Preparing for kindergarten.
Parents / Caregivers can do a lot to help prepare their child for Kindergarten before the big ‘first day’. Below is a list of skills that will be useful for children starting Kindergarten. We recognise that not all children will have these skills as everyone develops at a different pace, so this is intended only as a guide so that starting school may be just a little easier.
Encourage your child to attempt the things mentioned below, but don’t worry if your child can’t do all of them. Talk to the Kindergarten teacher, and together you can support and assist your child’s learning.
Language
- Talks to other people about familiar objects and events
- Answers and asks simple Questions
- Makes needs known
- Follows simple Instructions
- Uses books for Enjoyment or for looking at pictures
- Identifies Pictures in Books, Magazines, on Television or Video
- Uses a variety of things (pens, pencils, textas, paintbrushes, sticks in the dirt)
to draw, to scribble or to write - Joins in singing familiar songs
Mathematics
- Recognises that numbers can be used to count
- Uses words such as many, a lot, more, less
- Identifies things in a group that are different
- Sees differences in shapes
- Differentiates between opposites – up and down, under and over, in front and behind, day and night
Personal / Social Skills
- Uses the Toilet Independently
- Can say own Name and Address
- Adapts to unfamiliar settings and new experiences
- Can finish a task, and tidies up afterwards
- Plays cooperatively with other Children – shares and takes turns
- Can sit still to listen to a story for a few minutes
- Is curious about the world
- Can share an adult’s attention with several other children
- Participates in imaginative play
Physical Skills
- Uses scissors to cut along a straight line
- Enjoys a variety of indoor and outdoor play
- Can put on and take off jumpers, shoes, socks independently
- Makes and designs things using a variety of materials