The transition from preschool to primary school is a big milestone for both children and their parents.
As your children move into the mainstream academic system, as parents, you will naturally feel some anxieties about how they might cope in primary school.
To facilitate this transition, many childcare centres in Singapore step up to prepare our young graduates with social and learning skills. From the start of kindergarten, our kids are taught basic learning and life skills, including:
- Listening and following simple instructions
- Dressing and feeding themselves
- Sharing toys with others
- Taking turns
- Matching and sorting objects
- Identifying alphabets, numbers, and sight words
- Sort through basic patterns, shapes and colours
- Understand and retell simple stories
Some of the best childcare centres in Singapore even go further by empowering our kids to be conversant (social skills), and curious (to learn about the world around them) and teach them coping mechanisms (to foster independence and ability to cope with separation).
To help you prepare for your child’s milestone in learning, here are some skills that are essential to have as he/she transits to P1 and beyond.
Essential P1 Skills To Transit Smoothly Into Primary School
By K2, your child would have acquired these essential P1 skills from their learning journey in childcare to help them cope with their academic pursuits and better navigate primary school life.
1. Reading, Writing & Numeracy Skills
Your child is able to count and do simple math and has language proficiency in English and mother tongue that enables them to read and write. They can keep track of time, read timetables, tell the time and be able to count money.
At Little Footprints Preschool, our children go through the Reader to Leader programme to develop confidence and interest in reading. Through this programme, our young learners will progress from reading single-line readers to stories with complex storylines in preparation for their primary school journey.
2. Accountability & Ability to Follow Directions
Your child can listen and understand the directives given by their teachers or caregivers and be able to follow simple instructions like standing with their partners, raising their hands to ask questions, handing in homework etc.
3. Organisation and Ownership of Belongings
Your child knows what are his/her belongings and are able to keep track of them. They are able to tie their own shoelaces and exhibit good hygiene (e.g. washing hands after going to the toilet).
4. Social Skills To Communicate and Make Friends
Being able to play well with other children, taking turns and working on projects or completing tasks as a team is key skills to integrate successfully into primary one.
Through Tick Tock, It’s Time to Talk, one of the specialised programmes under Little Footprints Preschool’s curriculum, children are encouraged to use expressive words, and present their thoughts and ideas to peers and teachers. This programme, conducted in English and Mandarin, is a handy skill for primary school oral.
5. Coping or Problem-Solving Skills
Your child is able to cope with challenges such as meeting new faces in a new environment, being able to adapt to new routines, or difficulties like being reprimanded by a teacher, or losing their wallet or water bottle.
How Can Parents Help Their Children Practice P1 Skills
Parents can do the following to help their preschool children brush up on their P1 skills and prepare for primary school.
1. Promote your child’s independence by ensuring that your child has the ability to be self-reliant. Coach your child to be able to follow instructions, go to the toilet on their own and practice good hygiene, order food and make payments. These will help them cope and function well in primary school.
2. Develop your child’s communication skills by conversing more and encouraging your child to voice out their feelings. This will help your child socialise and connect better with his peers and teachers.
3. Establish a routine such as regular sleep patterns. This will ensure your child has the energy and stamina required for primary school activities. Having a regular routine will also teach your child time-keeping skills so they are able to keep track of the routine.
4. Encourage your child to be resilient by being sympathetic and kind, and teach your child coping mechanisms to deal with any embarrassing moments or failures.
5. Provide opportunities for your child to play with other children and monitor their emotional and social development. This will foster social interaction as they establish and maintain friendships during their journey in primary school.
6. Cultivate curiosity and tolerance for new foods, faces, and/or environments. This will help your child to adapt to new and exciting experiences in primary school.
7. Boost their confidence with praise and encouragement in the execution of the daily tasks. Nurture good habits in your child like tidying and looking after his/her belongings, getting dressed or undressed on their own, and feeding themselves.
All Set for Primary School!
Little Footprints Preschool helps your child learn key skills that are prerequisites of primary school. The hands-on experiential learning and immersive bilingual environment empower your child with the confidence to meet any challenges in primary school.
Ahead of their primary school journey, all K2 children will go through a P1 Preparation programme towards the end of the K2 year - to get them ready for the next great adventure in learning!
See for yourself how the children learn at Little Footprints Preschool.
Book a tour today to learn more about their unique infant and childcare programmes and how their core and specialised curriculum will prepare your little one for primary one.
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