Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten Curriculum - FREE WEEK
Let’s get ready for kindergarten!
I get emails every single day from parents asking me what their child needs to learn so they can be ready for kindergarten.
I also get notes from teachers asking me for a prep program to help incoming kindergarten students get ready for the first day of school.
I can tell you as a former classroom kindergarten teacher, and as a mama who homeschooled for kindergarten, children enter kindergarten at varying levels of ability.
I created this six-week curriculum for parents who have children who will be starting kindergarten soon. Right now, you may be wondering…
Is my child ready to go to school?
Will they be scared?
Will my child have friends in their class?
What does my child need to know when school starts?
So many questions… and I am here to help!
This curriculum also works perfect for pre-k and kindergarten teachers to use in the classroom as well.
“We love this readiness program SO much! It is laid out so well that all the stress is taken out of the planning. The material is well rounded to cover all growth areas and my son loves the format and knows the structure of the activities so he knows just what to do when it’s time to do school work. He is learning so much and is excited for school. Thank you for this resource!”
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Let’s get ready for kindergarten… here we go!
I am such a visual person, so I love this easy to understand chart. Please note that this is just a guide, and children do not need to master every single goal listed here before they start kindergaren.
PRINT A FREE WEEK
This is just a great road map of goals to works towards with your four or five year old to get them ready for school. When they learn the goal in each square, they can color the star. It is so fun to watch their charts fill up with bright yellow stars to show all that they have learned.
Kids absolutely love this incentive chart as well.
Even if children don’t have rhyming, letter sounds or numbers mastered, just having practiced these skills will make it so much easier for them when they do start school.
I created this six week curriculum with busy moms, homeschool families and classroom teachers in mind.
This entire curriculum is organized for you so you pretty much just need to print and teach.
Only a few activities require little prep work, and it is optional to differentiate and use these additional activities.
WATCH THIS TWO MINUTE VIDEO THAT EXPLAINS HOW THIS CURRICULUM WORKS
What makes this curriculum different than other kindergarten readiness programs?
This program is standards based and is structured in a way that builds student confidence and scaffolds new skills.
The format stays exactly the same each day so students know exactly what to expect, and you do not need to constantly give directions.
Children are delighted that they can complete many of the activities on their own after some guided practice.
When creating this curriculum, I used so many best practices I learned as a classroom teacher and as a mom of four young children:
Children are at their best when they are on a routine
Children like to know what to expect each day
Children need positive reinforcement
Children like to set goals and love to “check off their tasks”
Children need to practice a skill/standard many times to reach mastery
Children want to be successful
This resources helps children with all of these things, and both teachers and parents absolutely love the set up.
The standards and skills only change once every week or two. Children practice the skills long enough to gain confidence and often mastery before changing to a new subject. They love knowing what to expect and the repetition adds consistency to their schedule.
WHAT DOES AN AVERAGE DAY LOOK LIKE?
Every day, you’ll print these four pages. The skills change throughout the six weeks, but the page setup is generally the same.
We focus on a new letter for the first 26 days. Handwriting is incredibly important, and I am a firm believer in teaching letters using correct directionality. Little stars show children exactly where to place their pencil to write each letter. You can read my full blog pot on handwriting HERE
The large bubble letters provide scaffolding and support, and then once they know how to write each letter, they can practice their handwriting for the letters on the lines below.
Then we focus on the sound each letter makes by coloring the correct pictures.
Each day we continue to practice reading skills such as rhyming, first sound matching, phoneme segmentation (you say three sounds such as /c/ /a/ /t/ and children blend the sounds to say the word) sequencing, comprehension and retelling, syllables, using emotion words to finish a sentence frame, we learn 10 sight words and start practicing CVC words (consonant/vowel/consonant.)
In math, we focus on numbers 1-10 and writing these numerals with correct directionality. We practice counting and 1:1 correspondence, measuring, shapes, patterns and using number lines and ten frames.
I like to place these printables in a 1” binder, but you could also staple daily packets.
As children complete each activity page, they color the corresponding star on their daily tasks page. This is so awesome for motivation and follow through.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
I also provide hands-on activities to reinforce the skills we are working on, but these are optional and you can use them as you wish.
For the first two weeks, we work on comprehension, sequencing and retelling a short story.
I read the short story, and my daughter puts the pictures in order. I love watching her little brain think as she must put the events in order. The first time is very tricky, but each day it gets easier and easier.
This is why it is so important to practice the same skill, with the same format over and over again. She gets better and more fluent with this each day and her confidence sky rockets. She learns how to listen to a story, sequence and retell over the course of two weeks. .
Color picture cards to match each short story are included as well as the story sequencing mat. You don’t have to use these, but I find them to be super helpful for little ones.
Here are the other additional activities that are included:
To help you stay organized and incorporate these activities into your daily schedule, I made mini task cards that you can cut and paste on to your child/students’ schedule.
As a mom, I absolutely love that our days are planned out for us.
On my four year old’s daily task page, I can put all of her activities, including her daily chore and rest time. She knows what to expect and I do not have to ask and nag. She colors her star after she competes each activity, and she earns 30 minutes of ipad time each day once her stars are filled up.
As a teacher, I love this curriculum because I know she is learning all the standards she needs in order to be ready for kindergarten. I am not scrambling each day to come up with printables and activities.
It is all here in this one download!
TRY A WEEK FOR FREE!
Print this free 30 page resource to see if its a good fit for you!
CLICK HERE
Ready for the full six-week curriculum?
You’ll love this 150+ page resource! All the planning and prep work is done for you. Your child will be on a routine and will look forward to learning each day.
If you’re in the classroom, students will thrive on this daily structure, and you’ll see results fast.
READ THE REVIEWS!
“This is a perfect starter for Keeping My Kinders Busy. Once you try it you will be hooked! I certainly am. I love how excited my child is learning using these packs.”
“This has been so helpful in directing our steps for at home learning this year. As I’m getting things from my child’s school along with supplementing with TPT activities, this is truly parallel to what the teachers are using at school. I’m simply a mama doing her best prepare our littles with changed plans as we navigate this year and I feel confident we will be just fine with these activities! This is one of the best I have found and my friends that are teachers agree ❤️”
“WHAT a GREAT resource! I have not found anything like it on the internet to prepare PREK students for Kindergarten. Easy to use, planned out well and it gives me confidence that the students know what they need to know and help parents filling in the gaps. We know what we need to review. The stars are great for completion for the students. It is all there. Thank you so much for this resource with specific target areas.”
“My son loved working on these pages. I love how it was broken down so he could do reading, phonics and math all in one day.”
