What Should a Child Know Going into Kindergarten?

[reginaastralis]

Kindergarten teacher here.....

I would love for every kid to come into my class knowing MINIMUM:

how to write their name

letters - be able to identify them at least, if you can say some sounds, all the better. If you can write some, super!

numbers - be able to count to 20 but also to assign a value (ex. see the number 4, be able to pick 4 blocks from the jar). Just being able to rote memorize counting doesnt mean you actually know "how many" a number is. If you can write them, BONUS!

shapes and colors

how to dress yourself

how to take care of your personal needs when you go to the bathroom

how to wipe your own nose

how to open your juice pouches and cheese sticks and potato chip bags at lunch

We teach them to read as well as write in their journals during this year. Also many math skills (adding, patterns, time, money, subtraction, sorting, measuring) as well as the all important social skills (sharing, using words instead of hands, etc)

This is a great list! I love it ..

My dd is 4 and she's starting to "get" some of the letters. On the way to my parents house the other night, she yelled "Hey, there's the letter B and A!"

Yeah ... she was looking at a Bud Light billboard. Drinkability. But, all that matters is she's getting it, right ... not where she's getting it from.


Another funny from my little one "An octagon has eight sides mom. One, two, three, four, five... that's an octagon." ... Yeah ... we're still working on that one.

Since she's not in "school" currently (or daycare, whatever) somethings we're working on this year are our science journal (doing simple things to show her how things work sort of thing) and our writing journal. Thanks to the pp, I think I am going to get a math journal started as well. She knows most of her numbers, but I don't think she could figure out that the number four means picking out four blocks right away. We've still got 1.5 years until kindy though. No time like the present.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

how to open your juice pouches and cheese sticks and potato chip bags at lunch

Juice pouches...like Capri Suns? Even I still have a hard time with those

 

[Jenvenza]

Wow - Kindy is different from the days when I went! I remember coloring and taking naps.

 

[princessmom29]

My DD will start K in the fall, and has been in full time pre k for 2 years. She counts to 100, can add and subtract single digits, write all her letters and recognize sounds, knows shapes and colors, writes her name, can operate a computer with the mouse, cuts with scissors. they started reading groups after christmas and she has some sight words and has been starting to sound out words on her own. She will go to private K5 and they expect kids to write all letters and recognize their sounds, count to 100 and assign value up to at least 10, write their name, cut with scissors, color fairly accurately. They also tested large motor skills like skipping and walking a line. She had to complete a maze and find the missing peice to several pictures. I guess this tests spatial reasoning skills?

 

[mom2princessj]

My dd is in pre-k and just got her progress report/recommendation today...she has tested at the top of her pre-k class and teacher says she is more than ready for K next year.

With that the only things she needs improvement is tying shoes and her address (which she knows so I'm not sure why she didn't tell them ).

They tested on so many things...writing caps/lower, recognition on caps/lower, number recognition, opposites, shapes/colors, sizing, letter sounds, complete sentence use, following directions, respect of authority, participation, socialization, spelling of name, recognizes left from right, and motor skills. We go to one of the most academic preschools in our area...my son goes to a different one because he's not ready for all her school does yet and I know I have ALOT of work to do with him to ready him for next year's pre-k.

We just went to our school's open house. I was impressed with all that was being done in K. I know my dd may be bored at times but the teachers did say they do supplement for kids that can read at higher levels or can do math at higher levels. They definitely don't hold those back that are advanced.

I do alot of work with workbooks at home but dd likes to do it. I'm just starting with ds...he likes it too for about 2 minutes

I think the basics will do every child well going into K. Hard to believe I was taking naps in 1st grade and they don't even do that in all day K anymore

 

[SnowWhite607]

My dd is in pre-k and just got her progress report/recommendation today...she has tested at the top of her pre-k class and teacher says she is more than ready for K next year.

With that the only things she needs improvement is tying shoes and her address (which she knows so I'm not sure why she didn't tell them ).

They tested on so many things...writing caps/lower, recognition on caps/lower, number recognition, opposites, shapes/colors, sizing, letter sounds, complete sentence use, following directions, respect of authority, participation, socialization, spelling of name, recognizes left from right, and motor skills. We go to one of the most academic preschools in our area...my son goes to a different one because he's not ready for all her school does yet and I know I have ALOT of work to do with him to ready him for next year's pre-k.

We just went to our school's open house. I was impressed with all that was being done in K. I know my dd may be bored at times but the teachers did say they do supplement for kids that can read at higher levels or can do math at higher levels. They definitely don't hold those back that are advanced.

I do alot of work with workbooks at home but dd likes to do it. I'm just starting with ds...he likes it too for about 2 minutes

I think the basics will do every child well going into K. Hard to believe I was taking naps in 1st grade and they don't even do that in all day K anymore

That sounds like the same things we test the children on midway thru the year and again at the end.

And we take naps too! LOL! (only 30 minutes but its a state law.....)

LOL to the PP who said they took naps and colored in kindy! I KNOW! Play doh too! LOL! I was shocked when I took the kindy teacher job and they told me what all I would be teaching.

 

[taximomfor4]

I am not sure they have to know ANYTHING here. Our school had the "Kindergarten Roundup" in March, for kids wanting to start K in the fall. My dd was not going to be 5 until summer, and I leaned toward holding her back. But I took her in. She "passed", even though she'd never been to preschool, nor had I taught her ANYTHING at home. She didn't know all her letters, DEFINITELY couldn't read AT ALL, probably knew how to count to 20 or so, didn't know her address but did know her phone number sometimes. Knew how to spell her first name, but not her last. Could barely write her first name, though. We didn't HAVE her practice before school began, but she had a notebook she liked "writing" in. She practiced her name sometimes, on her own, I think.

She knew basic colors just from normal day to day exposure.

IOW, we don't "prepare" our kids for K...any of them. I think if a child is READY to learn a skill, it will come pretty easily. All 4 of my kids breezed through K, the first, third, and fourth having the easiest time. The first and fourth had never been to daycare or preschool.

 

[dijid]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned that is tested at our district's K readiness screening is whether they know how to hold a book and turn the pages correctly. They'll be given a picture book and asked to tell the story. The screeners are looking for whether the kids know it goes left to right and front-to-back. Our district encompasses some very low socioeconomic brackets and even a small amount of public housing. They will work with the most at-risk kids and this is part of identifying them.

 

[mom2princessj]

That sounds like the same things we test the children on midway thru the year and again at the end.

And we take naps too! LOL! (only 30 minutes but its a state law.....)

LOL to the PP who said they took naps and colored in kindy! I KNOW! Play doh too! LOL! I was shocked when I took the kindy teacher job and they told me what all I would be teaching.

I think her kindergarten has 20 minutes of rest time (although we did go to one private school that didn't do any resting time at all) but the teacher said they've only had one child fall asleep for like 10 minutes otherwise they all do fine.
Do you teach all day K?

 

[SnowWhite607]

Yes I do!