It can be unnerving to send your baby off to kindergarten, especially if they don’t have a great deal of classroom experience. As I get ready to release my son into the big, scary world of elementary school, I have a million questions circling through my brain. I’m confident in his academic abilities, but is he ready to tackle the social aspects of being in a classroom among 20 of his peers without me right down the hallway? Will he be impatient? Is he going to struggle to make friends? Could he get lost in the shuffle as a tiny little guy?
I’ve decided to take, as a teacher myself and as a mom who is having a hard time imagining my sweet boy gone from me all day, my own experiences combined with the polling of six Kindergarten teachers to see which top skills (academic and social) are helpful for children to know upon entering Kindergarten. If your child is lacking in any of these skills, continue to work on them over the summer, but don’t stress over it. They will master them when they are ready!
Top 5 Kindergarten Academic Skills
1. Write his or her first name correctly (at this age, it’s normal for them to toggle back and forth between upper and lowercase letters simply because uppercase letters are easier to write. Keep practicing lowercase letters over the summer if this is the case).
2. Identify both upper and lowercase letters (bonus if they know the letter sounds, too).
3. Identify numbers up to 10 or 20 (practice writing them if they have identification down).
4. Cut with scissors (this is a fine motor skill that my son struggles with. I like to draw thick lines on paper, both straight and curved, and have him cut along the lines. The most important part: make sure they are holding the scissors correctly).
5. Use one-to-one correspondence to count sets to 10 (you can practice this at home by having your child match a number to a visual representation of it).
Top 5 Kindergarten Social Skills
To me, and possibly most Kindergarten teachers, these are even more vital than the academic skills!
1. Practice self control.
2. Understand how to take turns and share.
3. Use words to express feelings instead of screaming or hitting.
4. Successfully be away from mom or dad for an extended period of time.
5. Follow directions, especially those that involve two or three steps.
Bonus skills for Kindergarten!
1. Independently put on a jacket and zip it up (Make sure they can fix the sleeves if they are inside out). I like to teach my pre-k students the “magic coat trick.”
2. Tie shoes! (This one is hard, but if they truly aren’t anywhere close to being able to tie shoes, please send them in shoes with Velcro straps, or quadruple knot the heck out of their laces every morning).
