If you have a child heading to kindergarten soon, you may wonder if he or she is ready. Does he know all the things the teacher will expect him to? She can’t read yet – will she be behind all the other kids? Is he ready to be away from home for a half or full day? Should we wait one more year before sending her?
To help answer any questions you might have, I’ve created a free printable kindergarten readiness checklist. The checklist covers both academic skills AND other skills kids should have before starting school: things like standing in a line, being able to zip up a coat, and taking care of all bathroom needs independently. At the end of the post you’ll also find kindergarten teachers’ answers to the question: what is the one most important thing parents can do to prepare their child for kindergarten?
If you google your state and the words “kindergarten readiness” you’ll likely find a long document describing the standards for entering kindergarten in your area. Unfortunately, many of those documents are very, very long, and are full of education or government jargon that can be a little hard to understand. To create my checklist I reviewed a number of readiness documents from different states around the country and interviewed kindergarten teachers to find out what skills they think are most important for new kindergarteners to have.
NOTE: I expected readiness standards to vary from state to state, but I was surprised to find they are quite consistent (both from the state documents and from teacher’s report). If you work with your child to ensure that he can do most or all of the things on both lists, you’ll know he’ll be ready to head out for his first day at school.
You can download the ready-for-kindergarten checklists (in three different colors) at the end of the post.
What academic skills should my child have before kindergarten? Your child should be able to:
- recognize and name basic shapes: square, circle, triangle, and rectangle
- recognize and name numbers 1-10, even when they are out of order
- count to 20
- count 10 objects, pointing to each one as she counts
- say or sing the alphabet
- recognize the letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase (even out of order)
- identify colors in an 8-ct crayon pack
- recognize her first name
- write her first name
- sort items by size, color, or shape
- hold a book and turn pages
- tell if two words rhyme
- identify some letter sounds
- say her parents’ full names and phone numbers (at least one)
All the teachers I interviewed said a child doesn’t need to be reading before kindergarten (and most kids aren’t), but that they should be read to regularly. Teaching nursery rhymes was mentioned as a great way to get kids reading-ready: knowing how to rhyme is HUGE when it comes to learning how to read.
If your child is having trouble remembering letter sounds, I can’t tell you how much I recommend this video: LeapFrog: Letter Factory
What other things does my child need to know how to do before kindergarten? Your child should be able to:
- put on his coat and zip it up
- tie his shoes
- take turns and share
- sit quietly and listen
- follow simple directions
- use the bathroom by himself (including zipping and buttoning pants)
- put on his backpack
- hold a pencil or crayon
- cut with scissors
- put things away
- hang his backpack on a hook
- wash his hands with soap
- use a tissue to wipe his nose
- cough into his elbow
- stand in line
- drink from a drinking fountain
- raise his hand and wait to be called on
- open any food containers in his lunch
It’s easy to forget some of these things when you’re preparing your child for school, but imagine how much time it would take for a kindergarten teacher to help 25 kids put on coats or hang up backpacks, etc. One teacher mentioned that kids who have all the other skills become “super students” who are able to help their peers.
You can print out these checklists and hang them up somewhere in your home, then let your child check off things as he or she masters them. Hopefully it will be a good way to get your child prepared and excited for school at the same time. (NOTE: if you think your child would feel overwhelmed by the idea of a checklist, just use it as a guide for yourself in what you teach.)
As a final note, I asked the teachers I interviewed what is the one most important thing parents can do to prepare their child for kindergarten. These are the responses I got:
- Teach kindness & respect (for rules, property, and people).
- Do activities at home where pre-kinders have to listen without interrupting, take turns, focus on the same activity for 15 minutes, use manners, etc.
- Read! Teach them how to hold book, how to turn pages, etc.
- Give them opportunities to play with other children.
- Give them some responsibilities and teach them to follow through.
- Teach nursery rhymes and songs.
- Give them chances to be away from home and family so they feel comfortable and confident when they come to school.
Click these links to download the aqua version of page 1: academic skills and page 2: other skills
Click these links to download the red version of page 1: academic skills and page 2: other skills
Click these links to download the yellow version of page 1: academic skills and page 2: other skills
I appreciate you sharing the Kindergarten readiness checklist. My 2 1/2 year old got 18 checks from the 2 sheets.
Do you have a word list? It would be interesting to see how she scores on that.
Thanks, Delilah
Here are the criterias to have a 2.5 year old do all this.
Have one child…Check
Don’t have Grand parents live with you… Check
Mom doesn’t work… Check
Dad works alot…. Check
Mom obsessed with having the smartest kid… CHECK
Have nothing else to do…. Check
Thanks for this, its very helpful. I have an almost 2 year old and I have started to work with her for about an hour or 2 a day before supper on some “educational” things to help prepare her for later in life. I know she’s in the play and don’t care years but it helps to get her started since she loves to learn. If you have any other suggestions on reading that would be awesome. She loves books!
Christina, I’m a kindergarten teacher and I would say at your daughter’s age I would read, read, and read to her. Get predictable books that she can pretend to read to after you’ve read them many times. The love of reading is very important and unfortunately ,many of my students don’t come to school already enjoying books.
Thank you for making these handouts. I will be attending some pre-K meetings in the near future, with parents whose children will be entering Kindergarten next year these will be very helpful. I love how you commented on the Leap Frog videos. They are great and I think you should offer that advice on future printouts. Kindergarten has changed so much in the last ten years and the parents need to know.
The only issue I took with this is that preschoolers (by the time they end their 4yr old program ) should know ALL of the letters (upper and lower case), even out of order. Nowhere in the NYS Pre-kindergarten Foundation for the Common Core says this. It actuay reads that by the end of their 4 yr old program, they should know “SOME” of the letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case), especially those in their name. It is very subjective. If Kindergarten is asking children to know ALL of the letters of the alphabet , then they are not following the standards correctly.
I guess you must not be a teacher because if you were, you would see how advance learning letter sounds and distinguishing letters would make your child. I am actually both a parent to a kindergartener and a kindergarden teacher. So I get it. Forget NYSCC AND TEACH YOUR CHILD!!!
RV- where is Dana’s comment did she reject the idea of teaching children letter sounds/shapes? she simply (and correctly) noted for anyone with kids in NY, this is not a requirement for kids entering kindergarten. As the post noted, requirements vary state by state and if any NYS parents see this post, her comment serves only to let them know that isn’t a barrier for their kids.
Dana, you are correct. It is not part of the standards. The standards are followed by the schools also. However, there are things that kindergarten teachers are required to do and respond to in today’s world that they did not have to deal with 50 years ago. There is small informal group testing and yearlong assessments required. Class sizes are too large for this age group to give children the proper preparation for the next grade level. For better or worse, inclusion is truly inclusion. Unseasoned and even seasoned teachers usually have at least one if not more than one student who has unique needs and were not properly prepared for entering school.
Early childhood teachers have degrees; however, with that said, they are usually lumped into college courses for students who range in class levels running from from K-4 or K-6 grade. They are not given enough advance in-classroom training to prepare them for real life classroom situations but are given a lot of useless theories to memorize. They very seldom have a good teacher mentoring program for new teachers (who spend the first couple of years having to figure out a lot of things for themselves), and they certainly do not focus enough at the college level to prepare them for children with special needs.
Teachers in general are salaried employees who spend hours after school and on the weekend preparing for the following week ahead. In addition to these hours there are mandatory training courses they must continue to go through at least once during the year, other activities such as helping their kindergarten students to learn how to be little Amway salesmen, keeping track of every students individual needs such as which student has accidents still, which student is allergic to milk, peanuts etc…which students owe lunch money or money to the library for overdue books…and these are but of few things they need to know.
Add to all of this that many schools want teachers to spend time for special events that take away from learning such as Cat in the Hat Day or they want them to run some type of money making program (fundraiser). The principals don’t handle that book sale, that wrapping paper sale or that cookie sale. Let’s not forget that they are supposed to have students keep portfolios to send home at the end of the year that busy parents barely find time to glance through.
Teachers go into teaching because they love children. They certainly don’t go into it for the money. Fifty years ago, teachers didn’t have all of this to contend with.
I didn’t write this to hurt you or upset you but to show you why you should do everything you can to prepare your child way before they enter kindergarten and then advocate, advocate, advocate for your child because in the public school system, the teacher doesn’t have as much time as you think nor the support she needs. If you think she/he should get out of the profession if they cannot hack it. I just want you to know that they leave in droves the first five years of teaching. This hurts young children much more than you can imagine. I think you can figure out by now why it hurts them.
My suggestion is to send your child to private school or Home School if you can. If not follow my advice in the above paragraph. I only wish that I had had someone tell me this when my daughters were young. Some awful fall through the crack moments would have never taken place.
well said! I am on this thread because I am a preschool teacher for 32 years now. the requirements and expectations change seems like yearly, i try and keep up so i can prepare my preschoolers as best i can, mine is a play based center, focusing alot on science and art, i have been both in the classroom and in a preschool classroom. you are absolutely correct when you describe hands on with the children gives us far more opportunity to understand the children, thank you for your reply to this subject
THANK YOU! My son is an early September birthday, meaning he would miss the cutoff for kindergarten by 9 days… Our district just enacted a pilot program for kids that fall into this category to start early if they meet the readiness requirements. These checklists will be a great tool over the next couple of years as we start to suss out if we are on track to start early of if it’s wiser to hold back!
I am a Early Childhood Teacher and I will have my first day of school August 15th, 2016. That is this Monday. I am ready now. Thank you very much!
just want to ask because i thin k my child belongs to slow learner child. .. he can talk staright.. it like baby talk even in 5 years old.. he cant completely say the number 1-10 straight.. i need help how to hel my child to be mature like any other 5 yers old kid
As a Canadian kindergarten teacher, I find the comments in this thread extremely disturbing. Why is everyone encouraging the mother of a two-year-old who is already scheduling 2 hours a day to academics to do more? I was certain that the first person identifying themselves as a professional would emphasize play.
Or at least the 2nd or the third. Read with your child by all means. Show her how books work. When she gets older and can be trusted not to eat crayons and cut hair introduce crayons and scissors. The kind designed for small hands and building fine motor skills. But above all keep everything play-based. That is a baby. She learns through play and human interaction. Kindergarten itself is supposed to be about learning how to socialize with peers, understanding basic literacy, and numeracy concepts, and gaining related skills. If a love of learning is destroyed along the way because of methods not appropriate for the developmental age than gaining skills a few months earlier isn’t worth it. Yeesh.
Thank you!
As a German I was frightened by all this – here the requirements for the end of first grade (age 6-7) are about what this aricle describes for children before kindergarten. The first years are focused on play, getting to know other children, play, draw, sing, play!!
Books are for fun!
I always create a checklist too. It is pretty handy. Thanks.
I’m really grateful for this list. I homeschool my four children and this list gave us a list of skills that my older daughters can work on with my preschooler when I’m helping another sibling. They love helping to teach her all these skills and take pride in seeing her check things off. Thanks again!
As someone that might be a parent soon, I’ve been wanting to learn more about enrolling a child in kindergarten and what they need to know. It was helpful when you said that one should give their child opportunities to be away from home and family, as it will help them feel more confident at school. What time of year does one typically complete the enrollment process for the upcoming school year?