What Does It Mean To Be Kindergarten Ready?
Kindergarten today isn’t what it was when we were kids! In the past, students did not need any prior academic skills to succeed in kindergarten curricula. Today, however, students are expected to enter kindergarten with foundational literacy skills. Here are 6 of the skills students are expected to have BEFORE entering kindergarten:
- Identify and name all letters and know the corresponding sound(s) of each letter
- Discriminate rhyming words and alliteration
- Demonstrate concepts of print
- Retell stories after hearing them
- Write their name
- Write to convey meaning
When entering kindergarteners know these skills, kindergarten teachers can focus on the more difficult critical thinking skills that are required by K standards. Some of these standards include:
- With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text
- With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text
- With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories
- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which students name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic
Knowing that kindergarten is more rigorous than in the past is the first step to getting your children K-ready!