Author: GHoffman

Asking for Help
Approaches to Learning
School Readiness Kits
This kit was created and assembled by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in collaboration with the University of Kentucky Human Development Institute with funding from the School Ready Libraries Grant ; adapted from the work of the Grant County Public Library.

Approaches to Learning – Asking for Help
Goals
Demonstrates independent behavior.
Shows social cooperation.
Applies social problem solving skills. 1
These goals were taken from Building a Strong Foundation for School Success: Kentucky’s Early Childhood Standards https://kidsnow.ky.gov/families/readiness/Documents/early-childhood-standards.pdf

January 2018
Page 1

Write
Suggested Activities
Have the children draw a picture of a time they needed help.
Add dictation to their picture or have the children add their own words.
Let children use a variety of writing instruments to practice writing skills. They could use crayons, pencils, markers, ink pens, paint brushes, chalk, sidewalk chalk, etc.
School Readiness Asides to Parents and Caregivers
Writing builds fine motor skills that children will need throughout their life.
By asking children to dictate a story to you they are using imagination and expressive communication skills
By using a variety of writing tools, children learn about grasping and manipulating those tools and build a variety of muscles in their hands.

January 2018
Page 3

Read
Suggested Activities
Read a story and have the children act it out or parts of it out. For example, they can act out when they needed help and children can give suggestions on how to solve the problem.
Read some of the books in the kit and ask the children how they could help the characters or ask them to raise their hand when a character needs help and say what they would do to help.
Using the pictures with dictation that children created in the write section, create a book and read it to the children.
School Readiness Aside to Parents and Caregivers
Having children act out a story gives those children that are not auditory learners the chance to understand the story through movement.
Asking questions like what would you do in a certain situation helps children develop problem solving skills for the future.
By creating their own books, children will learn that they also can be authors.

January 2018
Page 2

Sing
Help out, help out
Everybody everywhere
Help out, help out
Everybody do your share
I need help
I need help
Can someone please help me
Can someone please help me
I need help
School Readiness Aside to Parents and Caregivers
Singing is fun and some children may be more comfortable singing than talking

January 2018
Page 4

Talk
Suggested Activities
There are many ways to ask for help-talking, signing, crying, etc. Talk about what they do when they need help.
Talk about how they feel when they need help (angry, sad, frustrated, etc). You can even have a mirror for them to look at as they show you their feelings faces.
There are many times that we all need help-Ask the children times they have needed help, who helped them and what are things we can say when others help us.
School Readiness Asides to Parents and Caregivers
By talking about feelings and needing help, you are building the social and emotional competence of children
By talking about needing help, you can remind children of the resources available to them.

January 2018
Page 5

Citation Page
ALIGNMENT OF STANDARDS AND BENCHMARKS. (2003, October 1). Retrieved March 07, 2017, from https://kidsnow.ky.gov/families/readiness/Documents/early-childhood-standards.pdf

January 2018
Page 7

Play
Suggested Activities
Set up a restaurant as a dramatic play center. Let some of the children be servers and some be those eating in the restaurant.
Talk about community helpers and how important they are to all . Children can pretend to be the their favorite community helper with very few props.
Play a cooperative game where children work in teams. Notice as they help each other move pieces, roll the dice, etc.
School Readiness Aside to Parents and Caregivers
Children can practice their helping skills during dramatic play-whether you choose to set up a restaurant, home or doctor’s office.
Working in teams is a skill that children will need for their lifetime. It also teaches cooperation.

January 2018
Page 6

January 2018
Page 8

Please write any suggestions you have for this kit.

January 2018
Page 9

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January 2018
Page 11

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March 2017
Page 10

Please write any suggestions you have for this kit.

March 2017
Page 12