Starting school is one of the most significant milestones in a child’s life.
As childcare providers, we can help children to prepare for school and reassure families in a variety of ways…
Our Supporting School Readiness HOT TOPIC is packed with ideas and links to resources that will help relieve anxieties and equip children with the skills they need to be school ready.
⭐Talk about Feelings and Emotions
Chat regularly with children about starting school. Encourage them to express their feelings and ideas. What are they looking forward to the most? Is there anything that is worrying them? Talk about what is exciting about school and offer reassurance for any anxieties.
⭐Promote Independence and Self-Care Skills
Allow children time and encourage them to try things for themselves, such as putting on and taking off their shoes and coat. Can they use cutlery, open lunch boxes, packets or cartons? Provide lots of opportunities for them to try! Get children involved with small chores. Provide encouragement and acknowledge their efforts with stickers or reward charts.
⭐Work on Social Skills and Separation
Support children with social skills and interacting in larger groups. Involve children in games and projects that will require them to work with others, developing listening and negotiation skills and encouraging sharing and taking turns. Sitting together at meal and snack times will also promote socialising and interaction.
⭐Support Reading, Writing and Listening Skills
Regularly reading stories with children will help them with their listening and attention skills whilst also encouraging an interest in books. Go on a letter hunt to see if you can find all of the letters from the alphabet and have fun experimenting with various materials and small tools to develop fine motor and mark making skills.
⭐Build on Number Recognition and Counting
Sing number songs and rhymes, look at number books, play games that involve numbers and counting. Being able to recognise numbers up to 10 and count up to 20 is a great start for children who are about to start school.
⭐Look at Colours, Shapes, Sizes and Quantities
Talk about colours in daily conversations, play colour eye spy or ask children to collect or match different coloured objects. Go on a shape hunt to see how many circles, squares, rectangles or triangles you can find and explore patterns, similarities and differences, comparing sizes and quantities, positional language and concepts such as bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, longer, more than, less than, etc.
⭐Discuss Routines, Days of the week, Weather and Seasonal changes
Discuss daily routines and plans for the week ahead. Learn about dates and numbers, days of the week, months of the year, weather and seasons
👉CLICK HERE to read our Supporting School Readiness HOT TOPIC in full
⭐And Dig into these resources for MORE fun ways to prepare for school:
Or, if you have a little one who is moving on to a nursery setting, this Getting Ready for Nursery Workbook is great to help them understand and look forward to the changes ahead:
All resource packs are available as individual downloads or access EVERYTHING via MindingKids Membership!
