Get Ready for First Grade-Essential Tips for a Smooth Transition

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Well, hello, it's Robin Wilson and I am your host today on the Education Connection and

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I want to talk today about a big transition, helping kindergartners get ready for first

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grade, but can I just stop a minute and say, you guys, 25 episodes today. This is a celebration

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night for me, 25 episodes and if you've been here for every one of them, I just want to

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say thank you and give you a little shout out today. But whether you're a parent or

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a teacher, I'm going to be sharing some practical tips tonight to make this transition smoother,

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especially in math and reading. So let's jump in. Tonight, I'm going to be talking about

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helping those kindergartners get ready for first grade. Now, I'm a first grade teacher

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and I've recently met with a few parents of sweet, sweet babies that are not quite ready

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for next year. They're not quite ready for second grade. Now, tonight I'm talking about

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getting ready for first grade, but I know our friendly kindergarten teachers are talking

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to the same kind of parents, the same type of children that are given just a little bit

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of struggling right now and they are having a little bit of a hard time. And so it's definitely

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something that needs to be discussed. It needs to be something that we are addressing if

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our little one is struggling and I'm just here to help you with that. So why readiness

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for first grade matters? First grade is a big step and that's the grade that I teach.

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So it actually starts bringing more structure, longer learning periods and higher expectations.

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So with the right support, though, kids can enter first grade feeling confident and excited

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to learn. And you might want to ask, well, why are you talking about this in the middle

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of the year? It is because I just had those conferences with some parents and it's just

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time to start looking at that. And we still have some time in this year to keep going

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and to get ready for the next year. And so right now is the right time to start really,

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really focusing in on those reading and math skills to help your little one get ready for

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the next year. You know, there's time right now. There's still some time. And so that's

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why it's so important to start now. Here's something you can do to get ready for first

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grade. Now, actually, a lot of these will fit for all three grades. If you're getting

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ready for kindergarten, getting ready for first grade and getting ready for second grade.

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Last week I did kindergarten. Today I'm doing first grade and next week I'll be talking

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about getting ready for second grade. But this is some something you can do with all

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three grades. Read daily. I'm going to tell you read to your kids set a bedtime routine

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or maybe it's just as soon as you get home from school, they get a snack and a little

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break and then you read to them. But have them also read words. And if they're in kindergarten,

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they might not be reading books just yet, but they might be reading some small words.

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And then if they're reading some of the earliest book or books or the colors were kind of books,

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you know, the ones that you can get from the library, you turn the page and one page says

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blue and it has a lot of blue things, a blue crayon, blue paint, blue car. And then you

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turn the page and it's called, you know, red on the next page. So those are some of the

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very most simplest books that you can read for kindergarten. But you know, your kindergartner

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might be starting to read a little bit. And getting them ready for first grade is what

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you can do is to help them read, read with them. So one of the things we teachers do

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is read to them, read with them and let them read to you. So it's three different types

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of reading that you can do with your child. When you're asking questions, so don't just

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read the words. We talked about that in some of my earlier episodes. If you're just reading

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the words, your hyperlexia and that does not necessarily mean that you understand what

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you're reading. So it's really important to stop and talk about each page and ask things

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like, well, what do you think's going to happen next? I love to ask that question when we

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are finished with the book. And there are no more words. And you know, the story has

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ended and then we might say, well, what do you think's going to happen next? Excuse me.

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Why do you think the character did that? And who was the main character? Who is the one

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we talked about the most? So asking those questions and what's going on here on this

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page, letting them talk about the book is very important to help comprehension. You

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know, I'm big on comprehension. I love me some comprehension skills. Number two, letters,

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sounds and sight words. And I know, I know a lot of parents will say, my child can say

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their alphabet or my child knows their sounds. They might know them in isolation or in, in

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the alphabet when you're looking at the alphabet, like what is our say, or what does S say?

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S, but when they are mixing those in to make words, sometimes even my first graders forget

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that Y says, yeah, they want to say that Y says, what, even though we go over that daily.

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And so the reason they might say Y says, what is because when you say the letter Y, you're

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putting your lips together like the sound for Y. And so that's a very, very common mistake.

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So just going over some of those letters, going over them again, practice them daily,

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that will surely help them. Practice writing and spelling. Now last week I talked about

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I'm getting ready for kindergarten or kindergarten and having them learn how to write their name.

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That's really important. Continue writing their name. I do have sometimes a first grader

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that will come to school and cannot write their name. And so we're going to help them

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with that, of course, but that's something you can do at home to have them ready to go.

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Use flashcards, use games or apps to make it more fun. So you might put some three by

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five cards down with just the letters on them and you're going to just say the sound. So

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you might say the sound D and have them stomp on the letter D. Or you might say the sound

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is E, E, E, or E, E, E and have them stomp on the letter E. It's a lot of jumping. It's

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a lot of dancing around. It's a lot of fun. Even put some music on to make it even more

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fun. Some important words to know before they go to first grade are the words, sight words,

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the, and, is, it, me, we, like, and see. And there are some others that you can do I,

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A, as, and so a lot of those you can just write down a really good resource that you

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can look up is called Dolce words, Dolce 100 first words, or you might look up fries, F-R-Y,

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E-S, 100 sight words. There are lots of freebies that you can download. Easily print those

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out and make your sight words. Now don't give them too many, maybe 10 at a time. Once they

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have accomplished those 10, then you can start on the next 10. That will give them a, a leg

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up going on into first grade and be ready to go. Have them practice writing and spelling

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words. Encourage writing simple words and sentences. Have your child label the drawings

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or write short notes to family members. Maybe you can have a writing Friday, so where everybody

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in the family writes a nice note to each other and that would include your youngest ones

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to get involved writing a nice little note to family members. Give them good practice

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at that as, as well and encourage the family. You can strengthen listening skills at number

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four. Give multi-step directions like put your shoes away, grab a book and sit on the

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couch. So make sure that you're giving more than two directions. So go upstairs, grab

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the, um, your socks and your shoes, bring them downstairs and we will put them on. So

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helping them follow the, the, um, directions in the classroom, um, will be very similar.

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A lot of times we're going to line up for recess. You need to put your paper in your

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mailbox, get your coat and line up. And so having those three step directions will very

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much help them get on their way for first grade. For math, let's talk about math for

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a minute. Counting a number recognition, make sure your child can count to 20. Recognize

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numbers up to 10 so that they just see them and they know what they are. And next make

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sure that when they see the number nine or the number five that they know what that means.

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So if you write a five on a three by five card, they can put five beans on that three

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by five card. They can recognize that five, um, the number actually means five things.

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So other things you can use would be pennies or macaroni's. Um, and so you can do one through

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10 and have them place on each of the cards, that number that it represents so that they

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are, um, understanding that's not just a number, but it represents, um, no, a number of things

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of items. Um, basic addition and subtraction. So you can start with hands on activities

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like cereal or blocks to practice adding and taking away small amounts. So you might write

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two plus one equals three and you can show those with beans or again, or macaroni's or

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your pennies. So just your basic addition. Um, I would definitely start with addition

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and then once you kind of get that mastered, then you can move on to subtraction. Very

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simple, less than 10. So 10 minus five or 10 minus two, um, eight minus four. Don't go

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too big with those unless they have those mastered, then definitely go up, you know, you could

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move on up to 15. And then if they have that mastered, move on up to 20, but it's okay

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if they're just within 10, um, going into first grade for subtraction. They will be

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learning that in first grade, the higher numbers. Number three, recognizing patterns and shapes.

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So point out patterns in your daily life and play games and involve sorting by color, shape,

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and size. Fun game. And I talked about this last week with the getting ready for kindergarten

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is when you are driving down the road, you can play I spy the color red if you're coming

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on a stop sign and they can call that out. Well, you can also call out the shapes. If

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you see a yield sign, that's a triangle. You might say I spy a triangle. So you can play

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this color, say shape or size. Um, if you're doing size, you can do small, medium and large

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and you can do that maybe on your kitchen table. So you have three different items,

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one that's small, something medium, and you can probably pull from your toy box for that

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one. And with something small, something medium and something large, and they would just point

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it out. Understanding. So number four, understanding time concepts. Talk about daily routines using

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words like morning, afternoon and night and introduce clocks to recognize hours and minutes.

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Now I will tell you in my first grade class, we start at the beginning of the year, just

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understanding in our math meeting, the hour, and then around the middle of the year, we

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start adding the half hour. So in first grade, they're going to be learning hour and half

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hour. So if you can just introduce them to that, they don't need to have that mastered,

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but just introduce them, show them what the hour hand looks like, what the minute hand

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looks like, and that what if it's eight o'clock, the little hand is on the eight and the big

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hand is on the 12. And if you do that, just introducing them to that, that would be a

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big help for them to just have a little step ahead going into it. It won't be the first

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time they've heard it. So you can build independence and confidence. So encourage self help skills.

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Teach kids to open their lunchboxes. And I did talk about this last week with the kindergarteners.

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It's the same with first grade. Have them practice something you're going to bring,

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have them bring and see if they can open it without you. It's not that the teachers don't

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want to help. They absolutely want to help, but you don't want your little one waiting

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to eat sitting there waiting to eat while the teacher is trying to get around to 10 to 15

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kiddos that don't know how to open their lunch. So it might be five minutes, seven minutes,

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eight minutes before they can start eating. And the teachers and aids are running around

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trying to get everybody get their lunch opened and you know, time just passes. They only

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get about 25 minutes by the time they sit down, going through the line and sitting down.

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So if you are sending their lunch, make sure that they can open everything. And I did talk

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about, if you want to know about some of the things to avoid, you might go back and listen

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to my kindergarten one. Those getting ready for kindergarten, those fruit ones that are

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in the fruit juice little packets and you open them up. I as an adult, when I open them

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up, I spill them. They just pop out right in front of me. They spew out, they spew on

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my clothes. And those poor sweet little ones, they're trying their best to get them open

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and they cannot. And a lot of times it does get all over them and all over their other

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food. And so it just helps to avoid their certain things to avoid. When they're lining

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up to go to recess or if they're lining up to go home, again, the teacher is sometimes

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alone. Many teachers do not have an assistant in their classroom. I have one with me at

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our at lunchtime and then but at the very end of the day, she leaves out just before

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we're putting jackets on. So it's me getting any jackets on and at this time of the year,

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most of my students now can put the little zipper. I don't know what you call it, but

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the little thing that goes down into the other thing to make it zip up. Make sure they know

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how to do that because I want to help them. I do. It's not that. It's just that getting

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to all of them and getting to them quickly is sometimes difficult to do. And so everyone

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just has to wait on me. And so I try to teach them as I'm going so they become more independent

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as the year goes on as well. Can we also talk about tying those shoes? That is another thing.

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So once we've gone around and got all the jackets zipped up and everybody's got their

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hoods on and then we have four or five pairs of shoes that need to be tied. And so even

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if there's two of us working, it's not easy to get all the shoes tied. Now we do get around

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to it, but we could be outside so much quicker if they know how to tie their shoes. And it

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just also gives them more independence to get up in the morning, to get their shoes

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on, get them tied and going to recess. And then at the end of the day and throughout

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the day, they're just, you know, if their shoe just comes untied, we're walking down

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the hall. We have to stop the line and get those shoes tied because we don't want anybody

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falling. My suggestion would be if your child is struggling to get their shoes tied, practice

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on that at home, but maybe until they've learned how to do that, maybe get the Velcro kind

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now, or if your child is having some coordination skills, difficulties, then just get the Velcro.

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It's okay. And they can until they learn how to tie those shoes. And then eventually it's

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like riding a bike. Once they learn to tie their shoes, they get to wear the shoes that

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need tied. But teaching them helps them learn, it helps them grow, praise their effort that

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they're trying and just tell them how much you love that they are trying. So I do always

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encourage my children in my class to try first and I'm coming around and if I, if they don't

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have it done by the time I get to them, then I'll definitely help them. And I'm teaching

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them along the way as well. So number three and building independence and confidence is

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developed classroom habits. Practice raising your hand to speak or taking turns. So when

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they're home, they don't have to take turns to talk unless you have a large family. But

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when you're in a classroom of 20 to 25 kiddos, this year, my class is a little bit smaller

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of 18, but I have had first grade classes up to 30, believe it or not. And so practicing

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raising their hands to speak and just understanding that it's different than it is at home, you

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know, where they can just speak out at any time. That's why we do it our home too. We

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just speak out because there's not that many people to compete with. But in a classroom,

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understanding how to take turns is really important. Teach them how to sit for short

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periods. And I think when you read them books or you work with them with these things, that's

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definitely going to meet that need right there. Help them to transition between activities

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smoothly. So if you are playing at the park and you give a set time to go, practice going

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and when you say go, it's time to go because when the whistle blows at recess, so maybe

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you can practice with the whistle at recess, they're going to have to line up. So it's

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a little bit different when you have a, you know, your own children in the play at the

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playground and you say, Oh, okay, we can do five more minutes. Well, we can't do five

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more minutes because we might be going to lunch or we might be going to our specials

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class or we have to get back in because we've got to start our next learning block or social

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studies, science, math or reading. And so we have block schedules and we can't play for

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another five minutes. So helping them transition from one thing to another. And when you blow

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the whistle or when you say it's time to clean up, they, you know, set a timer, they have

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five minutes, they need to get that done. That will definitely help them for sure. So

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my final thoughts for you is the best way to prepare your child for first grade is through

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fun, everyday learning experiences. So if your child is beginning to get frustrated, just

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take some deep breaths and try again later. I wouldn't force the episode, I wouldn't force

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it to go on too long, but just try again later. Practice it again, give them a break and then

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maybe in an hour or two or after nap time, you might try one of these strategies again.

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All consistent efforts will make a big difference and then they will have that experience once

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they've come to school. So just want to thank you for listening to the Education Connection.

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If you found these tips helpful, share this episode with a fellow parent or teacher and

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don't forget to subscribe for more early education tips. If you would like to leave a five star

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review, that would be much appreciated. It will help my listeners find this platform so

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that they can also get the knowledge and the tips and the encouragement that they mean

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to have healthy, happy learners. See you next time.