Ready for Kindergarten! Family Workshop

This document is to be used by organizations who have purchased ReadyRosie. It may not be copied for general distribution beyond the school/classroom that has purchased a ReadyRosie License.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEWStarting kindergarten is an exciting time for children and families. In this workshop families explore what it means to be “ready” for kindergarten. Experiential activities, videos, and discussions give families the tools they need to support foundational language skills, mathematical thinking, social emotional learning, and healthy routines

so families and children are confident and ready for their new school adventure.

Facilitator’s Guide

INTENDED TIMEFRAME:This is a 1-hour workshop. There is a separate 10 minute Ready for Kindergarten introduction that can be delivered at Kindergarten Round-ups and Registration Programs.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Participants will: » Explore what it means to be “ready” for school.

» Plan for family routines that support strong health and habits.

» Discover the building blocks of “readiness” and what children in kindergarten learn at the start of the year, the middle of the year, and by the end of the year.

» Learn to play powerful learning games and activities that build the skills needed to be ready for kindergarten.

WORKSHOP FORMATNote: Each activity has a recommended video but other video options are provided so facilitators can customize the workshop to meet the age/skill needs of participating families.

1. Welcome and Warm-Up 2. A Ready for Kindergarten exploration3. What family routines support kindergarten readiness practice4. Kindergarten foundational skills practice5. ReadyRosie as an ongoing learning tool practice6. Closure

MATERIALS1. PowerPoint Presentation 2. Laptop or other mobile device with ability to connect to internet during workshop 3. Materials

» Sign-in sheet» Name tags for participants» Flipchart paper» Markers for facilitator and markers for tables» Tape to hang flip charts (either a roll or enough for a long strip at each table)» Paper and pencils for participants to take notes» Evaluation

SPECIFIC MATERIALS FOR THIS WORKSHOP: » ReadyK Parent Handout » Routine Chart Printable » High-quality, diverse children’s books for families to browse (Minimum - one per table) » Community resource handouts

» Local program to provide local community resource handouts you want families to know about.

This document is to be used by organizations who have purchased ReadyRosie. It may not be copied for general distribution beyond the school/classroom that has purchased a ReadyRosie License.

Slide 1

Welcome families and introduce yourself

1. Introduce yourself and share why you are excited about facilitating the workshop.

2. Take care of any housekeeping items, such as location of restrooms and announcements.

3. Discuss the following:

» This is a safe place; we are all learning together. All discussions and things we share are confidential. Please feel free to ask questions.

» This is a chance to build community, to connect and learn from each other.

» Please put your cell phones on vibrate.

Facilitator Note: If participants have been involved in other ReadyRosie workshops, welcome them to the current workshop. You may reference the previous workshop by saying, “In our previous workshop/s we were learning about _____ and now we will be discussing _____.”

ACTIVITY

Ready for Kindergarten!

Remembering Your First Day of School.

1. Take a moment to think about your first day of school2. Do you remember how you felt? Who was there?

Pair and Share: Introduce yourself to someone at your table and share your memory.Allow a few minutes for each person to talk with a partner.

3. Now I’d like you to discuss the following two questions with your partner:

» How you are feeling about your child starting kindergarten?

» What do you hope your child’s kindergarten experience will be like?

Ask: Does anyone want to share the feelings you remember or what you learned from your neighbor?

Ask: Does anyone want to share how they are feeling about their child starting kindergarten and what you hope is your child’s kindergarten experience?

Recap discussion by flip charting some of the emotions and hopes shared and summarizing key points participants discussed. Then state:

It’s normal for children and families to be both excited and anxious about kindergarten.

Children often worry about if their teacher will like them? Will he/she be scary, nice…? Will I know anyone? Who will be my friends? What will we do?

ACTIVITY

ACTIVITY

Remembering Your First Day of School?

Your Child’s Kindergarten Experience

Slide 2

Slide 3

Welcome and Warm-Up - 10 minutes

PRACTICE

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

Families often think about missing their child; what if their child doesn’t understand their teacher; what if the other students aren’t nice; what if they learn “bad” habits or are exposed to things; what if they aren’t ready?

We want you and your child to feel excited and ready to start the kindergarten adventure. In today’s workshop we’ll be exploring what being ready for kindergarten looks like and how to prepare your child and yourself for a successful kindergarten start.

Share workshop objectives by stating that today we will:

1. Explore what it means to be “ready” for school.

2. Plan for family routines that support strong health and habits.

3. Discover the building blocks of “readiness” and what children in kindergarten learn at the start of the year, the middle of the year, and by the end of the year.

4. Learn to play powerful learning games and activities that build the skills needed to be ready for kindergarten.

Ask: What would you most like to learn today about Getting Ready for Kindergarten?

Recap discussion by summarizing key points shared and writing down what participants want to learn on a flipchart. Post the flipchart paper at the front of the room and refer back to it during the workshop and at the end of the workshop as you cover the items they want to learn about.

Slide 3

Slide 4

Your Child’s Kindergarten Experience (continued)

Ready for Kindergarten Workshop Objectives

TRANSITION

TRANSITION

What Does “Ready” for Kindergarten Mean? - 10 minutes

ACTIVITY

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

What is Ready?

You are going to work with your table to discuss and make notes about what you think being ready for kindergarten means to schools, teachers, and families. For example, schools have to meet state age eligibility requirements for when children can start kindergarten. In our state children can start kindergarten if they turn 5 on or before _______________________. So, one of the key things schools think of for being ready is age.

1. As a table discuss what being ready for kindergarten might mean to each of these groups.

2. Use your ReadyK parent handout to make notes.

3. Tell participants they have five minutes. Have fun. Go.

4. Walk around the room and observe what participants are talking about and sharing. Call time after five minutes.

Slide 5-6 What Does “Ready” For Kindergarten Mean?

ACTIVITY

PRACTICE

1. Debrief activity by asking tables to share a few things they discussed for each of the stakeholders on the chart.

2. Take responses and acknowledge what participants mentioned.

3. Wrap-up by showing slide 5 and reviewing any key elements that were missed. NOTE: Do not feel like you need to cover every bullet. You will spend time in the next section on what most five year olds are developmentally ready to handle so this section should go fairly quickly and focus more on helping families see that there are many different perspectives (school, teacher, family) in what being ready means.

As we discussed, being Ready for Kindergarten can mean many things. In addition to age and school requirements there are various abilities, skills, and concepts that support student success in kindergarten. We are going to briefly look at the developmental areas that build readiness.

Who is your five year old?

1. There are four areas that are taken into consideration when we think of how children develop and grow and get ready for Kindergarten.

2. Review the Building Block definitions on the slide:

» Health, Self-Care, and Routines: Is a foundational building block to readiness. Children need to be healthy, able to complete some self-care acts, and have routines that support healthy development.

» Gross and Fine Motor Development: How we control our big and small muscles.

» Social Emotional Development: How we understand and control our feelings, understand others, and build relationships.

» Cognitive Development: How we think, remember, solve problems, and make decisions.

3. We are going to examine each of these building blocks. It’s important to keep in mind that:

» These developmental milestones can generally be applied to the typical five year old, but children grow and develop at different times.

» Every child is unique and has an individual personality. Things they like and don’t like. Things that are easy for them and things that are difficult.

» Reassure families that it is okay if there are things that their child isn’t ready for yet. We are going to discuss each of these areas and practice some strategies for building these foundational skills. All of these blocks are interconnected and make up the “whole child.”

Slide 5-6

Slide 7

What Does “Ready” For Kindergarten Mean? (continued)

Ready Building Blocks

ACTIVITY

SUMMARY

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

Discover the Building Blocks of School Readiness - 25 minutes

Health and Self-Care is how we fuel and care for our bodies so we have energy, can focus, and feel our best.

1. When we talked earlier about what “ready” means, we discussed many of the items under this building block. Refer back to the flipchart as needed.

2. Let’s take a quick minute to review and expand on some of the things that will help your child have a strong foundation of health and self-care.

Slide 8 Health, Self-Care, and Routines Building Block

ACTIVITY

Slide 10-11 Watch: Routine Strategy: Routine Chart

Slide 9 Health, Self-Care, and Routines

3. Highlight key items on the slide that may not have been discussed and expand on the recommended hours of sleep for 5 year olds (8-10) hours and the recommendation from the American Association of Pediatricians around limiting screen time to 1 hour per day for a five year old.

4. We are going to briefly discuss the importance of routines and how they help your child get ready for school. Keep in mind that routines are the steps done to complete something.

5. Encourage families to take notes/draw on their ReadyK handout.

Routine Strategy: Routine Chart

1. Select a partner and discuss the routines you use at home.

2. You each have 1 minute to talk.

3. Make sure each partner gets a turn to talk

1. Ask participants to share some of the routines that were discussed.

2. Acknowledge several answers

3. Summary: State that routines are an important building block to readiness because they help children feel:

» Secure

» Provide clear expectations

» Encourage positive behavior

» Keep kids engaged and

» Influence positive social development

4. Routines are so good for children that schools use routines for almost everything. Children are taught arrival routines, clean-up routines, departure routines, etc. By using routines consistently at home, you are building a strong ready foundation for school.

5. Slide 11 (Show example routine) Hand out routine printables from RR, and tell families they can customize these like the example in the video or just use them for ideas. They can print more from the ReadyRosie website.

Health, Self-Care, and Routines really are the foundation your child stands on. This readiness building block keeps our children fueled and feeling their best.

WATCH

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

TRANSITION

Slide 12 Fine and Gross Motor Building Block: The movement and use of your small and large muscles.

Fine and Gross Motor Skills Practice Group Discussion

1. Review definition of fine and gross motor skills.

2. Ask: Why do you think fine and gross motor skills are an important building block to being ready for school? You can also refer to the flipchart from the readiness activity. Some of the answers might include. Children need to be able to:

» Dress themselves

» Toilet by themselves

PRACTICE

Fine Motor Writing: We are going to watch a video showing a family drawing together.

1. You are going to follow the steps in the video.

2. The trick is that you are going to use your non-dominant hand to do the drawing. (Note: Facilitator, show what you mean by non-dominant hand by picking up a pencil and saying that you usually write with your “____” hand, but for this activity you are going to use your “non-dominant” hand…the hand you don’t normally use to write or catch.)

3. Show putting the pencil in your non-dominant hand. Acknowledge how strange that feels.

4. Make sure participants have paper and pencils or crayons or use their ReadyK Handout for their drawing.

Click to watch Detailed Drawing of a Face

1. Participants do the drawing modeled in the video but with their non-dominant hand.

2. Observe participants as they work on their drawings.

1. Ask: What do you think is being learned in the video?

2. Ask: How did it feel to draw with your non-dominant hand?

3. Accept all answers.

Summarize by stating that just like we experienced in the activity it takes a lot of fine and gross motor skills to draw and write. It can be frustrating and feel awkward while children are building those muscles, so it’s important that we give lots of opportunities to develop strength and coordination in our shoulders, hands, and fingers for handwriting tasks. Children need to be able to:

1. Sit and work on a project.

2. Explore different ways to make marks, shapes, and lines on paper.

3. Get their hands and fingers to hold the pencil/crayon and get them to do what they want on the paper.

Slide 13 Fine Motor Writing Practice

WATCH

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

Slide 12 Fine and Gross Motor Building Block: The movement and use of your small and large muscles.

» Use a fork, spoon, and sometimes table knife

» Draw and color

» Write

» Use scissors

» Run, hop, skip, jump,

» Sit still

» Sit at a table

» Catch and bounce a ball

1. Take several answers and then share that children need lots of practice building their fine and gross motor muscles. Children need to run, jump, roll, and flip upside down. They need a lot of time to play and exercise. When children have had enough exercise they are better able to focus and listen which is a big need in school. Plus, having strong core muscles gives your child the strength they need to sit and pay attention during school hours.

2. As we discussed earlier, a key part of being ready to go to kindergarten is being able to do certain parts of self-care. Many parts of self-care require using fine and gross motor muscles. Teachers have 20+ children in their classroom and will not have time to help individual children go to the bathroom, tie shoes, or put on their outdoor clothing. So helping your child practice these self-care skills is important.

3. Drawing and writing takes a lot of fine motor skill muscles. Your children will be doing a lot of drawing and writing in kindergarten.

ACTIVITY

PRACTICE

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

Reassure families that it takes lots and lots of practice to write. Children will have many opportunities to practice writing and drawing at school and home.

Note: if you need to bring energy up in the room, ask participants to stand and try one of the gross motor skills…like jumping in place or standing on one foot for 10 seconds.

1. Review definition of social emotional development: How we understand and control our feelings, understand others, and build relationships.

2. We are going to watch a ReadyRosie video that demonstrates some parts of social emotional development. Watch closely and see what you think is being learned in the video.

Funny Faces

1. You are going to take turns playing this game with each other. Turn to a partner. You are going to guess the emotion your partner is trying to show. Decide who is going to go first. Think of an emotion; act it out for your partner. They guess. Then switch.

2. Demonstrate an emotion for the entire group. Have them guess and then go.

3. Allow 1 minute to play the game and call time.

1. Ask: What do you think your child is learning in this game?

2. Ask: Why do you think Social Emotional Skills Development is an important “ready” building block for kindergarten?

3. Accept all answers.

Summarize key areas not discussed.

1. To be ready for kindergarten, children need to be able to:

» Be separate from you without getting overly upset

» Handle emotions and conflicts with help (Note, the first step in this process is being able to recognize their emotions and the emotions of others like in the activity we just did.)

» Play with other children and make friends

» Follow simple routines and two-step directions

» Pay attention for at least five minutes to a task an adult is leading, such as listening to directions or a book during circle time

» Sit at a table and work independently for short periods of time

Reassure families that children will have many opportunities to practice building their social emotional skills at school and at home. We are now going to look at Cognitive development.

Slide 14-16

Slide 15

Slide 16

Social Emotional Development Building Block

WATCH

ACTIVITY

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

TRANSITION

Slide 13 Fine Motor Writing Practice (continued)

TRANSITION

PRACTICE

Cognitive Development: How we think, remember, solve problems, and make decisions.

Slide 17 Cognitive Development

DEFINE

Cognitive Development Language Skills:Talking, listening, and vocabulary: Can communicate in full sentences.

Having fun with language

Singing Together

Think of a favorite song or nursery rhyme from your childhood.

1. Ask: Do you share that song or nursery rhyme with your children?2. Ask: What do your children learn when you sing or share rhymes with them?3. Accept all answers.

One of the best things you can do with your child is to talk and listen. Children learn vocabulary words by talking, listening, singing, rhyming, and sharing books. The more words you know, the easier it is when you start your reading journey. Most children are not reading at the start of kindergarten (a few may be); most children can recognize their names and a few of the letters of the alphabet and sounds at the start of kindergarten. They will know all the letters and sounds by the end of kindergarten.

Let’s look at some of the things we can do to help our children with “reading readiness.”

Slide 18-19 Cognitive Development Language Skills

ACTIVITY

WATCH

WATCH

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

Slide 20-21 Cognitive Development Reading Readiness

Cognitive Development Reading Readiness and the definition: Children are “getting ready” to read when they know how to handle books, know that print has meaning, and can recognize some letters and sounds.

Reading Readiness

Race to the Letter Sound

Think of your child and how many letters or sounds he or she might know. It could be the letters from a STOP sign, it might be the letters in a name, etc.

1. Ask: If your child isn’t ready to play this game by “sound,” how else could you play it? (Just having them race to the letter you call out.)

2. Ask: Why does learning the alphabet and sounds in kindergarten matter?3. Accept all answers.

Many children learn these skills in kindergarten if they have not had a preschool experience. Many children can recognize most letters and associated sounds in the late-middle of kindergarten. By the end of kindergarten some students will be able to read simple words and familiar books using pictures as prompts. There are many RR activities like this alphabet activity that can help you expose your child to the alphabet and sounds in fun ways before school starts.

SUMMARY

DEFINE

DEFINE

ACTIVITY

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

TRANSITION

Slide 19

Slide 21

Cognitive Development Mathematical Thinking: Children are “ready” to think mathematically when they use numbers and math language to represent and communicate about the world around them. They are “ready” to learn about numbers, shapes, measures, and patterns. They like thinking about: how many, how big, how small, how long, what fits, etc.

Slide 22-23 Cognitive Development Mathematical Thinking

DEFINE

Slide 24-25 ReadyRosie Practice

We are going to take just a few minutes to look at the readiness chart.

1. You can explore this chart more at home, but right now I’d like you to look at the building block you’d most like to find support around.

2. Make sure everyone has selected a building block area: Health, Self-care and Routines, Fine and Gross Motor, Social Emotional or Cognitive (language skills, reading readiness or mathematical thinking).

3. We are going to spend 5 minutes navigating the ReadyRosie app, so you know how to find content.

4. You are now going to explore the ReadyRosie app or website to search for content in the building block area you are most interested in.

5. Open the ReadyRosie website or app and login. If your families are not using the RR app you will need to allow extra time for them to download the app and login. Or, you can assign this as their home practice to accomplish prior to the next workshop and show them how to do a search on the ReadyRosie website.

6. Search for an activity in the area you are interested in exploring.

7. Look for an activity that targets your child’s age.

8. Spend the next 3 minutes looking for readiness building activities.

ACTIVITY

Mathematical Thinking

Keep it Up

Think of your children.

1. Ask: What are they learning?2. Ask: Can they count an actual number of objects like the balloon activity where they are counting

each “tap” on the balloon? This is called one-to-one correspondence. 3. Accept all answers.

Facilitator’s note: Children need many opportunities to practice saying one number with one object. Many young children have memorized the number words in order, but sometimes do not yet understand the concept of one-to-one correspondence. For example, they might say “1,2,3,4,5” but not be able to match an object to the number or they count an object twice.

1. Ask: Why is mathematical thinking an important part of being cognitively ready for kindergarten?1. Accept all answers.

Young children are natural mathematicians. They love to make sure things are equal and fair. They love to know how many they have, how many you have, how many we have together. They love to know how big and small things are. All of these words help them use math terms to describe their world.

We’ve explored the key building blocks of readiness. I’m going to hand out a checklist that summarizes what we’ve covered today. We are going to spend a few minutes exploring the ReadyRosie tools you can use to continue to build readiness and a rich learning environment at home.

Slide 22-23

ACTIVITY

WATCH

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

TRANSITION

Slide 23

Cognitive Development Mathematical Thinking (continued)

ReadyRosie as a Learning Tool Practice - 7 minutes

Slide 25

1. Ask: Were you able to find activities that you are interested in doing with your child?

2. Ask: What other topics are you interested in exploring?

» Point back to the items the class said they wanted to learn about at the beginning of the workshop. Encourage them to use the website or app to continue learning outside of the workshop.

You have access to the complete ReadyRosie library; so, in addition to the weekly videos you receive, you can also look for specific content anytime.

1. Summarize the key building block areas and thank families for coming to the workshop.

2. Remind families of any home practice and commitments you want them to focus on to help their child get ready and highlight that they will have access all summer to great ReadyK learning content through ReadyRosie.

3. Reassure families:

» That some children will not have all these things “ready” by the time school starts. That is okay. Every child will be met where he/she is.

» Remember all children are different and develop on their own timeframe. Some children also have developmental differences. Concentrate on your child’s strengths and know that supports are available if you need them. It’s important to meet our children where they are and build on their strengths.

4. Share local community resources you want families to know about.

5. Remind participants about the next workshop in the series.

6. Have families complete the workshop survey before leaving class.

Slide 26

ReadyRosie Practice (continued)

Wrap-up

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

DEBRIEF/REFLECT

SUMMARY

Close - 5 minutes

Slide 24-25

ReadyRosie SHARE and Video Addendum

The power of ReadyRosie is the ongoing follow up and support available digitally for families. Use SHARE to communicate with families and support their ongoing learning by sharing the videos that were covered in the recent workshop and any additional videos in this domain you think they will find inspirational. This message

can also be sent to all the families who were unable to attend the workshop.

Sample message: “Our recent family workshop focused on ReadyK activities you can do at home with your children.

Here are the videos we recommend you enjoy as part of your home learning.”

DomainVIDEOS highlighted in the ReadyRosie Math Family

Workshop:

Additional videos to share in this domain:

Health, Self-Care, and Routines Routine Strategy: Routine Chart

Phone Fun

Tips for Tech: Screen Time Battles

Fine Motor and Literacy Detailed Drawing of a Face Mirror, Mirror

Social Emotional Funny FacesTaking Turns

Clap and Count

Reading Readiness Singing Together Nursery Rhymes

Sequences of Sounds

Reading Readiness Race to the Letter Sound Point the ABC Song

Mathematical Thinking Keep it Up Crazy Counting