Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
Know whether your child is prepared for Kindergarten by checking the following milestones
Language Skills
- Talks in sentences
- Speaks loud and clear to express wants and thoughts
- Uses sentences that have two or more ideas
- Knows and can say some common nursery rhymes and songs (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
- Pretends, creates, makes up songs and stories in play
- Tells or retells stories and/or everyday experiences
- Asks questions and expresses curiosity
- Describes people, places, things and events with some details
- Uses question words (Who, What, Where, Why, How) to get help or learn more about something (Why does a giraffe have long neck?)
Reading Skills
- Looks at books or pictures on their own
- Pretends to read books by using the pictures
- Identifies the front, back and title page of a book
- Able to connect to signs and symbols within their environment (Stop Sign)
- Recognizes rhyming words (cat-hat)
- Begins to sound out words (Hop = H + O + P)
- Recognizes some common words in print
- Recognizes many uppercase and lowercase letters
- Recognizes some letter sounds
- Describes some characters and their actions by using details from a book
- Relates stories to personal experiences
- Puts events of a story in order
Social Skills
- Uses words to solve problems or conflicts
- Identifies appropriate solutions to a problem
- Uses words like please, thank you and excuse me
- Follows simple one and two-step direction(s) (Example: Please wash your face before bed. Please wash your face, then brush your teeth before bed.)
- Stays with an activity to completion
- Is able to ask for help
- Interacts appropriately with adults and peers
- Listens, shares, and takes turns with other children
- Participates in clean-up activities
- Is able to dress self
- Able to follow a routine/schedule for personal health, eating meals and going to bed
- Follows simple safety rules
- Able to identify emotions in themselves and others (I am upset because you took my turn. You are mad because I made a mess.)
Writing Skills
- Uses words to solve problems or conflicts
- Asks you to write words or notes to others
- Draws a picture about a story read or heard
- Attempts to write own name and recognizes own name in print
- Adds details to writing and/or picture with help
- Answers questions about their writing/pictures
- Copies shapes of letters when writing
- Attempts to draw series of letters to represent a word
Things You Can Do at Home
- Read daily with your child and ask questions about what you read (In English and/or your home language)
- Give them chores around the house (Cleaning up trash and/or helping with dishes)
- Establish routines for daily events such as bedtime and meals
- Play games as a family to practice taking turns and staying on task
- Have your child practice putting items into groups by size, shapes, and/or color
- Encourage your child to be independent by dressing themselves, brushing teeth, or washing face after meal times
- Connect reading to daily experiences
- Set up play times with friends so your child can practice social skills and problem solving
- Provide opportunities for your child to play
- Have them practice repeating and following specific directions
- Have your child point and count objects to practice number sequence (Count how many apples you put into the cart while at the store)
- Talk about what school might look like
About the Wichita Literacy Coalition
The Wichita Literacy Coalition is facilitated by the Public Policy & Management Center at Wichita State University and brings together key stakeholders in Wichita to create and implement a collective plan to increase Kindergarten readiness for children and families experiencing the greatest need. Find a list of all the coalition partners, as well as more resources, on the WLC website.