Play into Kindergarten Readiness Review

Did you know that 90% of a child’s brain growth happens before age 6? It’s no wonder early experiences have a lasting impact on a child’s learning, behavior, and health. No pressure, right!? As a teacher and homeschooling mama, let me be the first to tell you:

It doesn’t have to be hard!

Today, I’m going to show you exactly how you can teach your child through play with Play into Kindergarten Readiness. In 20 minutes of play a day, you can cover all core skills with activities that are:

Planned for you day-by-day
Play-based with minimal prep
Developmentally appropriate
Teacher created and approved

What to Expect with Play into Kindergarten Readiness

Play into Kindergarten Readiness is organized into seven months (or 28 weeks). Each day, there is ONE 20-minute activity for you to enjoy with your child. That’s it! In fact, if you wish to complete two activities each day, you can complete the program in 14 weeks.

Let’s take a look at what’s included:

Monthly Themes

There is a theme suggestion for each month to help your child engage in learning and dive deeper into topics. This will also help you choose some wonderful stories and allow your little one to learn and grow in a literacy-rich environment.

The seven monthly themes include:

All About Me
On the Farm
Nursery Rhymes
Calendars
The Weather
The Moon
Transportation

Day-by-Day Coursebook

Every day, you will have one 20-minute activity to enjoy with your child. These activities are nice and simple and have almost no prep needed. Working through these activities one at a time will ensure your child has experience with all of the fundamental preschool skills required to soar into future learning—whether at home or in the classroom! Your day-by-day coursebook includes simple instructions for each activity, specifying the skills being taught with each activity, as well as a list of required materials (if any).

The activities cover all of these skills through play:

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Literacy (Building Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, Reading Aloud, Learning a Name, and the Alphabet)
Numeracy (Math in Everyday Life, Counting, Recognizing Numbers, One-to-One Correspondence, Shapes, Measuring, and Patterning)
Fine Motor Skills
Gross Motor Skills
Crossing the Midline
STEM Challenges
Sensory Learning
and Getting Outside!

Book Suggestions

Reading to your little one is an essential part of their literacy development! Each month includes a book list with suggestions for you to take out from your local library—but any books at all on that month’s theme are wonderful! The idea is to simply expose our children to a variety of books.

Extra Activity Ideas

Some months, you might find that you simply want more to enjoy with your preschooler! I always feel that way during the cold weather months. For this reason, I included a blog post featuring a collection of additional crafts and activities related to each theme, as well as a new “3 Ways to Learn” collection each month. These activities are completely optional bonus activities available for you to use if you wish.

Vocabulary Cards

Each theme includes eight beautiful vocabulary cards that you can display in your home. Not only will these cards beautify your learning space, but they will also help your child build their vocabulary as you chat about the animal or item on each card. As you talk with your child about these cards, try to expand on their current understanding by adding additional descriptors. For example, you might talk about the ‘enormous elephant with the long grey nose!’ Have fun with these sweet cards, and the learning will come naturally.

(Psst. You can download the animal vocabulary cards along with a sample of Play into Kindergarten Readiness down a bit further!)

Printables

In addition to the vocabulary cards, Play into Kindergarten Readiness includes some printables to accompany activities as well as a few bonus printables, such as:

Ultimate No-Cook Playdough Recipe
Phonological Awareness Cheat Sheet
Scavenger Hunts
Number Rhymes
Tangrams
Sound Cards
and more!

You can download these sound cards for FREE at the end of this post

Sample Week of Play into Kindergarten Readiness

Let’s take a look at how all of this works together with a sample week from Play into Kindergarten Readiness:

Monday: Go on a Farm Book Picture Walk

Skills: Pre-Reading Skills, Vocabulary Building

Materials: A book that is new to your child

Grab a new farm-themed story from the shelf or from the library and go on a picture walk with your preschooler. Start with the first page and look only at the pictures together, chatting about what you see. Go through the entire book this way. This is a wonderful opportunity for building vocabulary as well as for introducing children to a reading strategy. Using the pictures is a great way to help us figure out what a word might be if we are stuck!

Tuesday: Build Farmyard Pens with Popsicle Sticks and Clothespins

Skills: Fine Motor Skills

Materials: Clothespins and popsicle sticks

Use clothespins and popsicle sticks to build some farmyard pens or structures. Clothespins can pinch two popsicle sticks together, allowing wonderfully creative “things” to emerge! Using clothespins is a wonderful way to strengthen little hands and build muscles. You can challenge your child to make a road as wide as their bedroom or to use clothespins and popsicle sticks to build a tower!

Wednesday: Go on a Number Hunt

Skills: Number Recognition, Counting

Materials: None!

Go for a walk in your neighborhood (or visit a nearby neighborhood) and go on a number hunt. With your child, look for the numbers 1 to 9. Try to find them in order on license plates, addresses, or signs. If your child is unclear on the number you are looking for, use a stick to draw it in some dirt as you are walking. This is also a fabulous “waiting” game to play while waiting in a line or in a waiting room!

Thursday: Swat the Balloon

Skills: Pre-Reading Skills, Syllable Awareness, Letter Names and Sounds

Materials: Balloons, tennis racket or paper towel tube, painter’s tape

Blow up some balloons, then tie a string to each balloon and hang them from the ceiling with painter’s tape. Say a word, and have your child swat the balloon with each syllable. Your child can use a tennis racket, a paper towel tube, or just their hand. The slow movement of the balloon coming down naturally helps children to stretch out words, hearing each syllable. Try some animal names, such as cat, rooster, or alligator. (This same activity can be used to practice letter names and sounds!)

Friday: Match and Count the Clothespins

Skills: Fine Motor Skills, Colors, One-to-One Correspondence

Materials: Paper cups and clothespins, Color Animals Printable

Grab some cups and pop the printable Color Animals into the bottom, one animal per cup. Take some matching markers or paint and color the ends of your clothespins. Have your child match the colored clothespins to the different cups by color, clipping the clothespins to the side of the cups. So, they would match all the pink clothespins to the cup with the pink pig inside, and so on. When done, have your child count the clothespins on each colored cup. Which color has the most clothespins? The least? Let your child practice each color name as well!

Download a Free Sample of Play into Kindergarten Readiness

You can download a PDF with the Sample Week that also includes the Color Animals Printable for Friday’s activity, the Animal Vocabulary Cards included with the On the Farm theme, and the Sound Cards right here: