October 23, 2009
Parents often ask why we (KDG teachers) don't give traditional homework and
want to know what they can do with their children at home to practice what
they are learning or working on in school. The following suggestions are
specific to what we are doing at this point in time:
Language Arts:
- letter recognition (capital and lower case)
- if children know most letters by sight, help them associate the letters
with the sounds they make and see if children can come up with words that
begin with the letters (we have begun with the letter Mm, and the next
three letters we will focus on will be Aa, Pp and Ss)
- encourage your child to practice writing his/her name, especially using a
capital letter at the beginning and then ALL lower case letters
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"
- number recognition and matching to sets of objects, as well as writing
numbers
- sorting by different attributes (color, shape, size)
- recognizing and extending patterns (MANY of the children have difficulty in
this area)
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:
- 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, especially if they already had
friends in the class when school began; a great way to do this is to try to
have play dates with a variety of children in the class rather than
encouraging a "best friends" mentality at this early age
- Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship -
the big one we are really working hard on at this time is RESPECT (for each
other's personal space and belongings, for teachers and other adults, for
classroom books and games)
Religion:
- Making prayer an integral part of your child's day, especially on the
weekend when s/he is not in school, 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 are also familiar with the Our Father and the Hail Mary (we say
one or the other as a school each morning). We also do not eat snack or
lunch without first saying the Prayer Before Meals ("Grace").
- 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.