Transition from
Pre-school to Primary
school
Welcome
Running order
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Is your child ready for school?
Preparation for learning
Routine and the first day
Toilet training
Uniform
School bag
Lunches
Pencil cases
Homework
Is your
child ready
for school ?
The role of pre-schools………
Pre-schools are well placed to
develop children’s emotional
and social skills. Research has
highlighted the difference preschools can make to children’s
emotional and social skills and
ultimately school readiness.
Is your child ready for
school?
• Social & Emotional maturity is more important than
Academic ability (Ability to cope in different social
situations and emotional steadiness)
• Can they play simple games with other children, share and
take turns
• Every child is different but in general maturity is
directly linked to age
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Remember, they are moving from a small, more intimate group to
one that is larger
Is your child ready for school ?.....
• By law children can start school if they are four on or before
September 30th.
• In a typical class there could be an age difference of 18
months
• The older child has over 20 % more ‘life experience’
• The younger child is always competing with children who are
older that them. As they mature, the older child also
matures, so they have difficulty catching up
• Consider the long term implications – 12 going to secondary
school, 17 going to college …
Being ‘five or nearly five’
• Your child is bigger than when they were four and
being bigger nearly always helps !!!
They generally have •Greater language usage, allowing them to be better
understood by their teacher and friends
•Developed better hand-eye co-ordination and motor
skills – opening schoolbags, beakers, holding a pencil
etc
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Greater emotional steadiness and concentration
Younger children (Generally) •
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Have a shorter concentration span
Slower to complete tasks
Aren’t as competent at expressing their thoughts
Sometimes difficult to understand & be understood
Get upset more easily
Get tired quickly
Find it difficult to negotiate
They can be easily dominated and will often accept minor
roles in games
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Preparation
for
learning
Subjects
English
SESE
Irish
SPHE
Physical
Education
Maths
Arts
Education
Religion
English
Oral language, Reading and Writing
Oral language
•The language curriculum emphasises developing listening and
speaking skills in preparation for beginning of reading and
writing
•It is essential for the social development of children.
Children need language to perform common social functionsintroducing oneself to others, greeting others and saying
goodbye, asking and answering questions, giving and receiving
messages, interacting with others and negotiating
•It is also necessary for their emotional development. They
need language to express their thoughts and feelings
Developing
Language
Skills
• Use ‘Descriptive Commentary’
• In developing language skills children should
be encouraged to
Listen
Explain
Tell
Talk
Question
Retell
• Play provides an ideal opportunity for children
to use language, build their vocabulary and to
acquire a variety of linguistic skills. Don’t
economise with language.
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Reading
Children are enabled to
•Listen to, enjoy and respond to stories, nursery rhymes,
poems and songs
•Become familiar with a wide range of environmental print
•Learn to recognise and name the letters of the alphabet.
Emphasis on the lower case in junior infants
•Develop an awareness of letter sound relationships and to
fuse the sounds of letters into words
•Build up a sight vocabulary of common words and start
reading graded reading books
Preparation
for
reading
Preparation for reading
• Read to your child. Story time encourages a love
of books and creates an interest in reading.
Predict what the story will be about, ask
questions about the story and let your child retell
the story
• Pay attention to the mechanics of reading i.e.
Holding a book, turning the page, let your finger
go under the words as you read from left to right
•Provide children with an opportunity to handle
books
Preparation for reading continued ……
• Say rhymes and riddles
• Reading is essentially about recognising similar,
written and individual sounds and rhymes, the more
highly developed childrens ears are the better e.g
wall, fall
• Singing and saying the alphabet. Emphasis on the
lower case. Point to each letter. Allow children to
handle magnetic letters, soft letters etc..
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Writing
Children are enabled to
•Develop a satisfactory grip of writing elements –
pencil, crayon
•Learn to form individual lower case letters
•Understand the left, right orientation of writing
•Copy letters and write words as part of class
activities
•Write his or her name
Preparation
for
writing
‘Primary schools do not expect children to
be able to write when they come to school.
It is far more important that small children
have had plenty of opportunity to build up
the control in their hands. When the
teacher begins to teach formal writing
children with well developed muscles will
learn to write with ease.’
(‘Ready For School – M. Horan & G O’Brien’ )
How to develop muscles for writing …
• The assembly and pulling apart of construction toys
• Playing with dolls – dressing & undressing. ( Buttons,
laces & zips)
• Manipulating pliable materials such as playdough and
marla. ( Pushing, pulling & rolling)
• Scribbling using thick crayons
• Painting
• Cutting
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Maths
Content for Junior infants
•Early mathematical activities – including matching, classifying,
comparing and ordering.
•Number – including counting (0-10), comparing ( sets of 0-5) and
ordering (0-5). Read and write numerals 0-5, combine sets of
objects, totals to 5.
•Algebra – including copying and adding to patterns of colour,
shape, size and number.
•Measurement – including working with length, weight, capacity,
time and money.
•Shape and space – including working with 2-D and 3-D shapes.
•Data- including sorting objects and understanding and making
charts and graphs.
Preparation
for
Maths
Early mathematical activities
•Matching - snap, matching pairs of objects!
•Classifying - putting similar objects in groups e.g same colour,
shape, texture, animals, birds etc
•Comparing – according to length, width, height, quantity e.g
The 3 Bears
•Ordering – ordering objects by length or height. Build towers,
use cut outs.
Number
•Counting rhymes and songs – 5 little ducks etc. Birthdays for
teddies, play shop ( 2 apples etc), count objects.
Algebra
•Make simple patterns using beads, pegs, shapes and
printing
Measurement
•Length – long/short, tall/short, wide/narrow, longer/shorter
•Weight – heavy/light, balance, sort objects into heavy or light
objects
•Capacity – full/empty, holds more/holds less
•Time – morning/evening, night/day,lunchtime, bedtime, early/late,
days of the week, yesterday, today, tomorrow, seasons, birthdays
•Money – recognise and use coins up to 5 cents
Sample Routine
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Infant day - 9:00- 1.40
Small break-10:50-11:00
Big lunch- 12:30-1:00
First week - 9:00-12:00
Early to bed.... 12 hours sleep !
Tired children • Get upset easily
• Are irritable
• Have a shorter concentration span
Punctuality
• Morning
• Children can be intimidated walking into a class already in
progress
• Children who are late miss out on activities
• It interrupts the class
• Evening
• Children become anxious if they see other children being
collected & they are left behind
• Attendance
• 183 days in school year. 20 days unexplained, school must
notify the National Education Board.
First Day
• If you’re feeling upset, don’t show it!!!
• Don’t arrive too early on the first day...
• Settle them at a desk with toys. On signal, say ‘see you
later!
• If they’re upset, use distraction e.g start playing with the
toys on their desk
• Don’t peek in the window/door!!
Toilet Training
• Your child should be fully toilet trained
• Children should know how to wipe, flush & wash. Hygiene is
extremely important as they share toys, crayons ,
paintbrushes etc..
• Provide them with opportunities to use ‘cubicles’
• Practice at home with uniform on
• Accidents at school
• Headlice
School Uniform
• Coats:
Independence (Labels)
• Shoes:
Velcro shoes or buckles are best
• Tracksuit:
Worn on P.E. days. Policies vary.
• Boys trousers:
Elasticated waistlines.
• Weather:
The joys of the changes to Irish weather!!
School Bag
• Zip bags are easiest to open and close.
Clips, drawstrings are difficult to manage
• Wheelie bags
• Independence
• Key rings
• Check size of books first.
Lunches
• Lunchbag and box:
-Water proof fabric zip up.its
-Box that fits in easily
• Drink:
-Bottle / easy to open carton. Avoid beakers
-Fits easily into lunchbox / side pocket.
• Contents:
- Sandwich/wrap, fruit (easy to eat e.g peel oranges, berries, bananas, cheese
strings, yoghurts.
- Spoons for yoghurts.
- Easy to open containers.
• Healthy Eating:
- Check School Policy
Pencil cases
• Style:
Side zip works best.
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Contents:
Twistables
Triangular junior grip pencils
Rubber
Topper
Books: Transparent covers
Labels:Label everything your child brings
in to avoid upset.
Play pretend school
• Have a trial run or ten !! with their school bag, lunch box,
uniform & coat at home.
• Children cannot become independent if they cannot manage
the equipment you provide
• Nothing succeeds like success!!
Homework
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No distractions
Writing before colouring
Oral homework is equally important
Should take around 10 - 15 minutes
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Realistic expectations
Finally….
• Treat it as a natural step in your child’s
life
• Children take their outlook on school from
you so if your experience was not a happy
one, your child does not need to know !!!
Make it up…Their’s will be different..
QUESTIONS?
Thank you all for your
attention.
Lorraine Fitzpatrick