What do you consider ESSENTIAL starter kit for pre-K and K?

[tibeca]

Something we have started doing is something I've been calling "interactive reading." I have begun reading books/stories with few/limited pictures. As I'm reading, we stop and draw, write and talk about things that might be important to the story.

Example: Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

So first we might draw 3 letter b's to represent the bears. Then 3 bowls with spoons for their porridge. Then as we go through Goldilocks trying the porridge, we draw x's through 2 bowls, then a big smile over the one that she liked and ate all up. Then we do the same thing with chairs and beds. When we get to the part where she wakes up, we draw a face and a scared expression. Finally we might write words like bear, chair, the numbers 1,2,3, etc.

When we are all done, she has a complete picture that she can then use to retell the story and get all the main parts right. We go back to the picture later in the week and I have her tell me the story from the pictures.

[monkeymama07]

Lots of quality books. not just picture books but you can be reading chapter books aloud at this age I love just reading a variety of good literature and picture books.

Walks with a "nature" bag. you completely dont have to be in nature we have found really cool things in the city on our "nature" walks.
Our nature bag has things like a small notebook, colors, pencils, binoculars, magnifying glass, a little baby food jar with holes poked in it( for bugs), I let the kids use my phone/camera to take pictures, whatever else ends up in there little bag...

arts and craft items - colors, paint, paper, pom poms string, markers, glue, glitter, whatever you have, we save a lot of recycling stuff (sometimes we do directed art work sometime open ended), bingo stuff,

for mathy type stuff we have a balance, a clock, some counting "bears" (ours are dollar store bugs and blocks), measuring cups, rulers (most of the stuff came from the dollar store other than the balance), tanagrams, and a really cool building block set,

We make things in the kitchen alot and dont forget large motorskills the kids here love dancing, climbing, playing...

[AfWife8405]

I have a 3 yr old and we are doing Before Five In A Row, Explode the Code Primer and Kumon Workbooks (cutting & pasting.) We also paint pottery at a local arts & crafts workshop and she will be starting gymnastics soon.