What Should I Teach My Child in Kindergarten? 11 Academic Skills You Don’t Want to Miss
Have you ever wondered what you should teach your child in Kindergarten? Perhaps you’ve wondered what he is supposed to learn in school his first year. Here are 11 things your child should know how to do by the end of the kindergarten year.
This is NOT an exhaustive list, but a list of essential skills you do not want to miss or skip over. Kindergarten is all about laying a solid foundation for the rest of the grades. Your child may have already met some of these goals (my children had met some of the goals at that age).
If your child knows all of these skills, pick up where he is and extend the learning further. If you are trying to follow your state’s standards, you will see some other skills not mentioned here. Feel free to add those in. These skills made the list because a parent can’t afford to skip them.
Keep in mind these are “END OF THE YEAR” goals, so your child might not reach them by mid-year. You might monitor your child’s progress so you can be certain it will all get covered by the end of the year.
The alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and the sounds.
Games, songs, and even some cartoons can help your child get these memorized. Don’t feel like it has to be practiced only in worksheet form. Get your child up and moving!
Handwriting (correct letter formation)
This is an area that is often overlooked in schools. I’ve known too many elementary students who either had slopping writing or were slow to write because they did not have correct letter formation. You can find apps to help your child practice, use a dry erase marker and board or an actual handwriting practice book. For a more detailed video covering handwriting, click here.
Recognize rhyming words and produce a rhyming word.
Just like learning the alphabet, rhyming doesn’t require any worksheets or pencils to learn. Pointing out rhyming words in books and songs help children learn to rhyme. Your child will need to be able to recognize if a pair of words rhymes or not, as well as be able to give a rhyming word when you tell them a word. Don’t underestimate the importance of rhyming in learning to read. It is a pre-reading skill.
Blend sounds together to read short vowel words (3, 4, 5 letters) with blends and digraphs.
If your child knows how to read any one-syllable word with a short vowel, he will go far in reading multi-syllabic words one day. Bringing all the sounds together to make the word and decode it is a critical foundational skill. It might start with just a CVD word that has 3 letters with a vowel in the middle. From there, you can either use word families (—at, —ig, etc.) or combinations of letters with the vowel int he middle. Blends are two or three letters that are consonants making their normal sound. Digraphs are letter combinations that make one sounds, such as /sh/ or /th/. You can download my Reading Handy Helper on my Subscriber Resources page. Sign up to get my newsletter and be a subscriber free!
Dolch Sight Words (pre-primer and primer lists)
Sight words help readers to get fluent faster. You can find differing opinions on sight words, but I will tell you my opinion after helping many children learn to read. yes, some sight words can be sounded out just fine. However, others either follow phonics rules the children haven’t learned yet, or they simply cannot be sounded out at all. To watch a video of my sight words strategy, click here.
How to count to 100 by 1s, 10s
This is an end of the year goal, so just remember that a child MIGHT skip numbers when counting (and this is considered NORMAL…for a while, at least). Focus on counting up to 20 without mistakes, then you can add on a little bit more each time. Don’t forget to use charts and number lines. I’ve printed out hundreds charts online for free and helped my child color in the squares. It was a fun page to carry around or hang up to play school with it. It’s a nice visual for kids to see the pattern that happens when you count to 100.
Show what a number means with tens and ones in a base 10 picture (up to 20 at least) and be able to write the numeral.
When your child sees a number like 14, you want him to know that the 1 means that there is one group of ten because the one is in the tens place. There is a 4 in the ones place because there are 4 ones. Base ten pictures look like this. Helping build what we call “place value” sets the stage for more complicated math later down the road. You can have a child work with base ten manipulatives or use simple math cubes. I’ve even found virtual base ten manipulatives online.
8. Add and subtract using numbers 0-5 (at least).
It doesn’t require a worksheet (unless your child loves worksheets) but as you practice counting, show what adding and taking away REALLY means. As you use simple objects to add to and take away, be sure to write down what it would look like as an actual EQUATION. You can write it horizontally and vertically so you child gets exposure to seeing it both ways. To watch a “Learning to Add” video, click here.
9. Count objects accurately and compare 2 numerals and amounts using greater or less than words and symbols.
Counting accurately is certainly a life skill. If your child is counting pictures on a page, show how you can check off each one so you don’t count the same one twice. If you practice counting objects, show how sorting as you count is also effective to not skip or count twice. Use words like greater or less than. Eventually, your child will be able to tell you which amount is greater just by looking at the numeral (without a picture).
10. Confidently read beginner books such as the Biscuit and Clifford series (as well as Bob books (kindergarten level).
Some children can read at the start of kindergarten. Others struggle to do so by the end of kindergarten. If your child can read some beginning readers (especially ones that repeat phrases and words with a level of predictability), then their confidence in reading will improve. Their love for reading will grow as well. Sometimes that means collecting books that are a certain level or checking them out at a particular section of the library. You might only get to a level where you are helping your child read a book and allowing your child to practice it several times. That’s fine. Just DON’T GIVE UP ON BOOKS for the entire summer. Use your summer to keep your child reading. SO MUCH can happen in two months when a child is only 5 or 6.
11. Write your name neatly with a capital and be able to write 1-3 sentences.
Many parents have practiced with children how to write their name, but I encourage you to give your child support in knowing how to make the correct letter formations and use a capital only for the beginning letter of the name and lowercase for the rest. After your child can sound out short 3 and 4 letter words and mastered some sight words, he should feel comfortable writing a sentence. Some parents have children practice by copying simple sentences or filling in the blanks with sentences before the child is expected to do it alone.
Would you like to know more that will help you reach these goals and more? Check out my new product, Kindergarten MADE EASY! I’ll share standards commonly taught in various states and how you can teach those to your child in a relaxed and fun way.
I could make this list go on and on! We enrich our child’s education with music and arts (which can easily be incorporated into these skills with song, dance, and crafts).
I hope the list will make you pause and ask if your child is working toward these foundational goals.
Consider these skills when you are shopping for a homeschool curriculum or looking through your child’s school curriculum. Ask questions!
Remember, YOU are your child’s MOST INFLUENTIAL teacher.