A fundamental part of early childhood education is preparing the children for school. After all, it is at this stage of development that a child’s relationship with learning, with peers, and with themselves is shaped. The transition from home education to education in institutions can be more successful when intentional strategies are implemented as support.
Children who start the early childhood education with a solid foundation are more likely to be successful in the following areas:
- More prosperous academic and social life
- More meaningful relationships with peers and teachers
- Resilience in the face of challenges
- Confidence and curiosity during the school years
Preparing Young Children for School, is a guide launched in 2022 by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), showing that appropriate practices are fundamental to children’s education. Based on more than 15 years of evidence, the guided identified pivotal recommendations for developing early skills and preparing children for the classroom.
Developed together with a group of experts, it shows contemporary research on early childhood education in seven practical and easy-to-understand recommendations. The Preparing Young Children for School guidelines can help prepare children to benefit from the lessons they will find at school.
1. Nurture Social-Emotional Development
Why it matters:
Academic knowledge is important, but emotional intelligence must also be considered during early childhood education. When children manage their emotions, they can express themselves better and also empathize with the feelings of others. With this self-control, they can deal with the school environment more easily.
Strategies:
- Reading aloud: Children books about emotions are great recommendations for influencing children to learn about empathy. After the reading, it’s advisable to encourage discussion about the characters’ emotions and how they were dealt with.
- Emotion Art: Provide materials for the children to draw or paint about their feelings. Then ask them questions to stimulate discussion about their creations.
- Daily Check-ins: Tools such as mood meters or photos and drawings of faces expressing feelings can be used to help children identify and name emotions.
- Role-Playing: Create scenarios where children can act out feelings and practice reacting to challenging emotions, such as frustration or jealousy.
Outcomes:
- Enhanced empathy and compassion
- Stronger relationships with the social circle
- Greater ability to concentrate and participate in learning activities during early childhood education
2. Strengthen Executive Function Skills
Why it matters:
Executive function includes working memory, cognitive flexibility and self-control, which are essential skills for learning. Without it, children may have difficulty following instructions, doing activities, or staying focused.
Strategies:
- Games: Classic games such as Red Light, Green Light, Simon Says and Musical Chairs challenge children to stop, pay attention, and react.
- Change the rules: Change the rules of familiar games to exercise cognitive flexibility.
- Story sequencing: Use picture cards to help children retell stories, increasing working memory.
- Cleaning routines: Assign simple tasks or responsibilities for them to maintain some spaces clean. Rotating tasks can teach flexibility and responsibility.
Outcomes:
- Exemplary classroom behavior
- Better problem-solving ability
- Stronger attention and focus
3. Build Mathematical Thinking Through Play
Why it matters:
Mathematics goes beyond calculating numbers and solving equations. Understanding mathematics itself helps the brain develop logical thinking, recognizing patterns, and creating spatial awareness. These are useful skills in all areas of life, not only during early childhood education.
Strategies:
- Measuring activities: Use common objects such as boxes and paperclips to take measurements, creating discussions about length, width, and height.
- Sorting and ordering: Categorize everyday objects, such as pens and bottles, by color, shape, or size.
- Pattern Analysis: After categorizing them, encourage the children to analyze and identify the patterns.
- Math talk: Introduce mathematical vocabulary into the child’s daily life. For example, during breakfast, ask them: “Who has the most apples? Is your sandwich bigger than mine?”
Outcome:
- Proficiency in basic mathematical concepts
- Familiarity with mathematical language
- Stronger enthusiasm for activities involving mathematics.
4. Use Mathematical Language Throughout the Day
Why it matters: Many situations in children’s daily life involve mathematics, like when they play games, learn to share, and even when they eat snacks. Teachers can help children notice them and talk about mathematical ideas and skills, like adding and subtracting, shapes and their features, like sides and angles, and quantities. When children understand and practice using mathematical language, they are better prepared to comprehend mathematics instruction.
Strategies:
- Snack time: Analyze quantities. Ask, “Do you have more biscuits than I?”
- Size comparisons: Use terms like “taller,” “shorter,” “wider,” and “equal.”
- Cooking: Measure out ingredients and fractions (half a cup, a whole banana).
- Outdoor play: Use outdoor elements to compare shapes, sizes, and numbers.
Outcome:
- Natural ability to use mathematical language.
- Improved capacity to solve easy problems
- Easy comprehension of mathematics in early childhood education.
5. Grow Vocabulary Through Interest-Based Learning
Why it matters: The vocabulary children develop until 5 years old plays a key role in their language and reading development during early childhood education, leading to subsequent academic success. Learning new words helps children understand new information as well. By standards, they should be learning new words by the end of preschool and being able to describe people, places, and things using adjectives. For children, vocabulary development is enhanced by repeated exposure and opportunities to use new words in a variety of contexts and conversations around themes interesting to them.
Strategies:
- Thematic quest: Select a topic that children are generally curious about, such as dinosaurs, space, or princesses. Then introduce its vocabulary through books, videos, and discussions.
- Word of the day: Choose a new word every day and use it in sentences, motivating children to do it.
- Label the environment: Put labels on items in the room, such as a chair, window, and TV, associating words and objects.
- Dramatic play: Pick a word and ask children to act like it. For example, “squirrel,” and then they have to act as if they were squirrels.
Outcome:
- Vast vocabulary
- Greater capacity to communicate ideas
- Increased confidence when communicating
6. Teach Letters and Sounds Through Engagement
Why it matters: Literacy can be developed better by exploring and identifying the sounds of language. Awareness of the sounds of language is also known as phonological awareness. Children’s knowledge of letters and sounds during early childhood education will help them learn how to read words and develop other literacy skills, like spelling. Strong phonemic grasp is a fundamental skill for reading.
Strategies:
- Alphabet maze: Pick a letter and set up a simple maze. To get through it, children have to find items that begin with this letter and avoid paths that contain items that begin with other letters.
- Sound sorting: Sort pictures by the initial sound of their names. For example, cake, cable, cape, etc.
- Multi-sensory activities: Ask children to form letters using different materials, like sand, playdough, or paint.
- Snacks with letters: Every day, at snack time, the food needs to start with a specific letter. For B-day, this could be bananas, berries, biscuits, etc.
Outcome:
- Improved letter recognition
- Easy association between sounds and letters
- Willingness to read prematurely
7. Read Aloud and Engage in Shared Reading
Why it matters: Reading aloud is one of the most effective ways of developing language and literacy skills in early childhood education. By reading to someone, comprehension and vocabulary are reinforced.
Strategies:
- Preview the book: Discuss the cover, the illustrations, and the topic before reading.
- Interactive questions: Ask questions while reading. “Why do you think she did that?” “What happens next?”
- Retelling stories: After reading, invite the child to act out or retell the story in their own words.
Outcome:
- Improved comprehension
- Greater grasp of vocabulary
- Stronger connection with books and stories
Tips for Parents
- Be a model of curiosity. Ask your child questions out loud and show enthusiasm for their learning during early childhood education.
- Create routines. Predictability increases confidence and helps children to self-regulate.
- Play together. Simple games teach rules, patience, and cooperation.
- Restrain screen time. Encourage hands-on play and activities “in the real world”, away from cell phones, video games, and televisions.
- Talk often. Tell them about your day, ask about their day, and encourage conversations.
The Role of Educators
Teachers and caregivers play key roles in implementing these practices in early childhood education. On the part of schools, early childhood education should include training in developmentally appropriate practices for children, with trauma-informed care and culturally responsive teaching.
Educators acting in early childhood education
- Observe children and assess their readiness in order to adapt instruction and teaching methods.
- Collaborate with families to instruct learning at home.
- Create environments where questioning and curiosity are encouraged.
- Advocate play-based learning rather than rigid academic instruction in the early years.
How can Campocator help?
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Get in touch with us and ensure your children have consistent opportunities to grow and develop themselves during the early childhood education years.
Preparing children for school during early childhood education is a process with many stages, ups, and downs. Combining play, communication, rules, and emotional support helps children enter school ready to learn and grow. The strategies above have been created to be practical, based on serious research, to support fathers, mothers, caregivers, and educators in the best way.
Together, we can raise curious, confident, and capable learners.