December 20, 2009
As always, although we usually have no written homework in Kindergarten, the
following are suggestions for practice of basic skills at home.
Language Arts:
- Children should know most letters by sight so can work on associating the
letters with the sounds they make.
- See if children can come up with words that begin with the letters they
have learned.
- All children should be writing their names with an initial capital letter
and the rest of the letters in lower case (they aren't doing this but
should).
Math:
- Reinforce the sequence of the days of the week and months of the year; help
your child associate certain months with certain holidays or other special
times; help familiarize them with the meaning of "yesterday" and "tomorrow"
- Practice number recognition and writing numbers up through at least 20 but
preferably to 30.
- Practice identifying coins and their values, as well as "trading" a
collection of pennies for nickels, nickels and pennies for dimes, etc.
Strengthening Fine Motor Coordination:
- cutting with scissors
- using tweezers to pick up small objects
- lacing cards or stringing beads
- squeezing a "squishy" ball
- kneading dough, clay, Playdough
Social Skills/Behavior:
- Please emphasize manners, both in general ("please", "thank you", "excuse
me", waiting your turn to speak, and listening when others are speaking)
and table manners (don't talk with food in your mouth, chew with your mouth
closed, etc.)
- Encourage your children to include others and help them with this by asking
different children for play dates. At this age, it is important for
children to want to be friends with many children rather than to have
a "best friend".
- Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship -
the big one we are still working hard to instill in the children is RESPECT
(for each other's personal space and belongings, for teachers and other
adults, for classroom books and games)
Religion:
- Make prayer an integral part of your child's day, especially on the
weekend when s/he is not in school. This will go a long way toward
fostering his/her faith and prayer life.
- The children know a brief Morning Offering ("Good Morning, Jesus; today is
for you. Bless all I think, all I say, and all I do. Bless all those who
love me too. Amen") as well as the Guardian Angel prayer and the Glory
Be. They also can recite or sing (with others or a with the tape) the Our
Father and the Hail Mary (we say the Our Father each morning and pray the
Hail Mary with the Rosary as well as many songs about Mary).
- We are VERY focused on "how" we pray - hands folded, standing or sitting
straight and still (not leaning on tables or moving around the room),
facing the crucifix in the classroom, and doing NOTHING else with our
bodies. I am pretty strict about this and the children have responded
beautifully, for the most part.
I'm sure I'm missing something really IMPORTANT (maybe not), but if someone
reminds me of something I'll just add it later.