Kindergarten Preparation Steps

As a caregiver, you are the greatest influence in your child’s life and are your child's first teacher. Your interest and help in preparing your child for school, a significant milestone in their life, will help them succeed. 

1. Visit the school: Be sure to VISIT your child’s new school before school starts. This will help your child begin to familiarize themselves with the school as well as help them think of questions to ask you about their transition. Spend time looking at books in the media center and playing on the playground, too!
2. Ask for a school calendar: This will help familiarize yourself and your child with school hours and holiday schedule. Talk to school personnel about what an average kindergarten day includes.
3. Participate in Kindergarten orientation and registration. Gather the required forms needed for kindergarten registration.
4. Talk about the transition to kindergarten as a positive step in your child’s development.  Caregivers that exhibit a positive attitude about kindergarten help lessen some of the anxiety their child will probably feel. Check out children's books about kindergarten from your local library and read them at home.

Preparing for Kindergarten

There are a variety of personal, social and intellectual skills that your child become familiar with before entering kindergarten. These include:

• Be able to dress themselves
• Sit still for 10 minutes or more
• Use the toilet unassisted
• Put away toys when asked
• Know some songs and stories
• Be able to hold a book upright and turn pages

Kindergarten teachers have ranked healthy, rested and well-nourished children as the number one quality of successful kindergartners.  Other skills include being able to verbally communicate their needs and being able to follow basic rules and routines.

Each child develops at his or her own pace and intellectual, social, emotional and physical skills can widely vary from child to child until about age seven. Because children develop skills at varying times, it is difficult to list specific tasks and behaviors to ensure school readiness. Letter recognition, knowledge of animals and sounds, big and little, up and down are important to know, but it is essential that your child is socially, emotionally, and physically ready to tackle the challenges of school.

Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) Kindergarten Registration

By NC State law, registration for kindergarten is open to all children who turn 5 years old on or before August 31. Registration & orientation often occur in the fall and/or spring before a child is expected to enter kindergarten. This is a great way to ask questions and meet other parents going through the same transitions.
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Books to get kids excited for Kindergarten

​Your children are important, and so is their transition into Kindergarten.
Help them make it as exciting as possible!

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
• The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
  
• Kindergarten Rocks by Katie Davis
  
• Kindergarten Here I Come by D.J. Steinberg
  
• Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come by Nancy Carlson
  
• Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
  
• I am Too Absolutely Small For School by Lauren Child