Kindergarten
A Sample of Kindergarten English Language Arts and Literacy Common Core State Standards
■ Naming upper-and lower-case letters, matching those letters with their sounds, and printing them
■ Comparing the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories, such as fairy tales and folktales
■ Retelling familiar stories and talking about stories read to them using details from the text
■ Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to describe an event, including his or her reaction to what happened
■ Stating an opinion or preference about a topic or book in writing (e.g., My favorite book is . . .”)
■ Taking part in classroom conversations and following rules for discussions (e.g., learning to listen to others and taking turns when speaking)
■ Speaking clearly to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas, including descriptions of familiar people, places, things, and events
■ Asking and answering questions about key details in stories or other information read aloud
■ Understanding and using question words (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how) in discussions
■ Learning to recognize, spell, and properly use those little grammatical words that hold the language together (e.g., a, the, to, of, from, I, is, are)
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness refers to the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Phonemes are the smallest units comprising spoken language. Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the word 'mat' has three phonemes: /m/ /a/ /t/. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including sounds represented by letter combinations such as /th/. Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction.
Letter Identification
It is important that Kindergarten students can identify and name all capital and lowercase letters of the alphabet. There are so many fun ways to practice letters than using traditional flashcards. The link below includes loads of hands-on activities as well as easily printable resources.
Letter Sounds
Kindergarten students spend a lot of time playing with letter sounds. They will work up to reading 3-letter words by saying each sound and blending them together. They will also come to realize that some letters make more than one sound. Click on the photo below for activities to reinforce letter sounds.
Blending Sounds
As students build up their knowledge of letter sounds, it's time to work on putting them together to read simple words. Students usually begin practicing with 3-letter CVC words. They may begin with saying each sound and then blending the word, eventually they will move to just blending the sounds and reading the whole word.
Sight Words
Sight words are words students should be able to recognize quickly by sight. Many of them are "rule breakers" and don't follow a regular pattern for sounding out purposes. Students practice reading and writing these words all throughout Kindergarten. Refer to the link below for a list of common sight words taught in Kindergarten. Refer to the first 100 words which are first taught in Kindergarten (about 50 of them) and then reviewed and continued in First Grade.
http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/support-files/fryfirst100set.pdf
Book Lists
Many parents ask about where they can find books to help their child practice their reading skills. You can refer to the links below to print, purchase and/or borrow books at your child's grade level.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collections/17-18/guided-reading-book-lists-by-level/
Web Resouces
Below you will find some interactive sites that will be helpful in reinforcing Kindergarten reading skills.