Many parents ask what I need to work on with my child before school starts. As we start this school year, there are a couple of things the kiddos should have down to help them with their independence and get off to a great start. Essential skills that make their life simpler and make things move and function quickly and organized are self-help skills; below are examples of things to work on before school starts.

• Restroom independence (Button or snapping pants hand-washing etc.,)
• Putting on a jacket or coat independently
• Zipping a jacket or coat independently
• Work on tying shoes
• Open a water bottle to fill at recess
• Open small packages of food at lunch so they do not have to wait to have them opened.

Reading is a huge part of first grade! For the kiddos to want to read, they need to develop a love for books. Please read to your child or have them listen to the stories online, listen together and discuss the book after. I have attached links below to books that the kiddos can read at different sites. Choose a link below, and it should take you to the site.

https://www.starfall.com/h/?t=363707926

https://www.indypl.org/blog/for-parents/free-video-read-alouds

https://storylineonline.net/

Other areas to review:

*Reviewing all upper and lowercase letters and sounds.   

*Adding small amounts of 0-10 items,

*Counting how many specific letters they find on signs as you are driving in a car or anything to get them talking and learning about numbers and letters will be very helpful as a review before we start the year off. So excited to get this year started