At this point, the majority of schools in the U.S. have been shut down to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus. If you have a child currently in Kindergarten, here are a few suggestions to prevent an academic slide.
- Review uppercase/lowercase letters and sounds
- Sight words – write sight words in a sentence and have child read, look for sight words in text, play sight word memory, have student write the sight word in a sentence. (For sight words visit my Downloads section.)
- Read, read, read! – If your child has books at home from school, read and discuss. If not, read to your child and discuss the story. Have your child retell the story. Talk about the characters, settings, problem, and solution. Make a prediction – what might happen in this story? What might happen next? What was your favorite part? Why? Did this book remind you of an event from your own life? (connection). What lesson did you learn from this story? What was the author’s purpose for writing this story? Is the book fiction or nonfiction? What information did you learn? How did the character change from the beginning to the end of the story? If you were the character, what would you do differently?
- Rhyming
- Read/blend CVC, CVCe words
- Digraphs (sh, ch, th, ph, wh)
- Blends (ex. st, pl, gr)
- Count to 100
- Write numbers 1 – 20
- Addition and Subtraction Facts
- Shapes (2-D and 3-D)
- Writing – Provide your child with topics to write about. For example – What is your favorite book and why? Write about your favorite ….(food, animal, toy, game, etc). He or she can write about events that have happened – a vacation, a snowstorm, a birthday party, holiday, etc. It’s perfectly fine if your child does not spell words correctly. Children at this age are listening to sounds in words and writing what they hear. Reinforce uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, spacing between words, and punctuation marks at the end of sentences.
Here are some useful websites to use with your child. Many are offering free services now.
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html – Scholastic’s website offers books for your child to read, as well as informational videos to watch, and activities to do.
www.abcya.com – Play Reading and Math games to practice various skills.
www.starfall.com – My favorite feature on this site is the “Learn to Read” section. The interactive stories focus on various reading and phonics skills and children love the cute animations.
http://www.abcmouse.com – This is normally a paid site, but has been offering free or discounted membership for the time being. This is a great site and children can work on skills in Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies.