10 Kindergarten Readiness Skills Your Child Needs

What do teachers really want your child to know on the first day of kindergarten? Kindergarten is changing and parents are feeling pressure to prepare their children for their first school experience. But while some may fret that reading and doing addition are prerequisites for kindergarten these days, your child likely possesses many of the skills they needs to be successful as they begins school.

“Some of the things I would like my kids to know coming into kindergarten are alphabet and some sounds, recognition of numbers 1-10, be able to write and recognize their name” says kindergarten teacher. “It is also important for them to be able to follow directions and to have the ability to express their feelings.”

Here are the 10 kindergarten readiness skills to focus on as you work with your child. Don't be concerned if they does not have them all down before the first day of kindergarten, as they will continue to work on them throughout the year. Try a few activities listed for the skills your child might need to work on a bit more before they starts school.

1. Writing

·    Help your child practice writing letters, especially the letters in their name.

·    Teach your child how to write their name with an uppercase first letter and the remaining letters in lowercase.

·     Write in finger paint or sand writing when go to beach side to make practicing more fun and multisensory.

2. Letter Recognition

·    Play games to help your child recognize some letters of the alphabet.

·    Play hide and seek with refrigerator magnets.

·    Rather than drilling your child with flashcards, use them to play a game of alphabet go fish.

3. Recognice Sounds

·   Make your child aware of the sound.

·   Play guessing sound game with them; make them guess the sound of animals, vehicles or musical instrument.

4. Number Recognition and Counting

·   Count throughout the day (for example, the crackers they are eating for snack)

·   Point out numbers you see in your environment and have your child name them (for example, the numbers found on menu or street signs).

5. Colour

·   If your child is having trouble recognizing certain colors, you might add a little food coloring to cookie dough, milk or vanilla pudding to emphasize those colors.

·   Play games in which your child finds objects of particular colors around the house or in the neighborhood as you drive.

6. Shape

·    Help your child recognize basic shapes such as square and triangle by showing them how to draw on paper.

·    Play with play dough and cut out shapes, let your kids sort the shape into group.

7. Fine Motor Skills

·    Give your child several different writing options (colored pencils, crayons or markers) to help keep her interested in writing and drawing.

·    Playing with play dough is a fun way to strengthen the muscles of the hand that will be used for writing.

8. Reading Readiness

·   Run your finger under the words as you read to your child to help her learn that words go from left to right and top to bottom.

·   Read their favorite storybook

9. Attention and Following Directions

·   Read lots of stories with your child and work up to reading longer chapter books, one chapter each night or as long as she remains interested and focused.

·    Give your child two and three step directions. For example: "put on your pajamas, brush your teeth and pick a book to read."

·    Play Simon Says with two or three step directions. For example: "Simon Says jump up and down and shout hooray."

10. Social Skills

·    Give your children opportunities to interact with other children in preschool, social groups or play dates.

·    Teach your child how to express their feelings if they do not like something.

·     Role-play different situations their might experience on the playground or at school. Help them find solutions for typical problems they might encounter.

Chances are you're already practicing many of these skills your child will need for kindergarten. Remember to keep it fun and don’t make it stressful for you or your child. With just a little fun practice, your child will be prepared for her elementary school debut!

We play, We Explore, We Learn! 
                                                                            - LittleScientists

Website: www.LittleScientistS.com

Online Shop: www.LittleScientistS.com/shop
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/littlescientistvideo 

Halloween Science: Spooky Glow in the Dark Jars

We really hope this activity will excite all of you but it is important to know how glow in the dark material works:


Glow paints do not contain light in them. But they do have a pigment known as phosphor that makes them glow in the dark. Phosphor can accumulate light energy like  from the sun and when it's dark, it glows. When phosphor comes in contact with sun or any other form of light it absorbs the photons and later in the dark, the paint emits these photons. The photons thus released emit a phosphorescent glow. This process is known as photoluminescence.

One more day till Halloween and one more exciting activity! Happy Haunting!
~May

Home Science Idea: Fingerprint Lights

Any plan to spend your holiday with your kids this Diwali holiday? Here is an Idea that is suitable for all ages. 

Diwali being the festival of light. Little Scientists would like to celebrate this special day by integrate science in this festival of light.

Even if your kids are not from a background that celebrates Diwali there are still lots of kid's crafts and activities that you can do to increase their understanding about light. Especially light is such important things in our daily life. 

You can teach about:
1. Colour
2. The importance of light in our daily life
3. Things that give out light
4. Fingerprint 
5. Each of us has unique fingerprints

Materials need:

a. light template  click to download 

b. water colour & brush or colour stamp pad

c. wipes for finger in between colour

1. Print out the light template.

2. Paint their cute little thumb with water colour or colour stamp pad. 

3. Stamp their thumb print on the light template follow the wire and light bulb holder.

4. Let it dry and frame it up.

Source from Internet

This artwork will be a memorable piece for them in future. Here are the extended idea:

Fingerprint Idea, source from pinterest.com

Get our DIY science experiment kits for your child this coming holiday. 

visit Little Scientists Online shop, www.LittleScientistS.com/shop 

It gonna be a fun filled holiday for them with these science toys.

We play, We Explore, We Learn! 
                                                                            - LittleScientists

Website: www.LittleScientistS.com

Online Shop: www.LittleScientistS.com/shop
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/littlescientistvideo 

Halloween Science: Static Electricity Dancing Ghost

It's Halloween month! We are challenging you to do science with your kids with a Halloween twist. Ever seen a dancing ghost before? Let's have fun making ghost out of the tissue paper and use static electricity to move the ghost around.

Here’s what you need:

• balloon or a plastic spoon
• tissue paper
• markers
• scissors
• tape
• woollen clothes

Cut out your Halloween Ghost shapes from the tissue paper. After cutting out the ghost, draw the eyes and mouth using marker pen.

Tape the bottom of your ghost to the table (If you don’t tape down your tissue paper, your Halloween Ghost will most likely just get stuck to the balloon/plastic spoon).
Rub the balloon or the plastic spoon on a woollen clothes to gather some extra electrons. Move the balloon over your Halloween Ghost. The tissue paper ghost will rise up. As you move the balloon/plastic spoon around, the tissue paper ghost will move as well.

Have fun with your dancing ghost! Stay tune for more Spooky Halloween Science!

~Grace

Activities you can do at home with the kids that make science ANYTHING but boring! - Magnet Fishing Game

Are your kids bored out of their minds at home every weekend? There are lots of fun science experiment you can do at home with your kids. Here is one example of science activity that you could try it out with your kids over this coming weekend - Magnet Fishing Game! This is really simple and it's fun for kids of all different ages!

Here is what you need for this Magnet Fishing Game.

To make the fishes:

• Few pieces of plastic sheets
• Paper Clips

To made the fishing rod:

• A stick
• A piece of string
• A magnet Ring

Lastly a large bucket or paddle pool filled with water for the pond and your kids can ready for some fishing game!

You could also try a larger pond by using a bathtub! Fill up your bathtub a quarter full, add those fishes to the water. Place a towel on the floor along with a plastic bowl to place the "fish" in that he catch.

If you do not wish to play with water, you could create another set of "fish" using just coloured paper and paper clips to play with on dry land.

To make the whole fishing game more fun and tricky, you could add in "fish" without paper clips. This will be a great way for your kids to learn that some of the things are magnetic and some are not.

You don't have to go to a museum to get playful with science. Simple science activity like this will definitely keep your child busy for few hours. Science is everywhere once you start looking for opportunities to use it.

-Grace-