Transition to Kindergarten Plan

Our Transition to Kindergarten plan is to prepare the rising kindergarteners to enter elementary school with the skills they will need to have a successful kindergarten year. We partner with Karin Von Dohlen's kindergarten class at Candler Elementary school. We have alsready visited in October to meet our friends and were able to spend some time in their classroom and participate in activities. This year we will make several trips back to the classroom to have lunch in the cafeteria, visit the library and take a tour of the school. Mrs. Von Dohlen frequently invites us to special activities as well. We will also have a school bus visit the daycare and we will learn about bus safety.
In our classroom at the center we are doing several things to prepare daily for kindergarten:

* Use trays to carry lunch to table
* Spend time working on name and letter recognition
* Playing rhyming, matching. sorting and classifying games
* Working on 15 minute activities (kindergarteners must stay in one activity for 15 minutes or more)
* Learning to regulate their own behavior, cooperate with others, be independent (separating from mom / dad)
* Taking care of their own messes, being responsible for a small job

15 minute activities include:
* Matching games, Rhyming games, Cooties, Chutes and Ladders, Listen Bingo, etc.
* Coloring sheets with directions (ie. color letter "A" red, color giraffe yellow)
* beading, lacing, shoe tying, special books on tape
* Singing songs, reciting memory verses
* Talking about various subjects and making lists (ie. talking about occupations and making lists of jobs and things you need to do the job)
* Sorting activities, classifying activities

Take Home Activity Bags will go home weekly on Fridays. These must be returned on Monday in order to receive the next bag. Lost bags will incur a $20 fee to replace all items.
Bags will have a file folder game, additional activity, book, coloring page, Bible verse, Book report and Child's folder. These need to be completed and returned with the bag.