Read with your child each day.
Focus on Kindergarten Readiness Indicators
- Comprehends who, what, why, and where questions
- Retells stories from favorite books and personal experiences
- Listens, tells, and engages in stories being read
- Holds a book right side up, turns pages front to back, and follows print left-to-right and top to bottom
- Focuses and pays attention during an activity such as story time
- Communicates clearly enough to be understood by most people
- Takes turns in conversations with others
- Responds to the English language
Activities by week
WEEK 1
Create a reading area for your child.
- Store your child’s books in a special place, such as a basket, drawer, or on a low shelf.
- Place a small rug or pillow in the area to create a cozy and comfortable place for reading.
- Join your child and enjoy reading together.
- Talk with your child about how to care for books, including returning them to their storage place.
WEEK 2
Build healthy book habits.
- Visit your local library with your child and get a library card for your child to check out books.
- Build a daily routine for reading, such as reading with your child before bedtime.
- Look for other places to find books:
- Garage or yard sales
- Thrift shops
- Little free libraries
- Friends or relatives
- Public library sales
- Book stores
WEEK 3
Create your own stories.
- Encourage your child to tell a story that you write down.
- Add their illustrations to the story.
- Find creative ways to bind the book, such as a folder, or staple the pages together and cover with art.
WEEK 4
Let your child participate in book reading.
- Talk with your child as you enjoy reading a book together. For example:
- Talk with your child about the illustrations and information on the cover of the book; for example, the title, author (person who wrote the story), and illustrator (person who drew the pictures).
- Ask your child to look at the illustrations on the cover of the book and predict what the book is about.
- Show your child how to start at the beginning of the book and how to turn the pages.
- Ask your child to retell the story.
Additional Ideas
Bring a book bag containing your child’s favorite books when you leave home. Your child can read in the car, on the bus, at the laundromat, or at the doctor’s office. You can read with your child as you wait together.
Special Activity
Begin the “Memories of Our Year” section of the calendar by recording activities you and your child do together.
Here are some examples for August:
Start a list of books you have read with your child. Place a star by your child’s favorite books.
Your child may draw a picture after you read a story. Add the picture to the “Memories of Our Year” section.
Suggested Books to Read with Your Child
I Am Going to Preschool by Marion Cocklico
Preschool, Here I Come by David J. Steinberg
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd, illustrator
If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff, Felicia Bond, illustrator
The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone
