Kindergarten at Home: My Suggested School List

When it comes to considering, selecting, and offering "educational" manipulatives to my Super Stars, I ask myself some specific questions such as "Will this item engage and stimulate my students?  Will it help them create and creatively explore ideas and concepts?  Can it act as a bridge, and/or be combined with other objects and items that can help children learn, test hypotheses, express creativity and develop fine and gross motor skills?  Can my students use these in multiple ways?  Can they still 'work' even if a piece goes missing?" and "Could using them help my students better understand real-world situations?" The items I choose to put within my students' reach have to be effective and adaptable to multiple uses.

Many kindergarteners will be learning from home this year. What kinds of items might I suggest to their parents?

These:

Play-Doh (Walmart, Amazon, toy stores, or made from scratch) This smooshable stuff is great for fine-motor development; as squishable counters for 1:1 correspondence (roll out twenty pieces formed into balls and place in a single line, then have your child smoosh each one as s/he says each number in order starting with "1"); as "face makers" to depict emotions and feelings or to add facial features to blank mats, apples, or pumpkins (jack-o-lanterns in October); as a finger/hand warm-up tool before writing and drawing (modeling clay or Theraputty would also work well for hand-strengthening as they are more resistive and require a lot of handling to loosen), and of course, stress relief.

Wikki Stix (found here or on Amazon), are strips of bendable/moldable wax-covered yarn.  Use them or pipe cleaners (or Play-Doh) to form letters, numbers, shapes (flat and three dimensional), and ignite the imagination.

A dry erase board with indicator writing lines (Amazon, school supply stores), though you'll want to know what handwriting format/curriculum your district will be using.  Zaner Bloser?  D'Nealian? If you choose to purchase a reference chart make sure to select one that includes the numbered directional arrows so that you know where to place your pencil-point as you begin to form letters, and which stroke or mark to make next to complete them.  A blank, lineless dry erase board works for all sorts of writing and drawing activities, too. 

  

Magnetic letters and numbers (like the ones you put on the fridge), letter tiles (Scrabble, Bananagrams) or letter stamps. Make sure these items are plastic or wood and produced in a reasonable and recognizable font.  Foam letter sets are less expensive, but they'll also be torn apart, bent, folded, and come out mangled if they've gone unnoticed into the washer and dryer.  These items are great for word-building, sorting, adding text to kid-drawn illustrations etc., especially when little fingers are tired from gripping pencils and writing. 

 

Dry-erase pockets/pouches for tracing or completing reusable worksheet pages, although you could print out tracer pages and laminate them instead.  If you'd rather create and laminate flashcards, tracer pages, schedules, posters, charts and other items, I recommend a tabletop laminator and pouches. Laminators like the one pictured above can be used on paper sized 8.5 X11 inches and smaller. I've found versions of them for less in Walmart and Target, and 100 piece packs of laminating pouches go on sale from time to time on Amazon.

Lots of "found" items can be used as counters and pattern builders or manipulatives to create sets/groups and storage. These objects might be discovered and collected in nature: rocks, twigs, feathers, leaves, shells, flowers, pinecones, etc.  Kitchen and other household items would work well too: dice, game pieces, checkers, Lego pieces, tongs, plastic tubs with lids, pencils, paperclips, balls of yarn, crayons, recycled cans, empty shoeboxes or tissue boxes, card sets, dominoes, oatmeal or TP cylinders, counters punched from cereal boxes or frozen food cardboard using a large craft punch, slotted spoons and colanders/strainers.  Food items could be used as counters (be mindful of allergies and choking hazards) but could also be used to create collages, pictures etc. before eating as a snack: cereal pieces, m&ms, raisins, crackers, grapes, berries, salami slices, etc. Collect 100 objects (they don't have to match) and store them in a bag for sorting, classifying and counting practice (counting to 100 and beyond is a kindergarten math standard). Dry beans and pasta also make great counters, weighable foodstuffs, and craft supplies. If you'd like to include more schoolish looking manipulatives, a sampler set like this one (grades K-2) might work well:

It includes base-10 blocks, snap cubes, pattern blocks, colored tiles, an adjustable analog clock (not Judy brand), and Cuisenaire rods. Many of these pieces are foam, which isn't ideal, but they're the same types of tools students will encounter (usually plastic) in classrooms.  Items found while on a walk outside double as manipulatives and show and share contenders.  Store pieces, bought or found, in lidded tubs or shoeboxes rather than plastic bags.  Tubs and boxes are easier to stack and label.

 

Stencils sets help children to develop their fine motor skills, illustrate pages, learn attributes of shapes, and build confidence in writing, making cards and books, as they share their work with others.  Stencils can also be made at home using cardboard or tracing around objects such as lids, boxes, cookie cutters and toys.  Young children also like using rulers, yardsticks, protractors and other interesting edges as they work with paper, crayons, pencils, markers, colored pencils, pens, and paint. The set of five plane shape stencils can be found here and the other animal-themed stencil set here.

Beanie Babies or small themed toy collections work well as game pieces, BINGO game covers, desk and book buddies, and tic-tac-toe markers on a grid created on the floor, a blanket, a sidewalk, or a sandpit.  A shoebox filled with sand or dry rice provides sensory input as children use their pointer fingers or the end of a pencil to write their name, draw shapes, or form letters and numbers following handwriting guidelines. Shaving cream "painting" on a table surface, or even pudding painting on a cookie sheet with raised edges are great activities that encourage children to use their fingers and other washable/safe items to write and draw.  Involve your child in meal-making, cleaning up, writing grocery lists, and make sure he or she knows it's okay to sneak notes and drawings into lunchboxes, backpacks, purses and briefcases. Help your child create his or her own alphabet chart, number chart, or other graphic organizers such as a word wall, calendar, and imagination station (art display).  None of these items require shopping at a teacher store.

For families who haven't given their children safety scissors or markers or paint because they (parents) fear the mess, please know that teachers always spend a lot of time upfront teaching classrooms full of students how to handle specialty tools, never leaving them unattended or within reach unless they are going to be used immediately.  We do not give scissors to children "trusting" that the child will know what to do.  We do not hand students a pack of watercolor paints, a cup of water, a brush, a sheet of paper, and a smock and then walk away to go and work with a group of students at our reading table during the first quarter of school. Marker sets are capped, bagged and stored in a tub out of easy reach. Your child cannot develop his or her pencil/pen/marker writing grasp when using only their pointer finger on an iPad app. S/he cannot become efficient and safe at cutting if you never teach him/her the proper way to carry scissors from place to place (point down), the way to grasp them (thumb "on top" in the little hole, remaining fingers "on the bottom" in the larger hole), the directionality of cutting (always with the tips of the blades pointed away from the body, never toward; elbow lowered instead of raised in the air), and how to properly store the scissors until they're needed again (closed and in a drawer or a cup point down). Children should learn to paint and draw using backing surfaces such as slanted easels, upright dry erase boards, paper on clipboards, and flat tabletops. If your child has ever gotten a hold of your Sharpie stash and gone to town on your walls, sheets, curtains, dogs, and other children, you know why anything ink-based (or adhesive) should always be brought out for use and then immediately put away, not in a drawer, and not on a tabletop but in a closed container on the highest shelf in the most boring cupboard or closet. Children learning from home will have to learn and practice these skills.  Taught and supervised properly, messes will be at a minimum.  Truly.

Construction paper.  Blank copy paper.  Notebooks. Brown paper bags cut open into large panels.  Journals you've been gifted but will never use.  Index cards. Post-it notes. Graph paper. Whatever you've got, let your child use it.  Often. 

Ask your little learner to help you design or delineate a learning space within your home.  It might be on one end of a dining room table, at a smaller table and chair set already in use in a playroom, or a simple lap desk with a nearby set of cubbies where school items can be put away and stored when not in use. One of my Super Stars last spring seemed to spend a lot of time snuggled into an oversized laundry basket, a learning pod of sorts where a sibling couldn't crowd in. Kids know what makes them comfortable, and it isn't always a desk and chair.  Hang up and display not only learning charts but your child's artwork and writing, too.  No, it does not need to be perfect and yes, your child should be encouraged to enjoy and reflect upon his or her work.

Keep a "reuse" stash of recyclable items. Junk mail is fun to use for playing office, school, or mail carrier. The plastic lids from milk jugs or laundry detergent (thoroughly washed and dried) can be collected over time for sorting, building and crafting.  Magazines and newspapers contain lots of images and print that can be used for collages, book-making, word and letter finds, and other crafts. Cardboard cereal and other food boxes can be used as containers, disassembled and reconstructed into other incredible creations. You'll want glue sticks, bottled glue, clear tape, masking tape and even possibly a low-temp glue gun... rubber bands, paper clips, some metal rings (kids love flashcards on a ring), and who knows what other office supplies might come in handy.  Remember, the use of these tools, adhesives, and pokey objects MUST BE TAUGHT and supervised.  Put them a-w-a-y, REALLY A-W-A-Y when your child is done using them.

Finally, a home library of favorite bedtime stories, reference books, and self-selected fiction and non-fiction books is essential when it comes to providing the best tools to support pre-reading and literacy skills, develop a love of reading and learn and share through print and writing.  Scholastic Book Clubs has an ordering option for parents where they can use their remote teacher's "class code" to order books and other items each month and have everything delivered to their home, rather than the school. Create an Amazon book wish-list for titles and share it with family members, and check out which books might be shared digitally online via your school and local libraries. Read, read, and read some more.

The manipulatives in this list and the other items I've suggested sound a lot like toys and objects to play with, don't they?  Their selection is no accident because play is rigorous and produces opportunities for engaged problem-solving, experimentation and creativity. 

What other essentials that make learning fun would you add?