Whether you were planning to homeschool or not, we're all teaching our little ones in our living rooms during this crazy season of quarantine. For many of us, we're now in the last month of school, and you may be wondering if your child has mastered all of the skills they needed while being in the preschool stage. Others, like me, might be just starting homeschool preschool and need to know what to aim for.
I've teamed up with two preschool teachers and a kindergarten teacher to give you all some insight into what your child should be working on and mastering. I hope you find this helpful as a framework for the activities you're doing with your kids!
Fine-Motor Skills
Fine-motor skills describes learning precision work with your fingers. This includes skills like drawing, writing, cutting, and pinching.
Practicing Fine-Motor Skills
coloring (start with crayons, not markers to strengthen their muscles)
painting
play dough
stringing beads
using kid-tweezers to pick small items
lacing
cutting with scissors
gluing (learning how to use the right amount of glue)
zippers and buttons
Legos
Building 5-10 piece wooden puzzles
By the end of preschool, they should know how to hold their pencils correctly.
Gross-Motor Skills
Gross-motor skills describes using your arms, legs, and torso in a coordinated way. You use these skills to walk, jump, kick, sit up straight, and throw a ball.
Walking up and down stairs using one foot at a time
Walking in a straight line
Walking backwards
Swinging
Catching, throwing, and bouncing a ball
Letters
Start by learning the different types of lines - vertical, horizontal, curved, slant
Use Starting Dots - put a red dot on the letter so they know where to start and they learn to correctly form their letters
Recognize upper and lower case letters and know the difference (that's a big A, and that's a little a)
Know the sounds that the letters make. For vowels, know the long and short vowel sound
Know the letters in their first and last name.
Write their first name using a capital letter and then lower case letters
Know how to write all upper and lower case letters (not all preschool teachers expect this one, but it's a good goal to work on)
Language
Introduce them to rhyming
Introduce (not master) short sight words like: to, a, little, I, he, she, the
Numbers
Recognize the numbers 1-20. Recognizing up to 30 would be great, but not required. They should be able to recognize them out of order, too.
More or Less - They should be able to say which group has more, less, or the same amount. If they're sorting colored Goldfish, they can say that red has the most fish, there are the same amount of green and yellow fish, and purple has the least number of fish. Using bar graphs is a great tool to teach this concept.
Estimation - Ask them to guess how many they think are in a group. Then count it together and see how many are in there.
Using 10 Frames - A 10 Frame is a grid that has two rows of 5 boxes, totaling 10 boxes. This tool teaches your child to recognize 10 as a group and quickly add or subtract 1 or 2 instead of always recounting from 1.
Other Academic Skills
Knowing their shapes
Knowing their colors
Identifying small, medium, and large
Knowing the position of things: the dog is on the chair, under the chair, behind the chair
Identifying similarities and difference in objects
Recalling details in a story in the correct order
Playing a basic game (like Candy Land) and following the directions
Following 3-step directions: put away your scissors, pick up the yellow crayon, and draw a circle
Music skills - singing, dancing, and clapping
Social Skills
Knowing how and when to ask questions
Speaking clearly in sentences
Taking turns
Respecting authority
Showing interest in group play
Sitting still and listening to a story
Teach them to politely not share snacks or lunch because we never know what students are allergic to.
Independence
Be able to zip up zippers and button their buttons on jeans and jackets
If your child has laces on their shoes, they should also know how to tie them. These two skills are especially important if your child will be one in a class of 22. These skills will help the teacher have quick transitions.
Be able to feed themselves their snacks and lunch
I hope this is helpful for you and your family! I know it's been great for me as I plan my preschool activities. Enjoy watching your little ones soak up new knowledge and skills as they learn from your lessons!
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