Daisy is very fortunate to be entering a school division that runs a Literacy Links programme to support children entering Kindergarten and Grade One. We had a wonderful facilitator visit our home once to work with Daisy for an hour. She is coming back to do another three sessions during the next month. Daisy counted the sleeps waiting for her to arrive and is now eagerly awaiting the next session.
Here is the low down on what Literacy Links is:
Literacy Links supports parents with pre-school children in understanding how to develop a positive literacy environment in the home setting and make the important links between home and school.
Literacy Links is a program in the St. James Assiniboia School Division that is offered May to August and is free of charge to all families of children entering kindergarten in the fall. Trained facilitators will work with families to demonstrate and to assist them in providing developmentally appropriate and enriching learning experiences.
The focus of the program will include:
The focus of the program will include:
- Book selection and parent-child interaction during reading
- Environmental print (i.e. signs, labels, logos, etc.)
- Rhymes, songs and word games to develop phonological awareness
- Appropriate writing opportunities
- Learning letter names and sounds
- Math concepts (i.e. patterning, counting, number recognition)
- Suggestions for a positive transition to Kindergarten
Families will be provided with a home package of materials that include literacy information and guides, books, activities and games. (Taken from St. James-Assiniboia Parent Child Coalition)
Daisy is enjoying playing with the resources we received in our literacy links pack.
Here is a list of suggested resources if you would like to make a similar pack to give to a child or class of children getting ready for Kindergarten. Click on the image for more information.
Dazzlin Dough– a wonderful way to build fine motor skills. Relating the play to counting and letters adds to skill learning.
Chubbies Crayons– colouring and writing are always to be encouraged. These crayons are short and encourage little hands to use the correct grip for writing. Providing blank books or simply paper, and allowing time to respond to picture books or activities during the day, is a great opportunity to sneak in some letter and word learning.
Phonetically Coloured Letters Magnets– go a little further than the regular coloured magnets in helping children identify vowels.
The Super Sorting Pie covered a variety of early math skills including counting, sorting, identifying and making patterns and reasoning. The tweezers that come with the pie encourage fine motor development and are quite simply fun to use.
Books that you love! If you love reading them, whoever you are reading them to will share your enthusiasm.
Easy readers– choose fun books students can learn to read easily and therefore enjoy their success. This series was a huge hit with us. So even if you don’t have a wonderful resource like Literacy Links, you can put together your own kit to help prepare your students or child for Kindergarten.
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