Copy and Paste Parent Tips

Paste the Checklist for Parents of Kindergarteners into your organization's publication.

These skills usually develop when a child is in kindergarten. Talk with your child's teacher if you have questions.

_____ My child listens carefully to books read aloud.

_____ My child knows the shapes and names for the letter of the alphabet and writes many uppercase and lowercase letters on his own.

_____ My child knows that spoken words are made up of separate sounds.

_____ My child recognizes and makes rhymes, can tell when words begin with the same sounds, and can put together, or blend, spoken sounds.

_____ My child can sound out some letters.

_____ My child knows the order of letters in a written word stand for the order of sounds in a spoken word.

_____ My child knows some common words, such as a, the, I and you, on sight.

_____ My child knows how to h old a book, and follows printe from left to right and from top to bottom of a page when she is read to.

_____ My child asks and answers questions about stories and uses what she already knows to understand a story.

_____ My child knows that in most books the main message is in the print, not the pictures.

_____ My child predicts what will happen in a story and retells or acts out stories.

_____ My child knows the difference between "made up" fiction and "real" nonfiction books and the difference between stories and poems.

_____ My child uses what he knows about letters and sounds to write words.

_____ My child writes some letters and words as they are said to her and begins to spell some words correctly.

_____ My child writes his own first and last name, and the first names of some friends and family.

_____ My child plays with words and uses new words in her own speech.

_____ My child knows and uses words that are important to school work, such as the names for colors, shapes, and numbers.

_____ My child knows and uses words from daily life, such as street names and the names for community workers- teachers, mail carrier, etc.