By the end of kindergarten your child should be able to do the following:
Listening
- Follow 1-2 simple directions in a sequence
- Listen to and understand age-appropriate stories read aloud
- Follow a simple conversation
Speaking
- Be understood by most people
- Answer simple “yes/no” questions
- Answer open-ended questions (e.g., “What did you have for lunch today?”)
- Retell a story or talk about an event
- Participate appropriately in conversations
- Show interest in and start conversations
Reading
- Know how a book works (e.g., read from left to right and top to bottom in English)
- Understand that spoken words are made up of sounds
- Identify words that rhyme (e.g., cat and hat)
- Compare and match words based on their sounds
- Understand that letters represent speech sounds and match sounds to letters
- Identify upper- and lowercase letters
- Recognize some words by sight
- “Read” a few picture books from memory
- Imitate reading by talking about pictures in a book
Writing
- Print own first and last name
- Draw a picture that tells a story and label and write about the picture
- Write upper- and lowercase letters (may not be clearly written)