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At Home Activities for You and Your Child
Math
-Make number flash cards together. Match objects (cereal, paper clips, coins) to the corresponding numeral.
-Tell number stories. (Ex. Kathy, Michael, and Colin baked 10 cookies. They each ate one. How many cookies are left?) Using your child's name and the names of their friends makes it more fun.
-Practice number writing in fun ways using shaving cream, finger paint, glue and glitter, play dough, chalk, and a pan of sand.
-Use a ruler to measure items around your house by marking off (holding your finger in place while moving the ruler) and then reading the length in inches.
-Counting at every opportunity is worthwhile and fun. For car trips, counting to 100 can occupy some time. To mix it up, try counting backwards from a number or counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's.
-Play games like dominoes, Top-It (War), Monster Squeeze, and Spin a Number.
-Explore numbers and the plus, minus, and equals signs on a calculator.
Reading and Writing
-Name two words that begin and/or end the same but do not rhyme (Ex. fun, fin; drop, drag), and ask your child if they rhyme. Have them give you words that do rhyme with your examples.
-Go on an alphabet search looking for and naming letters and words in your environment whether it be home, the grocery store, billboards, or a restaurant.
-Recite nursery rhymes like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory, Dickory, Dock, and anything by Mother Goose. Our class favorite is Pat-A-Cake complete with motions!
-Use the closed-captioning option on your TV. Because the words will be at the bottom of your child's favorite show, they will be exposed to more print.
-Practice breaking words apart into sounds and putting them back together. (Ex. tag is /t/ /a/ /g/; frost is /f/ /r/ /o/ /s/ /t/) This skill helps your child to hear sounds in words, which is a precursor for reading.
-Have your child write a journal entry about something that interests them. Kindergarten spelling is expected! If they get stuck, here are some ideas:
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what they did that day
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outside activities they enjoy
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favorite food, book, color, pizza toppings, and flavor of ice cream
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what would happen if they went camping
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loosing a tooth
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what happens to animals when it rains
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where they would go if they had their own airplane
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if they owned a grocery store, what they would put in it
- what they want to be when they grow up
-Make writing their first and last name, letters, and popcorn words (sight words) fun using a variety of materials including shaving cream, a Ziploc bag with 2 spoonfuls of finger paint, glue and glitter, glue and Jell-O powder, play dough, chalk, a pan of sand, and bingo dot markers.
-Take a highlighter or yellow marker and let your child "butter-up" popcorn words from the previous day's newspaper or a magazine article you no longer need.
-Point to an object in your home and ask for its beginning letter or sound. To extend the activity, write and attach labels/post-its for each object.
-Read and reread our class-made books. This promotes fluency, which is an important part of becoming a good reader. If you would like another copy of any book which has gone home, just contact me.
-When reading a book to your child, there is much you can glean from the text:
-Have them show you the front and back cover.
-Point out the author and illustrator on the
title page.
-Ask where the beginning and ending words are
on a page.
-Ask where the first and last letters are in a
word.
-Have them show you a word, letter (capital,
lowercase),
period, and comma.
-Pick out popcorn words on the page and recite.
-Of course, read to your child for enjoyment!
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