Teach Basic Kindergarten Readiness Skills and Set Up Routines for Back to School

Are you ready for Camp Kindergarten?

This is THE perfect way to assess readiness skills, set up routines, and practice basic expectations to get the right start with your new kindergarteners. Since the first year I started this, I have been amazed at how much fun the students have while also learning and practicing the basic skills and routines we will be doing in our classroom ALL YEAR LONG!

If you have any experience teaching you know that the first couple weeks of school the most important thing you teach your students is ROUTINES AND PROCEDURES to make your classroom start off on the right foot!!! Camp Kindergarten is developmentally appropriate for those little ones and is the perfect way to ease them into Kindergarten and make them excited about school. What more could you want as a teacher?

I don't start this the very first week of school (which for us is only 3 days) because I reserve that for teaching classroom rules and routines (like walking in the hallways), playing fun getting to know you activities, lots of brain breaks, and lots of time to play and meet new friends......as well as drying some tears and attempting to keep them happy and excited to come back to school the next day.

But once we hit the first FULL week of school, then we begin Camp Kindergarten! We talk about how Camp Kindergarten is about learning how to be ready for Kindergarten and you have to earn all of your badges in order to be fully ready for Kindergarten. I make it a big deal with lots of excitement around earning those badges each day.

There are at least 5 days of Camp Kindergarten, but you could choose to do more. Each day there is a slideshow (or could be printed into a book) to read to students about what the expectations are for that day. Then there is time to practice that skill. I like to do this in short centers with a different activity at each center. This is also how I introduce the idea of center rotation and expectations. I walk around and help or assess while the students work. I might take notes if there are fine motor concerns. Once they have completed the practice time, I present them with their badge for the day. They get to take these home each day to show their parents and believe me when I tell you, you will hear about how excited the kids were about their badges at parent conferences or open house night. This turns into a very big deal! Kids love it and parents do too!

The first day is learning how to use play dough in the classroom. We talk about opening and closing play dough containers, rolling it into a snake or a ball to make letters, numbers, or shapes, and how to not mix the colors. We practice with play dough mats and I take pictures of their creations to share with parents on our class app.

We have letters, numbers, shapes, pictures, and I also make name mats for them to make their name. Once they have practiced they earn their first badge and are now PLAY DOUGH CERTIFIED.

Day 2 of Camp Kindergarten is PENCILS. We talk about how to hold a pencil and use our other hand on the paper, the proper pressure for writing, and that we don't break pencils on purpose. Then we practice with some pre-writing lines, shapes, and curvy lines.

When they are done, they have now earned their 2nd badge and are now PENCIL CERTIFIED!

Day 3 is coloring and crayons. We talk about 3 Star Coloring and I then put this anchor chart up all year long to refer to.

These pictures take longer to color neatly, so I don't always do this in centers. I do, however, use the other sheets for morning work on other days. When they have demonstrated 3 Star Coloring they earn their next badge and are now CRAYON CERTIFIED!

Day 4 is for cutting and scissor safety. Of course we talk about how to hold the scissors and how to use our other hand to hold the paper and move the paper as we cut. This is a very difficult skills for kindergarteners, and this is primarily when I find the most concerns. But again, we practice in different centers and I walk around to help correct as they work.

We also talk about how to hold scissors if we are walking and that scissors are only used for paper! Once they have finished practicing, they are now SCISSOR CERTIFIED!

Day 5 is Glue Sticks. There is also one for Glue bottles, but I don't do that one in the beginning of the year. We don't use glue bottles very often, but glue sticks are used frequently. We have to do the glue sticks after the scissors because much of the practice is first cutting and then gluing. I have a ripped paper gluing practice page, as well as, we sometimes will do a rainbow name craft too!

You guessed it -- after we practice, the students earn their badge and are now GLUE STICK CERTIFIED!

I do a 6th day of Camp Kindergarten, but you don't have to. I introduce quiet reading time to my kindergarteners at this point. Each day we have about 10 minutes for quiet reading time. In the beginning of the year the students often need this time for a short rest or just some down time, but eventually we turn it into time to search for letters we are learning or heart words (sight words), and obviously at some point reading decodable text or at least finding decodable words in text.

After they are Book Certified in my class, they have completed Camp Kindergarten!

I have a certificate to give to students at the end or also a craft with mini badges to glue on. This can be hung up for Open House. Some teachers choose to make this as they go along and others do it as a culminating activity. You decide what words best for you!