Helping your child or children at your carecenter prepare for school is not an extra item on the to-do list–it’s something that can be done with regular, everyday activities and with ordinary things you already have. This reading and writing kindergarten readiness activity uses an orange peel.
Do you remember being little and trying to keep the orange peel all in one piece? A friend of our family could peel an orange and somehow as the last bit came away the peel had the shape of an elephant, complete with big ears and trunk. I never did manage to do that. Maybe with a little of your help have your child peel an orange and then place it on a piece of paper. Trace around the peel. What kind of shape do you see on the page? Print a sentence on the page and you and your child can ‘read’ it. This gives your child a meaningful experience with language and helps promote the understanding that squiggles and lines have meaning. These marks on the page are ‘talking’ written down; this is the fundamental concept for writing and reading. Wonderful learning in a simple orange peel. What shape is yours?