activities for vpk students

Apply for School Readiness

Apply for school readiness or vpk,     provider portal               referral portal, preparing for voluntary prekindergarten (vpk).

Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) is a free program designed for all four-year-old children in Florida, focusing on getting ready for Kindergarten. VPK is available regardless family income. It’s for all Palm Beach County and Florida families the year before kindergarten!

VPK teachers are trained to set children up for academic success by exposing them to a classroom environment and supporting their learning. Kids will also learn from their peers and gain the social-emotional skills needed for kindergarten and beyond. Preparation and knowledge are the best ways to feel confident.

Getting Ready

• Reading books can be a great way to help kids who may be a bit nervous about going to VPK. Check your local library or online for stories about other kids who are starting school too!
• Try to schedule a time for you and your child to meet the teacher and tour the classroom before the first day. An alternative option is to give your child an idea of what their schedule may be like; ask your child’s VPK program for a sample schedule.

Communicating with Your Child’s Teacher

• Teachers aim to work with parents and caregivers on how to best support your child. Schedule a time to talk to your child’s teacher (not necessarily at drop-off and pick-up times, when it can be busy), and discuss your child’s interests and personalities. It’s best to open this initial line of communication early.
• Ask the teacher how often they give feedback to parents and which method of communication they prefer - some providers utilize apps, while others rely on email or phone calls, or written notes sent home.
• Ask about your child’s progress! Fortunately, VPK across Florida involves some easy progress check-ins of children at three points through the year using the STAR Early Literacy Assessment and your child’s program will share information unique to your child. This information also helps teachers plan and deliver activities in the classroom that build on knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Make the Best of Morning and Drop-Off Routines

• Have your child help you pack their backpack the night before. You may receive a list from the child’s school about what to bring - such as extra clothes, a lunchbox, and a water bottle- and make sure it’s ready to go in the morning.
• Start a morning get-ready routine! Regular morning routines will come as your child gets used to their VPK day.
• Some kids may exhibit separation anxiety at drop-off, and this is completely normal. Acknowledge their feelings and provide comfort and reassurances. Let them know who will be picking them up, where they will be picked up, and what time. Soon enough, they will skip away and wave goodbye with a smile!

We are here to support you every step of the way in your VPK journey- from choosing a provider to preparing for the first day. Visit our website at https://www.elcpalmbeach.org/vpk-families to learn more, and contact our Child Care Resource and Referral team with any questions at 561-514-3300. 

Parents CCR&R (561)-514-3300

Providers/Administrative (561)-214-8000

Boynton Beach Administrative Office

Hours:  8:30am to 5pm (Monday-Thursday)

8:30am to 12pm, calls until 5pm (Friday)

2300 High Ridge Road, Suite 115

Boynton Beach, Florida 33426

Palm Springs Office

Hours:  8am to 5:30pm (Monday-Thursday),

8am to 12pm for calls only (Friday)

1630 South Congress Avenue, Suite 300

Palm Springs, Florida 33461

Riviera Beach/Port Center Office

Hours:  8am to 5:30pm (Monday-Thursday)

2051 Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, Suite 300

Riviera Beach, Florida 33404

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If you require Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations to participate in any ELCPBC event or activity, please notify Christie Young, Single Point of Contact, by phone at 561-214-7424 or by email at [email protected] within at least seven (7) days of the event. Accommodation will be provided at no extra charge.

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What is VPK

• Registration Documents
• Have Questions?
• How to Register
• Resources for families
• Find VPK Providers
• VPK Specialized Instructional Services (VPK SIS)
• VPK Contract Information
• FLORIDA ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT THINKING (FAST) STAR EARLY LITERACY

Resources for families | VPK Help

To learn more about the VPK program and your rights as a parent, please download the Following VPK documents

VPK Parent Handbook

For more VPK information please visit the Office of Early Learning   or Department of Education – Information on Early Education

FREE early learning activities from Get Ready to Read http://www.getreadytoread.org/

Locate workshops for parents and children at Just Read Florida! http://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/just-read-fl/

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FREE Virtual VPK Literary Resources

What does every parent have in common? They want their child to be successful. One of the best ways to set your little one up for success is to practice early literacy skills .

It's even more effective if you start practicing with them years before kindergarten. Below, you will find information and virtual VPK resources to start you off!

Early Literacy Builds Success

Research shows that a child’s developing brain triples in the first year of life. It is almost formed by the time a child enters kindergarten. So, ages 0 - 5 are the most important to build a solid base for your child. Doing so will help them have a love for learning and set them up for success beyond kindergarten .

By reading with your child for 15 minutes a day , they will read an incredible 5,475 minutes each year. After all, reading to your brain is like eating to your stomach. It's essential to have a set time daily for reading and learning. Consistency gets them used to having a schedule as they prepare for kindergarten reading!

Five Features of Great VPK Literacy Apps

The good news is that there are endless reading programs online for early learning. When narrowing down which ones to select for your child, here are several things to consider :

• Look for bright, colorful, and engaging reading passages in virtual books.
• Find apps that feature interactive games and adventures.
• Start with apps focusing on the most essential letter sounds to develop their phonics skills. Phonics is teaching the sounds of letters and letter combinations. This is the basis for reading and helps your child work up to learning to read.
• Effective apps incorporate a variety of learning modes, including visual and auditory. This makes them appeal to different learning styles and enhances comprehension.
• The app should provide tools to track a child's progress. This allows for personalized feedback for your little reader. You should have the ability to adjust the difficulty level as needed.

Free Online Reading Programs:

• Starfall ABCs : This app focuses on teaching the alphabet and early phonics. It contains interactive games and activities. This app is available on Android and iOS .
• PBS Kids Games : PBS Kids offers a variety of free educational games. They cover literacy skills, including letter recognition and basic phonics.
• Fish School – 123 ABC for Kids : This app introduces letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. It does so in a playful underwater setting, making learning fun for young children! This app is available on iOS .
• Endless Alphabet : This app teaches letter sounds and new words. It uses engaging animations and interactive puzzles to keep your little one interested. This app is available on Android and iOS .
• Footsteps2Brilliance : This app accelerates achievement in phonics, comprehension, fluency, and writing. With a wide variety of books and games, it engages little readers and promotes a love of reading.

Always ensure the apps you choose are age-appropriate as they start preschool reading. Make sure they align with your child's developmental stage!

There are many other literary resources for families! Visit Little Libraries for a free selection of books near you. You can also visit your local Osceola Library for its free reading resources .

For more literacy resources and activities, visit our Parent Resources Page!

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Integrating the VPK Domains Through Science

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Using children’s fascination with their world to foster the VPK domains

Many teachers find science scary and difficult to handle in preschool. Many do not realize their daily classroom explorations give their children an authentic and solid foundation for future critical thinking and scientific investigations.

Young children are curious about the world around them. They want to know the answers to “how” and “why”. We, as teachers, can foster our children’s curiosity about science by engaging in conversations, reading books, and allowing them to observe and explore the world around them. This helps them find out how things in their environment work. Science for children is a creative and exploratory process in which they can use many forms of knowledge to build theories about their world.

I grew up on a farm and became fascinated by everything around me. This is where my love for Science comes from.

In 2005, after 24 years of teaching Spanish, Science, and Social Studies to elementary children, I became one of the first teachers to start the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK) in Florida. I became fascinated with this age group and learned more about the domains and how to integrate them.

My goal for this article is to give you an overview of how to do just that in an effortless and fun way.

What are VPK domains?

The Office of Early Learning defines the domains as “areas of development, are a useful way to look at the developmental progression of related skills and abilities of children.”

I.   Physical Development

The Physical Development domain refers to children’s physical development, both gross and fine motor skills, and the development of the senses.

II.  Approaches to Learning

The Approaches to Learning domain refers to children’s emerging skills and behaviors when engaging in learning.

III.   Social and Emotional Development

The Social and Emotional Development domain refers to children’s emerging abilities to experience, express, and manage emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others.

• Work with a friend to recreate a beehive using blocks.
• Prepare “ Ants on a log ” or another snack in small groups.
• Discuss how bugs make them feel.

IV.   Language and Literacy

The Language and Literacy domain refers to children’s emerging abilities to understand and use language, and the knowledge and skills that are the base for reading and writing.

V.   Mathematical Thinking

The Mathematical Thinking domain refers to children’s emerging abilities to acquire and use strategies to perceive, understand, and solve mathematical problems. 

VI.   Scientific Inquiry

The Scientific Inquiry Domain The Mathematical Thinking domain refers to children’s emerging abilities to acquire and use strategies to perceive, understand, and solve mathematical problems. 

VII.   Social Studies

The Social Studies Domain refers to children’s emerging sense of self-identity and how people relate to each other in a society. 

VIII.   Creative Expression Through the Arts

C reative Expression Through the Arts refers to children’s emerging modes of thought and self-expression. It also provides ways for children to learn and use skills in other domains.

If you want to learn more about the domains or areas of development, which are each domain’s components, sub-components, standards, and benchmarks, the Office of Early Learning has very clear explanations of all of them HERE .

Why Using Science is a Good Way to Integrate the Domains?

A preschool teacher can use science activities and research as a daily experience, which is also a great way to build oral vocabulary, develop reading readiness, and fuel literacy development. However, science activities must be hands-on, engaging, uncomplicated, and fun. They must take into consideration that preschoolers learn and understand best when they can see, touch, feel, and manipulate safely.

Dr. Laura Martin, Director of Science Interpretation at the Arizona Science Center says: “ Science is a way to find out about the world through exploration. Children are investigators by nature. When you nurture children’s natural desire to investigate you are helping them to develop scientific minds. We create environments that engage the senses of young children and allow them to sort and classify, handle, observe, build, and ask questions, which is how they construct ideas about the physical and natural world .”

“ Children acquire scientific knowledge by ‘construction’ not by instruction (Kamii & Lee-Katz, 1983). They must create an explanation of observed phenomena or the outcomes of the experiments internally—an explanation that holds the personal meaning ” (Trawick-Smith, p. 203).

Science Approach versus Literacy Approach

Some professionals believe that language and literacy should be the focus during preschool, but I think that language and literacy learning must be about something that makes sense to the children, therefore, it should be part of a coherent, integrated curriculum that takes into consideration all the VPK domains.

Many researchers have found that it is easier for children to learn language and literacy skills when they are allowed to use these skills in real situations (Goodman 1984; Teale & Sulzby 1984).

Now, the question is… how can preschool teachers use Science to integrate the domains in the VPK classroom?. The answer is that Science can be incorporated into many, if not most, of the activities that they already do. Using curiosity and wonder makes Science learning come alive. This also helps the children promote concept development and fosters higher levels of instructional support.

How to use Science to Integrate the VPK Domains?

I understand that for some teachers it could be challenging to base a lesson plan on scientific thinking, but this approach does not have to be used all the time or every day. My love for Science and my experience as a VPK teacher for many years have taught me that certain lessons just beg to be taught using Science, like those related to animals, weather, and seasons, for example.

I think a good way to show you how to tie the domains through Science is using a theme like “Bugs”, for example. The next ideas will give you good and easy examples of how to do it:

1. Physical Development

• Fly (dance) buzzing like bees.
• Hop like a grasshopper.
• Have a race jumping as grasshoppers.
• Provide Word Wall cards and have them copy the names of the bugs.
• Buzz like a bee, flutter like a butterfly or crawl like a caterpillar.

2. Approaches to Learning

• Talk about the characteristics of both insects and their personal experiences.
• Create a KWL chart about bugs.

3. Social-Emotional

• In small groups prepare “ Ants on a log ” or a snack.

4. Language and Literacy

• Read books about bugs .
• Spell the word bee.
• Write a group story about a bug.
• Write the name of a bug.
• Sing kids’ songs about bugs and insects .
• Clap the syllables of the bugs’ names.
• Copy the word fly using magnetic , wooden , or foam letters.

5. Mathematical Thinking

• Count how many bugs are in the Counting Jar.
• Observe a real bee with magnifying glasses and count its legs.
• Use pattern blocks to recreate a beehive.
• Discuss children’s favorite bugs and make a chart with it.
• Play the “How Many Am I Hiding?” game.

6. Scientific Inquiry

• Make a word web about bugs.
• Compare bees and wasps.
• Discuss facts about different bugs.
• Name the insect body parts.
• Discuss the characteristics of insects.
• Raise butterflies .
• Sort bugs in two piles: insects and other bugs.
• Study ants’ habitat with an ant farm.
• Bring a real Earthworm to class to observe.

7. Social Studies

• Visit the local butterfly garden.
• Invite an entomologist to visit the preschool and talk about his work.

8. Creative Expression Through Arts

• Make coffee filter butterflies.
• Make a sculpture of a spider with play-dough.
• Paint ladybugs using balloons and cotton swabs.
• Create a spider web with a paper plate and yarn.
• Draw your favorite bug.
• Create a spider with egg cartons and pipe cleaners .

The use of Science in the VPK classroom does not have to be complicated or used every day. It does not have to be scary or over the top. I believe Science is a useful tool to tie up all the domains in the VPK classroom, simply because of a child’s natural fascination for his or her world.

And you probably already know that it is very hard to create a learning environment if the child is bored or not interested. Students like to have fun while learning so the process has to have meaning for them.

When teachers increase their knowledge of what Science is at the preschool level, they will become more comfortable using it to develop their lesson plans. It is also great to encourage students to become actively involved in exploring and investigating things, in and out of the classroom. This will lead to an increase in student engagement, language use, and language skills and more positive peer interactions.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

P.S. If you like this article, please share it and let me know if you try some of these activities and what happens. I am very interested in what you have to say. Thank you!

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