READINESS CHECKLIST FOR KINDERGARTENERS
Kindergarten-readiness does not just happen. While learning comes naturally, young children do not automatically acquire all the knowledge and skills they need for a positive kindergarten experience. The readiness to learn that each child brings into the kindergarten classroom comes directly from the experiences she or he has had-or has not had-in the years before.
Below you will find a checklist of the basic knowledge and skills that all young children need for a strong start in kindergarten and elementary.
Work Habits
- Listen attentively to a book being read aloud to a group of children for at least 10 minutes
- Complete an age-appropriate activity during a sustained period of time, at least 15 minutes, with minimal supervision
- Follow multi-step directions
Social and Emotional Development
- Care for personal needs, such as using the bathroom independently, dressing oneself, using appropriate table manners, etc.
- Recognize and greet familiar people by name
- Follow rules established for specific settings (public spaces like a bookstore or grocery store, for example)
- Follow the rules of simple games
- Play cooperatively with other children, taking turns and sharing toys as necessary
Language
- Give and respond to full name
- Clearly communicate needs, desires, and feelings
- Speak in sentences that are, for the most part, grammatically correct
- Carry on a simple conversation with an adult, taking turns, staying on topic, contributing to the conversation by answering and asking questions, etc.
- Sequentially describe a personal experience
- Ask and answer questions
- Understand and use words pertaining to position in space, such as “under/over,” “in/on,” “up/down,” etc.
- Understand and use words pertaining to time, such as names of the days of the week, “morning/afternoon/evening,” “today/tomorrow/yesterday,” etc.
Literacy
- Recite familiar nursery rhymes from memory
- Identify rhyming words in familiar nursery rhymes
- Give the beginning sound heard in spoken word
- Answer questions about what is happening in a book that is being read aloud
- Retell a familiar story in child’s own words
- Pretend to read a book, pointing out the words on a page, where to start reading and in what direction, turning the pages correctly, etc.
- Give the sounds of the letters in his or her first name
- Draw and copy simple lines and marks
- Write first name, even if some mistakes are present
- Cut straight lines with scissors
- Dictate thoughts and ideas to an adult.
Math
- Identify whether objects are the same or different
- Complete puzzles with 8-15 pieces
- Rote-count from 1=10
- Count up to 6 objects correctly
- Compare groups of objects, using words like “more,” “less,” “equal,” and “the same.”
- Compare the size of objects, using words like “large/small,” “long/short,” “thick/thin,” etc.
- Categorize objects according to a single characteristic, such as color, shape, or size.
- Continue a pattern of objects
- Identify some numerals.
General Knowledge
Recognize and name:
- parts of the body
- colors and shapes
- household items
- food and clothing
- animals and their habitats, such as farm, ocean, jungle, desert