Depending on the the score in tonight’s Stanley Cup Finals Game #6, we may finish with hockey later this evening. If not, it’s on to Game #7. But learning from hockey and using it to promote readiness for kindergarten can continue.

One of the best kindergarten readiness activities that parents and caregivers can do is share books and stories with kids. Listening, language, predicting, following along, making connections and more all happen when kids and books interact. Libraries and bookstores have many books about hockey, all the way from very simple board books for wee ones to chapter books for older kids. Some are pretend stories, and some are information books. Some will have new names, and some names will be familiar to grandparents! These are just a few of the many great hockey books. If this series goes on much longer we’ll have time to write new books! Happy reading. Go, Hockey, go.

As all parents and caregiver know, kids like to move and be active. Especially after watching hockey, it’s exciting to pretend to play hockey. Unfortunately, I discovered that kids using soft pool noodles to hit a paper bag stuffed with newspaper can still be a bit dangerous. Not because getting hit with the bag hurt. It was the contact with each other. (Very much like real hockey.) Another disadvantage was that a pool noodle has a long reach and requires a big space. I needed a variation but with a hockey theme. This was a fairly successful idea–the people became the puck and a room the ice.

I started the game by being the voice of the puck. Crawling around I added the commentary: I am a puck.  Here I go beside the coffee table, now I’m going behind the sofa. And the puck is sliding under the table. Now, the puck is going over to the goal and it’s in. (The goal was the space under a kitchen chair.) Then, I asked a little one, “Are you a puck, too?” The answer, fortunately, was a yes. So now, there were 2 pucks crawling around. It was quite a  bit of exercise! No equipment was needed and no furniture had to be moved. Here’s a picture of one because the other (me) was too slow.

Kindergarten readiness does check children’s physical development but this is more to indicate if there is a concern. As kids grow they need lots of active time to develop their muscle control and coordination. Being a hockey puck on the floor is fun, besides being a whole body physical activity. The only injury in this case was to the adult’s knees. But it was all in a good cause. Go, hockey, go. And watch out for those pucks!

When children go to kindergarten, many times during that year they will be doing all kinds of alphabet activities. Knowing the alphabet is not required for going to school, but some programs will check if children  know some letters as part of kindergarten readiness. Familiarity with letters shows some basic background and an interest in … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Kids Learn From Hockey #8 →

Surprisingly, there are lots of things that kids can learn from hockey that will promote kindergarten readiness. So far, there’s been blogs on learning numbers, colors, shapes, and opposites. Plus, 2 more with a simple science experiment and language development. With the Stanley Cup series tied at 2 games each, I’ll risk doing a blog post on the emotional … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – How Kids Learn From Hockey #7 →

Sure enough, I had another suggestion for things kids can learn from hockey. Opposites! That idea is pretty obvious. Here are a few: cold-hot, up-down, in-out, win-lose, behind-in front, happy-sad, black-white, big-little, go-stop, and I’m sure there are more.   Opposites are not easy to get right, but they are an important language and thinking skill. … Continue reading Readiness for Kindergarten – Hockey Learning #6 →

After yesterday’s Stanley Cup Finals game, I’ll just blog about something neutral: shapes. Hockey has lots of examples to help kids learn about shapes. Pucks are round like circles. There are circles on the ice, too. Some people have flags on their cars. These are a triangle shape. Tickets are shaped like a rectangle. The scoreboard … Continue reading Readiness for Kindergarten – High 5 for Hockey →