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Resources to Support Readiness Skills

 Kindergarten Readiness Skills

As we know, children learn different things at different times depending upon a variety of factors. Although mastery of the following skills are not required for a child to enter Kindergarten, working on these skills at home will support your child's success throughout his or her Kindergarten experience and beyond.

Readiness skills are those foundational skills and knowledge which allow children to be successful in a school setting.

What are readiness skills?
Why are readiness skills important?

A child's brain development is most rapid in the first five years. Establishing strong literacy, social-emotional, and language connections during these critical years provides a solid foundation for school success.

  • Can take turns

  • Knows how to share

  • Listens to others

  • Understands compromise

  • Doesn't interrupt others 

  • Can recognize and respond appropriately to other people's emotions

  • Understands and uses basic courtesies i.e., please, thank you, and excuse me

  • Exercises emotional control

Social Skills

Basic Letter, Number, Color, Shape & Body Parts Recognition

  • Counts to 10 orally

  • Recognizes the numbers 1-5

  • Identifies and writes the letters in his or her first name

  • Can sing or say the alphabet

  • Recognizes some or all of the letters in the alphabet

  • Knows basic colors

  • Can name basic shapes i.e., circle, square, and triangle

  • Knows the basic parts of the body i.e., mouth, nose, eyes, shoulder, knee, etc.

  • Can draw a basic stick figure of a person

Survival Skills

  • Knows the first and last names of parents or important adults in his or her family

  • Knows a phone number for a parent or important adult in his or her family

  • Knows his or her address

  • Knows where his or her parents or other important adults work

Independence Skills

  • Getting a coat on and off and hanging it up

  • Undo/redo buttons and snaps

  • Blow his or her nose & cough into the crook of the arm

  • Go to the bathroom and wash hands

  • Can open containers brought in his or her snack or lunch or put a straw into a juice box

  • Can pick up and put things away

Strong Gross & Fine-Motor Skills

  • Can catch a ball

  • Can run, jump, and skip

  • Can hold a pencil and has experience writing or drawing on paper

  • Can use scissors and has experience cutting different thicknesses of paper

  • Can grasp and pinch fingers to pick up small objects

  • Can trace lines and other objects

Language Skills

  • Can speak in complete sentences

  • Knows how to ask a question

  • Knows the names of everyday objects like desk, bus, bicycle.

  • Can follow simple two-step directions like "Get a book and go sit on the rug."

  • Progressed beyond "baby speak" i.e. He is my father. VS Him is my father.

Print Awareness Skills

  • Can hold a book in its proper position

  • Knows that books are read from left to right and from top to bottom

  • Understands that print conveys a message or has meaning

  • Connects that words on a page represent spoken language

  • Knows that words are made up of letters and that spaces are put between words

  • Recognizes that print is different than the pictures on a page

  • Understands print has different functions depending on the context i.e., books tell stories, signs tell us information about our world, menus tell us our options for what eat, etc.

Developing PRINT AWARENESS in your child
Parenting Counts

Parenting Counts offers a developmental timeline for physical, social, learning, and communication milestones from birth to 5 years. Click on the image to explore these different areas, read hints and tips, and watch videos.

Click the image below!

Need more?

Contact your child's teacher for additional information.

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Common Readiness Skills

Developing LITERACY READINESS in your child
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