English Language Arts & Literacy

Learning new language skills is a hallmark of kindergarten. Your child will learn about the alphabet and its role in reading. Your child will practice rhyming, matching words with beginning sounds, and blending sounds into words. Practice with these types of activities is a powerful step toward learning to read and spell correctly. The size of your child’s vocabulary is another key factor in his or her ability to read and comprehend books and stories. Your child also will begin to experiment with writing and will be encouraged to use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing letters to share information, ideas, and feelings.

A Sample of What Your Child Will Be Working on in Kindergarten

• 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)

Mathematics

Young children arrive in kindergarten with widely varying knowledge in math. By the end of the year, your child must have some important foundations in place. One of the most important skills your child should develop is the ability to add and subtract small numbers and use addition and subtraction to solve word problems. This will rely on gaining some fundamentals early in the year, such as counting objects to tell how many there are. Addition and subtraction will continue to be a very strong focus in math through 2nd grade.

A Sample of What Your Child Will Be Working on in Kindergarten

• Counting objects to tell how many there are
• Comparing two groups of objects to tell which group, if either, has more; comparing two written numbers to tell which is greater
• Acting out addition and subtraction word problems and drawing diagrams to represent them
• Adding with a sum of 10 or less; subtracting from a number 10 or less; and solving addition and subtraction word problems
• Adding and subtracting very small numbers quickly and accurately (e.g., 3 + 1)
• Correctly naming shapes regardless of orientation or size (e.g., a square oriented as a “diamond” is still a square)

Help Your Child Learn at Home

English Language Arts & Literacy

• Read with your child every day, books like Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman or Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Ask your child to explain his or her favorite parts of the story. Share your own ideas. To find more books for your child to read, visit www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf.
• Encourage your child to tell you about his or her day at school. Keep paper, markers, or crayons around the house for your child to write letters or words or draw a picture about his or her day. Have your child describe the picture to you.
• Play word games like I Spy, sing songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, and make silly rhymes together.

Mathematics

Look for “word problems” in real life. Some kindergarten examples might include:

• Play “Write the next number.” You write a number, and your child writes the next number.
• Ask your child questions that require counting as many as 20 things. For example, ask, “How many books do you have about wild animals?”
• Ask your child questions that require comparing numbers. “Who is wearing more bracelets, you or your sister?” (Your child might use matching or counting to find the answer.)