There are so many things that preschoolers learn and pick up as they ready themselves for kindergarten. Adventures in Learning puts an emphasis on kindergarten readiness in our preschool programs, available at both our Tustin and Orange locations. We’ve compiled some of the skills that we work on in our preschool classroom, so that families know what to expect when they enroll their child with our daycare center. Plus, this might give you an idea of some growth-fostering activities you can try at home!
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Because each type of development can proceed at a different rate, no kindergarten age child will be completely “ready” in all four areas. One child may be exceptionally skilled at language but be unable to catch a ball. His best friend may be able to catch a ball but cry when his parents go to work. One day your child may happily count from 1 to 10, but another day forgets how many fingers are on one hand. This is perfectly normal and is not an indication that your child is not ready.
These are some of the various skills and abilities we will be working on:
- Coordinate large muscles, as in balancing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping and riding a tricycle.
- Coordinate small muscles, as in painting, coloring, cutting with scissors and putting puzzles together.
- Draw recognizable pictures.
- Uses correct pencil grip.
- Clearly writes letters of the alphabet and own name.
- Takes care of his bodily needs for dressing, eating, and toileting.
Social & Emotional Skills
- Ability to listen to and follow 2 -3 step directions.
- Ability to focus/has an appropriate attention span.
- Ability to control themselves.
- Ability to make friends and play cooperatively.
- Ability to solve problems with words rather than through rough aggression.
- Respect other children’s property.
- Share toys and treats.
- Skills communicating with other children and adults.
- Ability to work independently.
- Ability to work in a group.
- Demonstrate independence from his Mom and Dad.
- Say goodbye to Mom and Dad and switch focus to a task.
- Develop affectionate but not clingy attachments to friends and teachers.
- Shows an interest in learning.
Language and Literacy Skills
- Ability to speak clearly in complete sentences.
- Ability to express needs and wants clearly.
- Identify most colors.
- Ability to recognize and spell own name (first and last).
- Identify all upper and lower case letters.
- Match all consonant and short vowel sounds to their corresponding letter symbol.
- Follow words from left to right and top to bottom on a printed page.
- Recognize and produce rhyming words.
- Ability to memorize and recall words to a song or chant.
- Identify beginning and ending sounds.
- Uses pictures and context to make predictions about story content.
- Ability to retell the main idea of a story in proper sequence.
- Identify her birthday.
- Understand basic contrasts, such as up/down, in/out, and empty/full.
Cognitive Development / Mathematical Skills
- Visual discrimination and memory.
- Count, recognize, name and order numbers 1–30 using objects.
- Identify common geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles and squares.
- Ability to compare objects and understands quantitative concepts such as few, many, equal to, more than, less than or just one.
- Ability to identify, sort and classify objects by attributes (finds two of the same, groups alike items).
- Understands spatial relationships such as behind, beside, under, over, etc.
- Ability to recognize and continue a pattern.
- Measuring, graphing and sequencing.
- Ability to use objects to figure out addition and subtraction problems.
Science and Social Studies Skills
- Identify major characteristics of common plants and animals (stems, leaves, wings, antennae, etc.).
- Understand major characteristics of different geographical areas (desert, ocean, mountains).
- Understand that changes in weather occur from day to day and over seasons.
- Ability to describe the properties of common objects (color, shape, texture, size and weight).
- Recognize national and state symbols (flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty).
- Understand and name the days of the week and months of the year.
Your child will also be working on the alphabet using ZooPhonics®. Each character of the alphabet has been given an animal name – such as Allie Alligator for A and Bubba Bear for B – which clearly gives the sound of each letter. The animal names then becomes the basis for a short story as well as a sign or body movement used for teaching and reinforcing the sound of each letter. A beginning reader can rapidly learn to recognize letters in a word, associate each letter with a sound, blend them together and decode the word. THIS IS READING!
Sample Daily Schedule
The following is a sample daily schedule for all preschool age children. Please refer to posted schedules and weekly lesson plans in classrooms for the specific times and planned activities.
In addition to the lesson plan activities there will be various activities set up during outside time as well. For example you may find that your child did some wet chalk coloring outside, helped make play dough or played a game of duck-duck-goose.
- 6:30-8:00 am: Free Play & Breakfast
- 8:00-8:30 am: Story Time
- 8:30-9:00 am: Playground Time
- 9:00-9:15 am: Snack
- 9:15-9:30 am: *Group Time (roll call, calendar, introduce theme and Zoo Phonics letter/sound of the week, story and songs)
- 9:30-10:45 am: *Language Arts (Zoo Phonics, *Creative art,*Cognitive / Structured Learning,*Manipulatives and Free Play)
- 10:45-11:45 am: Playground Time (Outside Learning Centers)
- 11:45am-12:30 pm: Lunch
- 12:30-2:30 pm: Naptime
- 2:30-3:45 pm: *Music and Movement,*Science and Discovery
- 3:45-4:00 pm: Snack
- 4:00-4:45 pm: Playground Time (Outside Learning Centers)
- 4:45-5:30 pm: Free Play inside/Table Activities
- 5:30-6:00 pm: Classrooms combine for story time
*LESSON PLAN ACTIVITIES