Reading and Language Arts Development for Kindergarten
In kindergarten, most children:
- Learn the names of all of the letters (uppercase and lowercase) and recognize their corresponding sound
- Enjoy listening to longer books that are read by the teacher, later being able to describe what happened in the story
- Understand that books read from left to right, and the text flows from the top to the bottom
- Begin to recognize written words on cereal boxes, in magazines, or in books you read to them
- Begin to write the letters of the alphabet and some very common words (for example names of friends, food, brands)
- Show a sense of excitement and confidence about reading, writing, and speaking
Potential problems
- Kindergartners may have a bit of trouble saying "good-bye" to parents in the first weeks of school. It's best to be gentle and leave calmly; but stay in touch with the teacher to make sure your student adjusts in a reasonable amount of time.
- Kindergartners like to practice writing but their spelling is usually incorrect. This is called inventive spelling and is considered to be completely acceptable at the kindergarten level. The important thing is they are trying to communicate through print, and this should be encouraged!
- Children often mix up lowercase letters such as "b," "d," "p," "q." It may help if you ask them to focus on one letter at a time. They can write the letter, say it aloud, and repeat words that start with that letter.
How to support your child's reading development
- Be a regular at your local library! This is a perfect time to let your child get a library card.
- Make reading a daily occurrence.
- Let your child help in reading and writing activities around the home, such as making a "to do" list or a grocery list.
- Talk to your child during mealtimes and throughout the day. Ask questions that lead him/her to describe and think about his/her experiences.
- Praise and encourage your child's efforts to speak well, to read, and to write.
Activities
- Play games with specific directions, such as Simon Says.
- Give your child directions involving two or three steps and ask him/her to listen and follow them.
- Play word games with your child. Say a sentence like, "I'm thinking of something in the kitchen that is yellow." Let your child guess all of the yellow items in the room until he/she selects the correct one. Take turns. Continue this game with different instructions, such as "I'm thinking of something in here that starts with the letter "t." These types of games are great for the car.
- Play with parts of a compound word. Ask your child to say a word from the list below. Then ask him/her to say only one portion of the word. For example, you say, "Say cowboy." Your child repeats the word cowboy.
Then, you say, "Now say cowboy without boy." After a few moments of thought, your child should say, cow. Here is a list of example compound words for you to use:
cowboy Say it without boy: cow
outside Say it without side: out
outside Say it without out: side
cupcake Say it without cup: cake
baseball Say it without base: ball
jellyfish Say it without jelly: fish
campground Say it without ground: camp
rattlesnake Say it without rattle: snake
- Play rhyming games with your child. Give him/her a pair of words and ask if they rhyme, such as run/sun, nose/rose, spoon/moon. Include combinations such as sock/soup, ten/top, mice/mouse. Once these are mastered, see if your child can come up with some rhymes on his/her own.
- Play 20 Questions. Say, "I'm thinking of something. The category is animal." Let your child ask yes/no questions to see if he/she can determine what it is that you're thinking. (This helps develop questioning skills.)
- Sing favorite songs. Willaby Wallaby Woo and Apples and Bananas are fun, silly songs that help your child practice rhyming and gain valuable understanding of the beginnings of phonics.
- Help your child make up silly songs by fracturing the classics; for example, "Twinkle twinkle little rat, how I wonder where you sat."
Favorite read-to books
- Make Way for Ducklings
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Harry the Dirty Dog
- Miss Piggle Wiggle series by Betty McDonald
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
- Frederick
- George and Martha
- Horton Hatches the Egg (Classic Seuss)
- Ira Sleeps Over
- The Story of Babar
- The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh