Now that you understand the importance of reading and what your child’s kindergarten classroom should look like, how can you tell is your child is on track for successful reading? This article will give some focus on particular skills that your child should be able to carry out by the end of his or her kindergarten year.
Books
Kindergarten children should be able to recognize the parts of a book and demonstrate how to properly hold a book to be read.
Children at the age should be able to locate the title and identify the purpose of the author and illustrator.
Children should be able to track the words from left to right as they are being read aloud by someone else.
Children should be able to “read the pictures” and identify the connection between the pictures and the text.
However, children should understand that in most cases the text relays the message of the book.
Alphabet
By the end of kindergarten, children should be able to visually name all of the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
The children should be able to legibly write most of the letters.
Sounds
Children should be able to identify the individual sounds in spoken words.
Identify and create rhyming words.
Blend sounds to make words.
Group words that have the same sound.
Phonics
At the end of kindergarten, children should know most letter-sound relationships.
Children should grasp the concept that the order of the letters in a word is important to creating the word.
Children should be able to recognize some commonly used sight words.
Reading
Children at this age should be able to sit and listen to a book being read.
They should be able to ask and answer questions about a story or a book.
Children should be able to retell a story.
They should be able to make predictions about text.
Children should be able to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction stories.
More kindergarten skills will be discussed in a future article.
Should Kindergarten Children Learn to Read and Write?