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June 13, 2008
And On To Kindergarten
Last night a group of parents from the Brittan Elementary School brought their children to play on the playground while they went to class. The room was set up with adult chairs to accommodate the larger bodies, but small chairs were stacked on tables around the room. The parent’s class would be in the kindergarten classroom where their children will attend in the Fall.
The parents checked their children in with the playground supervisor and trudged into class. The room was quiet and not like the noisy playtime of the five-year-olds who frequent the place during the day. No one spoke. No one made eye contact.
This may be their first parent session, but the quiet wasn’t going to work. Kindergarten is a place of joy and spontaneity, and I wanted the parents to sense what their children would experience. I would only be their teacher for a short while, so they needed to talk and laugh before the evening was over.
Kindergarteners begin the process of learning to read and parents can help their child’s progress every day. Developing a vocabulary is a key. Listening to a child tell you about their newest pet, the batch of cookies they made, or their friend’s grandfather gives them both words to use and ways to use them that make sense. Talking to them about how your washing the dishes or painting their room give them more words and ways to use them. Both listening and talking develop pictures in a child’s mind attached to words he or she hears and uses.
When the letters and sounds they learn in kindergarten begin to fit together as words those pictures appear in a child’s mind. When they see the word “dog,” their dog picture appears in their head. When the sentence says “The dog runs across the yard,” they can see a dog running across the yard. Without the practice of hearing, saying, and connecting words to pictures in their mind, a child can “read” letters and sounds without ever knowing what the words say. No pictures appear.
So our group listened and talked and talked some more. For a group that didn’t know each other when we started, they had lots to say before the evening was over. Hurray! Before they left, each parent passed by the Smart Start Director, Mary Ann Hendricks, and provided her with an activity they were going to do with their child this summer, the summer before kindergarten, so their child would be ready for the first big step.
Posted by Dr Joni at June 13, 2008 08:52 AM