see also: School Readiness

71 Things to Prepare Your Child for Kindergarten

Absence Form

Names for the Program:

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

Ready, Set, Read!
Kindergarten Kickstart
Kindergarten - Here We Come!
Kindergarten 101
Counting Down to Kindergarten
Kindergarten Kick-Off
5 by Five
Kindergarten Here We Come
Getting Ready for School
Ready, Set, GO!
On Your Mark, Get Ready, Go
Kindergarten Prep
Kindergarten Rev-up
Ready, Set, Starting School!
Kick-off for Kindergarten
Fun for 4s and 5s
School Readiness
Kinder Kids

Growing Up Kindergarten

Kindergarten Academy

Kinderstory

Kinder Ready

--Laura Sarge Miller, Programming Librarian Interest Group FB post, 8-1-2019

• My Kindergarten Kick-Start program just won a Best Practices award from PaLA! I met with kindergarten teachers to see what skills they spend extra time working on in the classroom that takes away from their lessons. I then used materials provided to my library through the Commonwealth Library and the Department of Education through the Cruise Into Kindergarten initiative to set up stations--but most could be made from things around the office.
• I have stations where kids can practice skills like sorting, patterns, sequencing, letter/name tracing, cutting, working with zippers buttons and such, pouring/scooping, and even wiping and washing.
• We start with a traditional circle time (song, calendar, weather, book about going to kindergarten)--to practice sitting and listening in a group. This is followed by a pre-assessment where kids put a sticker under "yes" or "no" on my chart that asks "do you know what a pattern is" and so on...
• The stations are timed and the kids have to balance a cup with cotton balls in it on a lunch tray (borrowed from the school) from station to station. Each tray has a craft stick with a colored sticker on it that corresponds with the stickers on the signs at the stations--this tells them which station to start at (this is how most classrooms organize station time).
• During the stations the parents use a parent sheet to keep track of what they notice as they observe their child interact with each station. It is the expectation that parents observe, not help, and take note of what skills their child may need to work on at home before school starts. Parents also get a folder with some resources on pre-literacy activities and other ways to support their child's education at home.
• Lastly we come back together and do the post-assessment with the "yes" "no" sticker charts and the addition of "did you have fun today?" "did you learn something new today?" and for parents "did you notices a skill that you and your child can work more on at home?"