Some strategies and activities that you as a parent or caregiver can do at home to help prepare your child for Pre-K and develop their social-emotional skills:
• Read a book aloud to your child every day or every night before bed.
• Help your child hold their crayons correctly and give them coloring books or blank paper to draw and write. Scribbles are evidence of pre-writing skills being developed and are developmentally appropriate at this age level. Practice naming the colors as you use them.
• Show your child how to hold child-sized safety scissors (rounded blade scissors) and give them opportunities to cut up junk mail or junk mail envelopes.
• Do fun, playful number activities with your child. Some activities are as follows: counting the plates on the dinner table, counting the number of nuggets in a happy meal, counting the number of sticks you can pick up on a walk in the yard, finding numbers on signs, mail or other print in their environment. You can do the same activity with alphabet letters.
• Practice making the letters in their name in shaving cream, with Play-Doh, or with crayons.
• Let them help you grocery shop by finding common food items on the shelves. Have them identify the common items as you put them away in the cabinet or pantry.
• Teach them how to set the table with the correct number of plates, cups and silverware.
• Teach them how to match colored socks, match the correct lengths of socks or put clothes on a plastic hanger. This helps develop small, fine motor skills.
• Allow them to build creatively with big Lego blocks (Duplo blocks), sticks, rocks, boxes, etc. Then talk with your child about what they built. Ask them to tell you about their creation.
• Allow your child to try to dress themselves, pack a snack in a bag and do other common household chores. If you continue to do everything for them, they will not learn to be independent thinkers and self-sufficient for their age.
• Teach them how to potty by themselves. Pre-K students must be completely potty trained and able to clean themselves after going to the restroom.
• Teach them how to effectively wash and dry their hands.
• Allow them to make mistakes, but please don't do it for them. We learn best by making mistakes. Yes, it is easier to help them or just do it for them, but we want to teach them independence and self-sufficiency, a skill needed in Pre-K.
• Guide them to think through and solve their small problems by offering two or three realistic suggestions about how to solve the issue.
• Teach them to recognize their name in written and printed form.
Is my child eligible to enroll in the high-quality Pre-K program at Rockdale Elementary School?
According to the State of Texas, a child must be four years old on or before Sept. 1, 2022, and meet the criteria for enrollment to attend Pre-K during the 2022-2023 school year. We are also having a Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten registration event on Tuesday, April 26, from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m. at the elementary school. Please be on the lookout for more details in The Rockdale Reporter, on our school website and other media outlets like Facebook as the date/time for the event draws closer. When you come to the event, please make sure to bring the following required documentation:
• Official birth certificate
• Child’s social security card
• Child’s immunization record (shot record)
• Proof of residency (electric bill, water bill, etc.)
• Parent’s driver’s license or photo ID
• Proof of income (for Pre-K students only)
To expedite and make the enrollment process much quicker for you, please bring your own photocopies of the required documentation above. There will be machines available to make copies if you do not have your copies with you, but the process is much quicker if you have your own copies ready to give to the registrars.
Students are welcome to come meet their future teachers during the event, but students will not be assigned to classes until closer to the beginning of school. Please call 512-430-6030 with any questions, and we can’t wait to see you all on April 26.
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