Kindergarten Skills to Master by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Kindergarten Skills to Master by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

When I lived in Wisconsin children attended ½ day kindergarten.  I worked as a substitute teacher at my daughter’s preschool until I was offered a full-time position.

I went back to school to obtain an Early Childhood Education certificate from Madison College and studied French literature for children and francophone children’s culture in former French colonies at Edgewood College.

I taught the following skills to children in addition to themed activities for literature, math, and social studies found in preschool management books.  I let parents know what classroom goals were with a daily activity sheet posted on a weekly basis and asked them to do homework in the following areas to reinforce what they were learning at school:

1-Tying shoes so that they stay securely fastened

2-Telling time – knowing hours, quarters, half, minutes, am, and pm

3-Left and right difference

4-East, West, North, and South directions using a compass and paper plate compasses

5-Painting knowledge – color names, mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, color wheel work, adding in black and white

6-Fabric book work to learn qualities of different fabrics, their names, and care

7-Hoola hoop to music to build abdominal muscles

8-Play Twister to learn colors

9-Sing the alphabet song

10-Count 1 – 100

11- Play Concentration with two decks of playing cards to memorize numbers 1 – 1- and build matching skills

12-Write numbers 0 – 10

13-Write alphabet to strengthen fingers

14-Use silverware to eat like an American and a European

15-Learn to use chopsticks – Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese

16 - Learn to button a coat or shirt

17 - Learn to zip up a coat

These activities take time, but children can master them with repetition and gentle encouragement by parents and teachers alike.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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