If you have a child who is starting Kindergarten in the fall, this program is for you! It’s your important job as a parent to ensure that your child is ready for school and we want to help you. That’s why we developed the “Get Ready for Kindergarten with Miss Bindergarten” materials, which were available this year at public schools in Ogden, Weber, Davis, North Summit, Box Elder, Morgan, and Rich School Districts.  The Activity Book Treehouse created is filled with things to do  and games to play together, helping your child learn about the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, patterns, similarities and differences, and getting along with classmates. There is even a great checklist of the skills your child should have mastered, and there are lists, too, of books you might want to check out from a library or purchase and read with your child before the start of school.

If you’ve done Adam and Lenny’s pages in the Activity Book, you and your child have had lots of letter adventures already. Want some more? Try these to keep practicing writing and recognizing alphabet letters.

Remember making red and green paper chains for Christmas? Try making an alphabet chain from two of your child’s favorite colors. Cut strips of construction paper about one inch wide so that you have 27 strips: 14 of one color and 13 of the other. Print your child’s name in upper and lowercase letters on one of the 14 strips and then print one letter of the alphabet on each of the other strips, alternating colors, or creating another pattern. Ask your child to help you find all the letters of the alphabet in order, starting with A and ending with Z. Staple or tape them together in a chain and add your child’s name before A.

Give your child a chance to practice using child-size safety scissors. Ask them to help you cut out big letters from magazines or newspapers. Try to find three or four of each letter. Ask your child to find as many of a certain letter as they can. Count how many they found. Save these letters in a zip lock bag for other games.

On a piece of paper write several rows of 5 or 6 random letters, repeating some letters. Here’s an example for you.

Next, ask your child to circle all of one letter. Say, “Can you circle all the Es? How about all of the Ts?”

Play an “Alphabet Soup” game with you child using a saucepan, a big spoon or ladle, and a cereal bowl. Using the alphabet cards that came in your copy of the “Get Ready for Kindergarten with Miss Bindergarten” Activity Book (or, if you have them, alphabet refrigerator magnets or other plastic letters), ask your child to add the letters to the pan and gently stir up some “soup.” Ask your child to catch some letters with the spoon and put them in the bowl. See how many letters in this "Alphabet Soup" your child can name.

Here’s some other fun things to do!

Click here for a certificate from Miss Bindergarten that you can print out for your child to show that he or she has completed the Activity Book. Fill in the name. Have your child bring their certificate to Treehouse for the Kindergarten Celebration on the first Saturday of August, August 3 this year from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside, to receive a free child’s T-Shirt that says “I’m Ready for Kindergarten” (while supplies last).  All the activities are outside in the morning, and inside Treehouse in the hotter afternoon, and its free to all new Kindergarten children, their parents, and their siblings.

Visit the Community Literacy Efforts page for more information about Treehouse's Baby Talk with Baby Bear project, designed especially for parents with toddlers and babies.