image - english version

Click below to explore fun school readiness activities!

Week 1

Read Activity: Author Study
Select an author, and read as many books as you can find written by that author. Suggestions include:

  • Kevin Henkes
  • Eric Carle
  • Jan Brett
  • Robert Munsch
  • Matt De La Pena
  • Jacqueline Woodson

As you read with your child, or as they read independently, have them answer the following questions in their notebook:

  • Who is the main character?
  • Where does the story take place?
  • When does the story take place?
  • What is the main character’s problem?
  • How does the character solve their problem?

 

Movement & Coordination Activity: Obstacle Course
Build an indoor obstacle course, then have a family race to see who can make it through the fastest. For ideas on how to create an in-home obstacle course, click here.

 

Reasoning Activity: 20 Questions
Play a family game of 20 questions. In order to play, one person chooses a person, place, or thing. They write this word down but do not show it to anyone else. Then, the other family members take turns asking Yes or No questions about the word. The first person to guess correctly get to come up with his or her own word and the game continues.

 

Emotions Activity: How Are They Feeling?
Click here and play a matching game with emotions. Discuss with your child how they know what the person is feeling. Have they ever felt that way? What do they do when they feel a certain emotion?  During the 2019-2020 school year, The Character Tree is also offering free accounts. This is a great website that offers videos about emotions and positive character traits.

 

Behavior Activity: P-O-L-I-T-E
Using the magnetic letters, build polite words (please, thank you, excuse me, help, share, and anything else you can come up with).

 

Write Activity: If I Were the Author…
After reading several books by the same author, encourage your child to choose a character, and write their own story using that character.

Help them plan their story by asking the following questions:

  •      Who is the main character?
  •      Where will the story take place?
  •      When will the story take place?
  •      What is the character’s problem?
  •      How will the character solve their problem?

 

Word Problems & Counting Activity: Story Word Problems
Fold 2 sheets of notebook paper into 4 squares. Cut them out so that you have 8 cards. On each card, you and your child will create addition or subtraction word problems using characters from the author study books. After all 8 cards are filled out, work together to solve them.

Examples using characters from Kevin Henkes books:

Addition example: Chrysanthemum found 4 flowers. Her mom found 6 flowers. How many flowers did they find altogether?

Subtraction example: Owen had 15 pieces of blanket. He lost 9 pieces. How many pieces of blanket does he have left?

 

Health & Hygiene Activity: Wash-washy-wash
Write a 20-second chant, song, or rap to sing while washing your hands. For help on getting started, click here.

 

Relationships Activity: What are relationships?
Have a conversation with your child about all of the different relationships they are in (daughter/son, cousin, friend, customer, sister/brother, etc). Use the magnetic letters to spell out all of these relationship words.

 

Self-Regulation Activity: What can you do when you feel mad?
First, read aloud How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad by Jane Yolen. After reading, talk with your child about what they do when they get mad. Practice different things they can do when they get mad (for example, take a deep breath and count to 4, walk away to a calm space, march in place). Create a plan together for what they can do next time they get mad. Remind them of this plan if they get angry.

Remember, working on self-regulation takes practice, so give your child lots of chances to practice when they are not mad so that when they are they are more likely to use their skills.

Print Now

Week 2

Read Activity: To Market, To Market
With your child look through a grocery store advertisement, and plan a dinner menu based on items that are on sale.

Create a collage (cut out pictures and words) as you plan the menu.

 

Movement & Coordination Activity: Fancy Feast
Dress up and enjoy the dinner you and your child created using the menu. Help your child pick out an outfit for each family member, then invite your child to help everyone fasten their buttons, zip zippers, and tie shoes.

 

Reasoning Activity: Grocery Store Adventures
Plan a trip to the grocery store. Before going, research the different routes possible to get there using Google Maps. Create a list of the pros and cons of going each route (one might be faster, but another might go past a cool building). Choose the best route. After going to the grocery store, determine if you chose the best route.

This activity could be used with any place you go as a family: the park, doctor’s office, school, library, etc.

 

Emotions Activity: Simon Says
Before playing, review with your child different emotions (sad, scared, frustrated, annoyed, excited, etc). Then decide who will be Simon and who will follow the directions. Simon will say an emotion, and everyone else will act out that emotion. Take turns so that everyone gets a chance to be Simon and act out the emotions.

 

Behavior Activity: Supermarket Sweep
Work with your child to create a pretend grocery store. Then, take turns being the customer and cashier. What are some ways we can be polite when we are out in public? What can we do if we need help?

 

Write Activity: And then the tomato sauce did a dance!
Imagine that your favorite food came to life and could go on an adventure. First, draw a picture of what would happen to the food on their adventure. Then, write a story describing everything they would do. Make sure to include a beginning, middle, and end.

You could also create a comic strip about your favorite food coming to life and going on an adventure.

  •      What’s your favorite food?
  •      How did it come to life?
  •      Where would it want to go?
  •      What would it do once it was there?
  •      What problems will your favorite food face?
  •      How will your favorite food solve these problems?

 

Word Problems & Counting Activity: Sums on the Cement
Gather a dice or a deck of playing cards, chalk from the Road to Readiness kit, and your child and go outside. Once outside, create addition or subtraction problems by either rolling the dice to create 1- or 2- digit numbers (4, 12, etc) or flipping over the playing cards to create 1- or 2-digit numbers. Write the numbers on the cement to find the sums (answer when adding) or difference (answer when subtracting).

 

Health & Hygiene Activity: Why do we wash our hands?
Click the links below to learn about why we wash our hands:
https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/wash-hands.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neUTmGOLJys

After viewing, have your child create a poster, song, or video for Pre-k students explaining the importance of washing hands.

 

Relationships Activity: How to be a friend
First, read the book How to Lose All of Your Friends by Nancy Carlson. After reading, discuss with your child what they should do in order to be a good friend. Work together to write a book or comic strip titled How to Be a Friend.

 

Self-Regulation Activity: The Ants Go Marching
Sometimes children need a calm environment to focus on very simple things. Using a piece of string, create a 3-foot circle around a space in your yard or in the grass at the park. Sit with you child and observe what you can in that small space. Talk to your child about how they can ask for a time away from others whenever they feel overwhelmed or need a break. If you notice your child feeling this way, remind them to take a break by either going outside or finding a quiet space to think and feel better.

.

Print Now

Parents: Together with your child, take this 3-question quiz after completing your activities to receive your child’s own Road to Readiness Certificate of Completion!

(function() { var qs,js,q,s,d=document, gi=d.getElementById, ce=d.createElement, gt=d.getElementsByTagName, id=”typef_orm_share”, b=”https://embed.typeform.com/”; if(!gi.call(d,id)){ js=ce.call(d,”script”); js.id=id; js.src=b+”embed.js”; q=gt.call(d,”script”)[0]; q.parentNode.insertBefore(js,q) } })()