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Preparing for Kindergarten & TK!
Goals:
- Familiarize children with the school, classroom, and important people
- Building a relationship between teacher and child
- Building relationships between family and school
- Alleviate anxiety
Types of Connections:
- Child-School: class visits, assemblies, garden projects
- Family-School: Kinder/TK welcomes, family engagement, events
- School-Community: health screeners, shared resources
What You Can Do:
Improve a child’s familiarity, and comfort, with a program or grade level by introducing them to it before their first day. Consider attending one of the following:
- Class visits
- Cafeteria visits
- Field trips
- Assemblies & Presentations
Encourage Good Attendance
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school, themselves, and builds a strong academic foundation. It's important to build this habit early on so that children learn the importance of arriving at school every day on time. High attendance helps students do well in high school and college, and increase their earning potential in adulthood.
Build the Habit of Good Attendance Early
What You Can Do:
- Set a regular bed time and morning routine.
- Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
- Make sure your child has all the required shots (before the first day of school).
- Introduce your child to their teachers and classmates (before school starts).
- Don’t let your child stay home unless they’re truly sick.
- If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, or other parents for advice on how to make them feel comfortable and excited about learning.
- Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbor, or another parent.
- Avoid medical appointments and extended trips when school is in session.
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Develop a Love for Books
Family involvement in early literacy is directly connected to academic achievement. Children thrive with daily book sharing and reading role models. Families and caregivers can read together or just look at and discuss the pictures in books. Developing love for books is a precursor to reading.
Check out the archive of Early Literacy Family Nights hosted by our partners at Tandem. These are a great opportunity for your children to practice literacy skills while having fun with books.
What You Can Do:
- Have fun sharing books
- Draw pictures and write together
- Song songs and tell stories
- Look out for family workshops
The 6 Skills of Early Literacy
- Love of reading: an interest in books and a desire to read and learn
- Vocabulary: knowing the words to name and describe things in detail
- Book handling: knowing how to hold a book, turn pages, and follow text
- Recognizing letters: knowing the shapes, sounds, and names of all the letters
- Storytelling: the ability to describe events with a beginning, middle, and end
- Combining sounds: understanding how to combine sounds to make words
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Help Me Grow Phone Support
Families and caregivers can call this toll-free number (888) 510-1211, with any questions regarding their child's development, health or learning. Bilingual early childhood navigators will support families in ensuring their child's optimal development.
Dental Health
Your child's physical health is an important part of school readiness. Your child must have a dental check-up by May 31 in either kindergarten or first grade, whichever is his or her first year in public school. Dental check ups that have happened within the 12 months before your child enters school also meet this requirement (during their preschool year). For more information, click here for English and Spanish, as well as other languages.
For oral health assessment forms, click here for English and Spanish, as well as other languages.
Need help finding a dentist?
Click on Smile, California to find a dentist that accepts Medi-cal. If you do not have access to the internet, contact the Medi-Cal Dental Telephone Service Center at 800-322-6384 for assistance. For more dental health info & resources, visit: https://dental.acphd.org/
Vaccination requirements for Kinder & TK. For more information, visit OUSD Health Services and click on this link for additional languages.
Healthy Living & Nutrition for families
For information on how to access fresh food and nutritional resources, click here. Apply for CalFresh benefits here (available in English, Spanish, and Chinese).
Support Healthy Development
You can support the health of your child by understanding what to expect at different ages and stages of their development. Refer to the guides below for information about what to expect and activities you can do to help them grow. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers information on developmental milestones in English and Spanish.
