G didn’t go to prek and neither does M so I have tried to make sure we do all the things at home to get them ready for kindergarten. G is doing great at school. We absolutely love her school. M will join her in a few years and he’s going to love it just as much (fingers crossed). It really is an awesome place.
I did a lot of games with G and will do the same with M when he’s older. No need to rush him. He’s 2. He has time.
Anywhoooo… We had a meeting at school the other day and they were talking about helping kids with letter sounds and registration. They needed some games so I printed out some to send in.
supplies:
printer
cardstock is definitely better than regular printer paper but either works
Memory or Go Fish
- print 2 copies of letters. You can do all upper/lower case or mix depending on what your kid is ready for and I think 8 or 16 per page is a good number. Printables: Uppercase and lower case
- remember to say the name or sound each time depending on what you are working on. If you are working on sounds, ask for the letter by sound when you play Go Fish.
Bingo
There are a ton of premade Bingo games out there! I love playing letter or number Bingo. You can even do this with words when they are beginning to read.
Here are the ones I used. Upper and lower (this one needs you to make lowercase cards to flip).
Remember to say the name or sound depending on wha you are working on.
Pompoms work well for this game and you can even use fun tongs to add some fine motor skills in there. We might have used snacks (think goldfish or Cheerios) for this, too.
Our class Assistant said she did Bingo in class the other day with her Small Group and said it was s a big hit.
Dominoes
You can make your own here. This is nice because you can focus on just a few letters at a time.
Here is a printable I found and used, too. This is a big set and can be overwhelming if you are still working on IDing letters/sounds.
You can keep upper and lower separated or mix when your kid is ready!
Cookie Jar Letters
Printable this is cute and a cool way to mix up the letter games.
I sent them to school in regular envelopes because that’s what I had but I wouldn’t recommend it for long term storage if you plan to keep them. At home, I did dominoes and the cookie jar activities more as a cut and paste.
Take it slow. They will not get it all in a day. Like 1-2 a week is good especially for kids that aren’t in school yet.
And remember, have fun! If it’s not fun, take a break.
