New Kindergarten Program Launched with Savannah Barker

Savannah has a Masters in Child Study and Education from OISE and comes to us from Royal St. George’s College. Savannah brings with her a passion for creating hands-on learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom. She is excited to integrate the best practices for girls’ education into The Linden School’s inquiry-based kindergarten program.

Linden: Even though children can start Kindergarten as soon as they are three years and eight months old, many parents feel that their child is not yet ready for school. How can parents prepare their child and tell when they are ready for Kindergarten? 

Savannah: Kindergarten is an important program for children between the ages of 4 and 6 to take part in, with emphasis on developing a sense of belonging and well-being, self-regulation abilities, literacy and math foundations, and problem-solving and inquiry behaviours. If parents have registered their child for a Kindergarten program, a great place to start preparing them is with their letters and numbers. Play games and sing songs to recognize and write letters, match letter sounds to letters, and play with rhyming words. As well, helping the child learn to write their name gives them a feeling of independence entering Kindergarten. The same ideas go for math—practice recognizing and writing numbers, and matching numbers of items to the written or said number is a good idea as well. Parents can also practice fine motor activities (cutting independently, tying shoes, zipping zippers) with students and I would definitely recommend practicing a proper pencil grip. The most important thing for parents to be doing at home is fostering a love of literacy, and reading with their children as much as possible!

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