Kindergarten Readiness

Emotional and Social Readiness

• Can separate from parents for periods of time
• Can listen to adults and follow simple directions
• Can express their own needs (take responsibility for their own learning)
• Can work on their own for short periods of time
• Can adjust to changes in routine and new situations
• Can share and cooperate with others
• Can take turns and control impulses

Physical Readiness

• Can hold a crayon and grip scissors correctly
• Can control their own body in gross motor activities like running and jumping, as well as sitting

Academic Readiness

• Can listen to a story for 5 to 10 minutes without restlessness and recalls basic details about the story
• Can recite and chant rhymes and songs
• Can identify some letters and sounds
• Ca print their first name legibly from left to right
• Uses understandable speech
• Uses 5 – 6 words in a sentence
• Follows 2 – 3 step directions
• Understands basic directional concepts like over, under, beside
• Uses language to express their needs and wants
• Identifies colors
• Identifies basic shapes
• Identifies numbers to 10
• Counts by rote to 10
• Counts and points with 1 to 1 correspondence to 10
• Sorts objects by two attributes

How Parents Can Help

Check this list of things parents can do to help their children learn:

• Read to your child
• Listen to your child read
• Play games with your child
• Help your child get a library card from the public library nearest you.  Encourage your child to go to the library as often as possible.
• Go the library with your child.  Help him or her pick out interesting books to read.
• Find out about activities for children that take place at your library
• Talk to your child about subjects that are interesting to him or her
• Listen to your child
• Set aside a special “reading time.”  Let your child know that you look forward to and enjoy your time together.
• Give your child his or her own place to keep books
• Write notes to your child
• Help your child write letters and notes
• Encourage your child to keep a scrapbook about a subject that interests him or her (stamps, dogs, birds, trucks, etc.)
• Limit your child’s television watching; select certain shows to watch.  Turn the television set on for the show and turn it off immediately after the show is over.
• Read and discuss your child’s schoolwork.
• Provide materials such as crayons, art paper, and paints for creative projects
• Give your child a calendar so he or she can write down special events and mark off each day
• Help your child make a telephone directory with the names and phone numbers of his or her friends
• Ask your child to add a sentence or two to letters you write to far away relatives.  (Young children can dictate a sentence for you to write.)
• Give your child specific duties to perform on a regular basis
• Let your child help you prepare dinner
• Subscribe to a children’s magazine (in the child’s name)
• Bring books for your child to read in the car while he or she runs errands with you
• Look up words in the dictionary with your child
• Encourage your child to start a collection of rocks, stamps, etc.
• Encourage your child to show his or her schoolwork to your relatives and friends
• When traveling, read road signs with your child.  Discuss what they mean.
• Show your child how to use a yardstick, ruler, and tape measure for measuring objects around the house
• Provide counting experiences for your child
• Show your child how to count change
• Give your child a special place (box, dishpan, etc.) to keep items he or she must take to school each morning.  (This ends last minute searching for library books, papers, bike keys, etc., all of which can cause your child to be late for school.)
• Show your child how to tell time

/mb

7/16/02