7 Important Life Skills Worksheets – Help Kindergarten Children Succeed

August 12, 2021 by admin

As parents, you want to set your children for success and give them a head start. Besides academics, life skills are equally important skills that go hand in hand in their development and are vital in helping them navigate all aspects of life, such as school, relationships and work.

Scientists suggest that the seven key life skills for children to succeed are focus, perspective-taking, communication, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges and self-directed, engaged learning. Equipping your children with these fundamental skills will help them to develop skills beginning in early childhood so they can succeed in different aspects of life.

While there are all sorts of life skills listed on the internet and kindergarten can be overwhelming, life skills can be incorporated as daily routines from home and at school. For example, discussing with your child about different characters’ feelings and their points of view in the books you read can develop their perspective-taking skills, and having your child help you organize their clothes and belongings can hone their focus and self-control.

Aside from daily routines, TheWorksheets.com also have many resources and worksheets from various subjects that provide practice for these essential skills. If you are a teacher looking for ways to incorporate life skills in your classroom, you have also come to the right place! This article will provide resources and tips on how to nurture these skills.

kindergarten life skills

7 Essential Life Skills to Set Your Child for Success


Teachers sometimes describe life skills as “learning to learn skills”, which are developed through intentional activities. This article will explore 7 essential life skills to help your child get ready for school and beyond.

Focus and Self Control
Children thrive on schedules and routines as it provides them with a sense of security. Next time you are planning a walk around the neighborhood or to familiar places, such as the supermarket, you can involve your child by talking to them about directions and having them to help you plan the trip. Reading maps or circling items in a themed worksheet can guide them to understand their community and things they need for various occasions, such as going to school. As we live in a busy and fast-paced society, sensory activities such as coloring, and matching can also help them slow down and develop a sense of focus.

Perspective-Taking
Guiding and encouraging children to think of others’ ideas and points of view build their social skills, critical thinking and empathy. While this skill is not a natural ability, it can be developed over time. After you read a passage from a worksheet or a book, talk about the characters’ feelings, their actions and motivations. For example, after reading about a child getting a pet frog, you can ask questions such as, “I wonder how Tiny Tim the frog feels when it is put in the bathtub” or “if you have a pet frog, what would you do to keep it happy?” You may also want to make observations and emphasize on how characters are feeling when reading.

Communication
Parents may think that teachers are the first and best teachers, but parents are their children’s first teachers as they spend a lot of them with their children, which makes them the most comfortable people for their children to communicate. These interactions build children’s socio-emotional skills as they learn to talk to and understand others. Dedicating time every day to interact and talk to your child, such as teaching and having them read sight words, learning about days of the week and writing their names to guide them to navigate and understand themselves and our world, as well as establishing their identities.

Making Connections
When children are able to find patterns and see connections among various items, they are making sense and meaning of their world and community. Sorting and matching exercises, such as matching images to words on worksheets or organizing the socks of different colors into separate groups help them build connections and make meaning. When they are ready, you can point out more abstract connections to them, for example, “the picture of the flowers reminds me of the time we went to the gardens.”

Critical Thinking
We live in a world where adults are required to solve and analyze problems and think creatively in their everyday lives. Through rich and open-ended play alone or with friends, children can think of different ideas, take risks to try out their ideas, make mistakes and find solutions, which are all essential in building critical thinking. If you don’t have time to invite friends or schedule a play time, fear not! Having your child brainstorm about an alternate ending at the end of a story or passage, categorizing living or non-living things with a list and finding items in a travel scavenger hunt can also hone these skills.

Take On a Challenge
One of the most important life skills is to not be afraid to try new things or things that we find difficult, and to learn from failure and keep trying. Create a safe environment that encourages your children to try new things and take on a few risks. For example, if your child does not like adding and subtraction, encourage your child to make a story with animals or objects that needs to be added or taken away. Other activities, such as having your child observe a plant and make hypotheses, as well as describe the plant’s color and shape also encourage critical thinking. Remember to focus more on their effort than achievement.

Self-Engaged and Directed Learning
Children who loves to learn will be rarely bored in life. To encourage a love of knowledge and learning, try to limit their screen time and encourage plenty of reading, play and open-ended exploration. Show your curiosity and enthusiasm for learning by visiting places such as museums and science fairs, making games available and allowing messes to happen at home. You can also have your child pick on a worksheet or project hat they would like to work on and guide them to completion at their own pace.   

Related Posts
#FreeToolTips - 6 Free Annotation Tools for Teachers Have you ever felt the ease of using annotation tools? Annotations have sparked battles and settled disputes. Such is the...
10 Amazing Health Education Worksheets - Life Skills - Grades 11 & 12 This article is focused on Health Education – Independent living. They are geared toward 11th and 12th graders. As students...