeing a shape, letter, or number, ask your child to reproduce it on paper.
* Playing games such as Marbles, Pick-up Sticks, Jacks, Operation, and Bed Bugs all help develop fine motor skills and
good hand-eye coordination.WRITING SKILLS
* Provide a variety of materials for your child to use when writing (i.e. paper, pencils, crayons, markers, note pads, cards, post-it notes, clip board) and a handy place to neatly store those important materials (i.e. storage box, drawer, shelf).
* Provide a special writing area for your child to use (i.e. a desk, a place at the kitchen table, a spot on the coffee table).
* Provide a special place to display your child's writing (i.e. refrigerator door, small bulletin board).
* Accept what your child writes. Children go through various stages when learning to write (scribbling, drawing pictures, random letters, inventive spelling). Answer your child's questions about writing and be encouraging.
* Write notes to your child and put them in special places (i.e. on a mirror, in a pocket, on a pillow). Also be a good model. Let your child see your writing. After all, he/she wants to grow up to be just like you!
* Provide real reasons for writing (i.e. thank you notes, grocery lists, reminder notes, short letters to family members or
friends, stories, signs).
Some fun ways to practice writing -
* Use finger paints - Your child can smear finger paints on a piece of paper and write his/her name and/or various letters with his/her fingers. Encourage him/her to spell words and provide some guidance when necessary. Your child can "wipe the slate clean" to write more words and letters.
* Use a salt box - Line a small box with black paper and add a thin layer of salt. Your child can write letters in the salt. Gently shake the box to "clean the slate" and start over.
* Tracing/Drawing Activities - Draw shapes, curly lines, zig zags, and mazes, and ask your child to trace them with a pencil. Then see if he/she can duplicate the drawing by himself/herself.
