Though we are always busy working and learning at school, it doesn't hurt at all to spend some time at home practicing and strengthening skills. On this page I will include some ideas of things you could practice with or that I have seen a number of children struggle with.
If there is anything that you would like to see on here - please let me know! I am always open to suggestions or here to help direct you to helpful resources.
Cutting with Scissors
Have your child practice cutting a straight line. When they are confident with this skill challenge them to cut a zig zag line, wavy line, or large circles!
Pay attention to the way your child is holding their scissors so that they are guiding with one hand, their fingers are in the right holes, and their thumb is facing up to cut away from themselves.
Here is a helpful article that covers most everything! Teaching Preschoolers to Cut With Scissors.
Writing Their Name
One skill we will continue to master this year is writing our name. We will focus mainly on our first name. I encourage children to write their full first name instead of nicknames. But if they have already begun with a nickname, we will master that and move on from there. Please have your child only put a capital letter at the beginning of their name and learn lowercase letters for all letters following. It is normal for children to write their name with large letters at the beginning but as the year progresses we will practice scaling down to be able to write them at a normal size for Kindergarten.
Letter Recognition and Letter Sound
As we work through our classroom curriculum we will have our "Letters of the Week" at a pace of 2 letters per week. Please practice recognizing these letters and their sounds by finding them in their environment, completing their letter books that are sent home, and or writing them. You can always get more creative with ways to practice as well - Pinterest is great! Challenge them to recognize both upper and lowercase versions of letters and the sound the letter makes. Our curriculum will have gone through all letters by Christmas Break and when we return, we will cycle back through to review them.
Sight Words
As your child masters their letter recognition and letter sounds, you may be curious about beginning sight words. As a class we will begin these after spring break. However, I wanted to provide the Kindergarten Sight Words for any that wanted to see what they may be or have a place to reference them.
Please click the following link: Complete List Of Kindergarten Sight Words