School Readiness

Here at the Hills Long Day Preschool our focus for school readiness is holistic. We value preparing the child socially as well as within fine motor and cognitive activities. Our school readiness program begins in both rooms  with our first focus on the children being able to separate from their families, attend at group times and self- regulate their own behavior. Skills such as fine motor, holding a pencil, cutting with scissors are then introduced. The following are skills that we believe are equally as important as one another in preparing your child for school. Staff work with each child over their time at our preschool in order to develop these important skills in order to fully prepare your child for school entry.

Fine Motor

Holds pencil correctly, has right/left hand preference, holds scissors correctly, can thread beads, constructs using building equipment, and draws a representative picture, cuts line/shapes, copies shapes.

Gross motor

Walks on a balance beam, tip toes, jumps 2 feet over object, jumps forward with 2 feet, runs with control, can gallop, can hop on one foot, walks on heels, skips, catches and throws a ball.

Social/Emotional

Separates from parents on arrival, can deal appropriately with conflict situations, can share an adults attention with several other children, participates with confidence in group situations, performs/speaks before a group, co-operates during classroom procedures, communicates with peers and staff.

Language

Has ability to: Remember and follows directions, to turn take in conversation, to answer questions, to express needs and wants, to express feelings, to ask questions, to join sentences correctly, clear articulation.

Cognitive

Recognizes and names colours and shapes, knows address including suburb, knows full name, knows own age, recognizes name by sight, writes own name, recognizes numbers 1-5 by sight, is able to count to 20, able to count 10 objects, can order objects according to size, has age appropriate attention span - 10 minutes, can match pairs, can match opposites e.g. up/down, under/over, front/back, can complete a 10 piece puzzle, ability to recall a story excluding detail.

Self Help

Can dress/undress self, can recognize own bag and put belongings away, can finish tasks and tidy up afterwards, can put own shoes on and off and tie own shoelaces. Other activities we offer in order to prepare your child for school are: We begin by having each child recognize their own name. They then begin to trace and copy their name with a great focus on correct letter formation (NSW foundation style) and correct pencil grip.

Alphabet Time

From term 2 each year we provide a group time (alphabet time) which focusses on the children beginning to learn the names of each letter and the sound it makes. A range of fun and interesting activities are set around the 2 letters of the week in order to reinforce this concept. Children from both rooms are involved in this daily group time.