Kindergarten Life Skills Made Easy – 9+ Titles
July 4, 2021 by admin
Kindergarten is a time of immense change for both parents and children. It can be tough to know if your child is truly prepared and what to expect as they enter. Kindergarten is far from what many parents experienced, but that does not mean the basic skills have changed; they are just presented in new ways.
One area that many people tend to overlook at this age is that of life skills. Life skills are those basic skills that a child needs at this age and grade level to succeed in life. These vary widely, and it can be easy to overlook certain areas. Thankfully, TheWorksheets.com can help you with fun activities to build life skills and offer practice to your precious little learners.
Whether you are a parent or teacher looking to expand on the life skills area of your teaching, TheWorksheets.com has your back. Kindergarten students will need practice with basic skills that are often included in other core areas, like counting or letter recognition, but can also be taught alone like using manners, tying shoes, active listening, and caring for personal items.
The worksheets provided in this article from TheWorksheets.com provide numerous age-appropriate examples and offer a deeper understanding of the necessary concepts.
Kindergarten Prep
Though many children attend daycare or preschool, not all have that option. This can mean that kindergarten is their first real time away from their parents in a learning environment. It can be a scary time, not knowing what to expect or understand what is necessary. Thankfully, an activity packet exists to help your child know what to expect and practice ahead of time. For a way to ease your child into kindergarten, check out the link below.
Getting Ready for Kindergarten
Summer Pack for Entering Kindergarten Students
Teaching Life Skills
Most adults understand the importance of life skills, but they are not as cut and dry as mathematics or reading skills in how they are taught or even in who should be responsible for teaching these highly varied skills. The good news is you do not have to remain in the dark.
The Life Skills Guidebook can help parents and teachers teach students life skills that will help them continue moving forward in life. There is no need to be overwhelmed; some skills will take more time and practice than others. Just keep at the tasks and have fun.
Sight Words
Sight words are words that cannot necessarily be sounded out, so they must be recognized as a whole and, over time, will become automatic. Sight words are part of the reading curriculum but also an important life skill. These words not only help a child to be able to read or write messages but recognize key words if something happens.
Sight words are part of the preschool curriculum and continue to be taught through the first grade, after which they should be well recognized and a normal part of reading and communication. The activities and lists included below are sight words that should be utilized in teaching at this stage.
Health and Life Skills
Leaving for the classroom or learning to help take care of themselves is a huge deal for kindergarten-age children. One area that we often teach children about but never really discuss the “why” of is that of health skills. Health skills are used to enable students to make well-informed, healthy decisions for their lives whether their parents and teacher are around or not. To truly understand this, students require an understanding of the self.
Health and Life Skills Worksheet
Social Skills for Kindergarten and Beyond
Finding Help When Lost
Few things in life are scarier than a child being lost. Whether they have wandered off in a grocery store or gotten lost in a large, crowded area, a kindergarten-age child must know how to find someone and ask for help while providing the right information to help locate a caregiver or guardian. This is not something many parents or teachers cover, even though it is of the utmost importance.
This means your child needs to know their full name, your name, a phone number, and how to write “I need help” or “I am lost.” It also means your child needs to know who to approach and what they can do independently. Luckily, The Worksheets.com has you covered in teaching these vital skills.
Kindergarten Science
When we think of life skills, science may not be the first subject that comes to mind, but there is no life without science. Help young children learn what is necessary for life to exist, read a chart, create a graph, and much more with these simple life skills activities with a science-based focus.
Kindergarten Checklist
This final link is not as much about a specific skill but about the things every kindergarten child should be able to do by the end of the school year. This checklist is a great way to keep track of your child’s skills as they grow and develop. Some of the skills listed include knowing the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds, reading at least 50 sight words, and describing the difference in plants and animals.
A child will also recognize and make rhyming words, clap out syllables, and identify the setting and characters in a story. Please print out a copy and track progress with your child as they grow and mature.
Conclusion
Life skills are, well, a part of life. As adults, we often forget ever being directly taught how to tie our shoes, ask for help, or place an order at a restaurant, but these skills help us function in the real world. The teaching of such skills must start at a young age.
Parents and teachers can work together to practice basic life skills and reinforce those taught in different settings. When deciding on worksheets and activities for these foundational skills, work from the point your child is starting and building.
A child who cannot put on their shoes may not be ready for tying, and those who do not speak cannot order for themselves, but as basic skills improve, so can life skills. TheWorksheets.com is full of invaluable resources created and gathered by parents and educators to share with others. Take advantage of this amazing collection.