Gr TK Report Card Family Guide

Standards

What Can Families Do To Support Children?

Explores environment to learn about people, things, and events

• Attend community events and explore new, and unfamiliar environments together such as children’s museums, art and cultural museums, the academy of sciences, different parks, etc.
• Provide question prompts for your child and encourage them to try them out in new environments such as, “Can I have a turn?” “What are you working on over here?” “How does this work?”

Develops strategies in regulating feelings  

• Do five finger breathing, use feeling cards to learn how to identify feelings, use bubbles to breath, create a corner in the home where a child can go to take some time to be by themselves

Persists in mastering new and challenging activities

• Give children positive feedback by praising the problem-solving process and encouraging them to keep trying. 
• Let your child keep trying a puzzle without solving it for them. Give them gentle guidance when frustration sets in. Give options like “what if we rotated the puzzle piece?”

Able to share space and materials with others

• Play board games (candy land), games with balls (catch, bouncing or rolling the ball to each other) or card games (go fish or matching card games) to practice taking turns and sharing materials. 

Describes characteristics of self 

• Daily affirmations can help build your child’s sense of self and give them the language to link to their feelings, motivations, self-awareness
• Use Positive Descriptive Acknowledgements (PDA’s) to talk about  their behavior throughout the day. Examples: “You are so responsible when you clean up your toys.” “It is friendly of you to share your toys.” 

Communicates ideas about why one has a feeling

• When reading a book, ask your child why the character is doing what they are doing. Ask how your child would feel if they were in the same position as the character in the book. 

Engages in cooperative play with others

• Play games that requires taking turns ( board games, card games)

Standards 

What Can Families Do To Support Children? 

Shows understanding of a variety of phrases and sentences 

• Most children can understand more than they can say; you can use sentences that are a bit longer.
• Build your child’s vocabulary by having a designated time for reading together daily.  
• If your child is using one, two, or three word  phrases, you can expand what is said by using their word(s) in a sentence and adding to it. For example, if they point to a bird in a tree and say “bird”, you can say, “That bird is in the tree!”

Carries out familiar multi-step tasks

• Practice giving children three unrelated directions at home.  You could say,  “Take off your shoes, wash your hands, sit on the couch.”

Produces sentences with nouns and verbs

• Use a variety of words when you speak to your child; this will help them learn new words. 
• Sing, dance, and play together while talking about what is happening (“we are jumping, we are moving our bodies!”)

Participates in read alouds, songs, and rhyming games

• Sing and read to your child daily.

Understands details of texts read aloud

• Read together and  engage your child in a story by having them respond to questions, repeat phrases and predict what is going to happen next. 

Tracks print left to right and page to page in a book

• Read with your child every day. Use your finger to track along the print and encourage them to do it as well. 

Demonstrates awareness of letters, words, and syllables

• Write letters or make cards for friends and family. Encourage your child to include a phrase like, “Happy Birthday!” “Get well soon!” or “Thank you!” and sign their work. 

Identifies 10 or more letters

• Encourage them to practice writing their full name (first and last) regularly, as well as the names of family members and even pets! 

Writes first name 

• In the grocery store, make a game of matching the letters of their name to items.
• Provide different surfaces in which your child can practice writing their name (sand, paint, marker/crayon on paper, chalk.)

Standards 

What Can Families Do To Support Children?

Shows understanding of multiple words, phrases and concepts in English

• Explain and sometimes act out the meanings of important words in a story that your child may not know. Point to details of the illustrations that will help them understand the meaning of complex sentences and new words. 

Communicates in English using sentences

• Plan playdates with your child’s bilingual or English-speaking peers and friends 

Uses a variety of words and phrases in English

• Read out loud to them or play audio versions of texts and provide a similar text in the student's first language

• Have two-way conversations with your child; even if the parent isn’t confident in English, they can practice and learn together
• Sing songs in English; ask the teacher for the common songs they sing in the classroom

Identifies 10 or more letters in English

• Expose them to and sing a variety of alphabet songs in English; videos are a great resource for this 

• Sing the traditional ABC song that they learn at school along with a visual of the letters

Standards 

What Can Families Do To Support Children?

Sorts objects into two or more groups by size and by color

• Have children help with laundry by matching socks. 
• Sort crayons/colored pencils by color

Counts objects 1-10

• Count steps/cars/ trees on the way to school

Uses counting to add or subtract one or two objects

• Board games are a great way to practice this as you typically add the dots from the dice and advance your piece on the board the corresponding number of spaces
• At meal or snack times, encourage your child to help set the table or distribute food items according to the number of expected guests

Identifies differences in size, length, weight of two or more objects

• Give kids options of different fruits and talk about the differences (Ie: apple, banana)

Creates repeating patterns with 2 or more elements

• This can be practiced with a variety of toys or food items (like fruits or vegetables); especially when you have multiple of the same item. For example: racecar, racecar, dinosaur, racecar, racecar, dinosaur; or apple, banana, orange, apple, banana, orange, etc. 

Identifies several shapes 

• When walking to school, identify the different shapes you see. (e.g., stop signs, yield signs, window signs, houses, etc…)
• Show your child a shape and have them create that shape with playdoh 
• Build different structures with blocks and identify the shape of each piece.
• Identify shapes in your home (the table is round, the door is a rectangle, the package is square, the egg is an oval)

Health Standards

What Can Families Do to Support Children?

Changes movement in relation to people or objects

• Encourage the use of walking feet and safe bodies indoors. Use phrases such as, “We can run outside, but inside you need to use walking feet.” 
• Remind your child of the expectations related to an environment before entering. For example, “Remember, when we go into the classroom we use inside voices and walking feet. When you play outside you can run, climb, and use an outside voice.”

Writes with a pencil or crayon using pincer hand position

• Provide opportunities to develop their fine motor skills such as cooking together, playdough, beading/lacing, etc.
• Play games such as Operation or pretend play using a dentist or doctor’s kit that contains age  appropriate tweezers.
• Write letters or make cards for friends and family. Encourage your child to include a phrase like, “Happy Birthday!” “Get well soon!” or “Thank you!” and sign their work.  

Uses two or more sequential movements to move objects

• Pushing pedals to move a bike (one foot must follow the other), scooter, or pedal car.
• Lifting and throwing balls into hoops or to destroy block towers; bowling.
• Crawling under a blanket fort and climbing over a pillow mountain.

Moves objects using both hands doing different movements

• Have your child spray and wipe the table. 
• Provide opportunities for your child to practice self-help skills such as dressing themselves; putting on their own socks and shoes, buttoning their coats, etc. 

Eat Fresh

Healthy, tasty recipes on a budget

eatfresh.org 

Positive Parenting Tips

Links on child development, safety, and health at each stage of life

bit.ly/posparentingtips

Physical Development

Information for Families on Children’s Physical Development 

https://allaboutyoungchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/english-physical-development-48-60.pdf