Kindergarten Parent Page

• Practice naming upper case and lower case letters 

• Practice letter sounds and naming letter sounds fluently (quickly and automatically)

• Practice beginning sounds: Ask your child to name the sound (not the letter) at the beginning of any word. For example, “What sound does pig begin with?” /p/

• Practice naming all of the sounds in a word (stretch out the word). For example, “What are the sounds in pig?” /p/-/i/-/g/

• Practice writing letters with the proper letter formation - make it fun and use a crayon, or colored pencil.  Play with shaving cream, sand or playdough to form the shapes.

• Encourage a love of words by playing rhyming and word games, singing silly songs, or writing poems and stories together. Make mini books by stapling half or quarter sheets of paper together. Fill these books with made-up or real stories. Have your child write or draw the pictures. 

1. Have conversations before, during, and after reading together.

• • What skills will this practice help build?

Having conversations about what they are reading helps children build vocabulary and develop skills using language typically found in school settings. Building their skills to think and connect ideas from many contexts allows children to follow more complex language, which they might find in stories, instructions, and descriptions of historical events or nature.

2. Help children learn how to break sentences into words and words into syllables.

• What skills will this practice help build?

Learning how to identify words in sentences and syllables within words helps children understand how to break down the sounds within spoken language. Identifying parts of speech—such as words and syllables—will prepare children to learn about smaller sounds tied to specific letters. These are skills that a child can practice even before he or she has started reading or identifying letter sounds in words.

3. Help children sound out words smoothly

• What skills will this practice help build?

Recognizing and manipulating sounds that are part of words and linking those sounds to letters is necessary to prepare children to read words and understand what they are reading. Children must be able to identify the individual sounds that make up the words they hear in speech, name the letters of the alphabet as they appear in print, and identify each letter’s corresponding sound(s). When children know a few consonant and vowel sounds and their corresponding letters, they can start to sound out and blend those letters into simple words.

4. Model reading fluently by practicing reading aloud with your child

• What skills will this practice help build?

Reading books daily, both with and without feedback, can begin as soon as children can identify a few words.  It requires children to identify words quickly, combine ideas in the book with their background knowledge, ask themselves questions about their understanding, and apply strategies to help comprehension and fix misunderstandings. Then, children can connect with a variety of books of different levels and wide-ranging content.