Play learning games with your child.
Focus on Kindergarten Readiness Indicators
- Sorts objects by color, shape, and size
- Recognizes and names familiar shapes, such as a square, triangle, circle, or rectangle
- Recognizes and repeats patterns, such as triangle, square, triangle, square
- Describes objects and materials by their physical properties and sorts them based on similarities and differences
- Takes turns and plays cooperatively with other children
Activities by week
WEEK 1
Collect materials for learning games.
- Materials to make
- Cut out two circles, two squares, and two triangles, all the same color and size. Make the square about 3″ x 3″.
- Make matching pairs of cards with stickers or pictures of animals, for example. Cut the cardboard into 3″ x 3″ squares. Place a sticker or picture on a card. Make a second card exactly like the first one.
- Materials to purchase
- Old Maid and Go Fish Cards
- Memory/matching cards
WEEK 2
Involve your child in matching activities.
- Matching Game
- Start with six pairs of matching cards. Use either the cards you have made or the cards you have purchased.
- Shuffle the cards and lay them face up on the table or on the floor.
- Invite your child to find the two cards that match. Take turns with your child in finding matches.
- Add additional pairs of cards as your child becomes more skilled at finding the pairs.
- Sorting Socks
- Let your child help you fold laundry.
- Put all the socks in a pile.
- Ask your child to match the socks and fold the tops or roll them together to make a pair.
WEEK 3
Have fun as you play color games with your child.
- Play the “I Spy Colors” game indoors and outdoors.
- Play the game by spying different colored objects indoors or outdoors.
- Begin with one color, such as red. Say, “I spy something red. It’s round, and you can throw it. What is it?” (red ball)
- Add another color, such as yellow. Say, “I spy something yellow. You peel it and eat it. What is it?” (banana)
- Continue playing the game by adding other colors of objects, such as blue, green, and orange.
WEEK 4
Play shapes and sizes games with your child.
- Find the shapes
- Show your child the shapes you have cut out. Help your child name each shape: circle, square, rectangle, and triangle.
- Hide one set of shapes somewhere in the room, each shape in a different place.
- Give your child one shape at a time to find, name the matching shape, and then make patterns.
- Sorting coins by size
- Show your child a collection of coins: quarters, nickels, and dimes.
- Invite your child to put together all the coins that are the same size.
- Tell your child the names of the coins.
- Ask your child to show you the biggest, middle size, and smallest coins.
Additional Ideas
Cut out a large circle, square, and triangle from paper grocery sacks. Let your child use washable markers or crayons and draw pictures on the shapes.
Cut out another large circle, square, and triangle from paper grocery sacks. Help your child cut out small circles, squares, and triangles from construction paper. Suggest that your child paste all the small circles on the large circle, the small squares on the large square, and the small triangles on the large triangle. Your child may want to add drawings to the creation.
Show your child shapes by using a washcloth. By laying the cloth flat, it is a square. By folding it corner to corner, it becomes a triangle. By folding it lengthwise, the washcloth becomes a rectangle.
Special Activity
Make a color book. Give the book a title, such as “My Color Book,” and write it on the cover page. Write or have your child write their name on the cover.
Using a red crayon or washable marker, write the word “Red” on a sheet of paper. Help your child locate pictures of red objects in catalogs or magazines, cut them out, and paste them on the sheet. Continue this activity over a few days with your child creating a page for different colors, such as blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple. Staple or tie the pages together with yarn.
Suggested Books to Read with Your Child
A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle, illustrator
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung
When I Build With Blocks by Niki Alling
