Getting ready for kindergarten

Want to prepare for the next school year?
Keep the learning going over the summer. Below are suggestions of skills families might explore together during the school break.

Physical Health and Wellness
With parent/caregiver support...)
Identifies basic emotions by looking at others' faces and/or faces in books and television (ex. happy, mad, sad, scared)
Identifies ways to calm when upset
Knows how to ask a friend to play
Is learning how to wait for a turn
Listens quietly for 5-10 minutes during a story
Participates and follows rules during structured (organized games) or unstructured (playground play) indoor and outdoor activities
Helps to make healthy snacks; sorts foods; talks about choosing healthy foods
Understands movement concepts (how their body moves and how to move in coordination with other people or objects)
Runs, jumps, skips, climbs and uses big muscles while playing

English Language Arts
With parent/caregiver support...)
Listens to and understands conversations
Uses new words heard in conversations, activities, and books
Understands and uses gestures and body language
Speaks in complete sentences and is understood
Understands and retells stories, events, and other learned information
Names different sounds; rhymes; hears and names the beginning sound in a word; hears words in sentences; hears parts of words
Begins to name upper and lowercase letters
Draws pictures to share ideas
Understands that letters make words and words make sentences; uses finger to track words from left to right on a page; reads symbols and words around them (ex. STOP sign, McDonald's)

For activity ideas to practice these skills, go to gpb.org/learn.

Getting Ready for Kindergarten
Mathematics
With parent/caregiver support... Counts to 20 in order
Counts 10 or fewer objects by pointing to each object and saying the correct number
Knows written numbers 0-9
Sorts objects (like toy cars) by similarities and differences (color, size, etc.)
Names shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle
Counts and compares two groups of objects (more, less, same)

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Science
With parent/caregiver support...
Asks questions while using senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, sound) to explore the world
Observes the earth and sky; explains changes in the earth and sky
Describes living things around them
Explores and describes objects based on what materials they are made of (color, size, shape, etc.); states of matter; types of motion (fast, slow, etc.); and simple machines (ex. ramps made with blocks)
Participates in protecting the environment

Social Studies
With parent/caregiver support... Names and follows rules
Describes events in relation to time past, present, and future
Describes and respects similarities and differences between self and others
Lists different jobs, services, and businesses in the community
These skills were identified by the Georgia Department of Education's division of curriculum and instruction based on the Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards (GELDS). This list is not required, and students won't be expected to know all of the information part of a teacher's job is meeting all students where they are at the beginning of the school year.

For activity ideas to practice these skills at home, go to gpb.org/learn.