What are reading skills to look for by the end of Pre-K and K?
Did you know that your child is already developing skills for reading success? Research has shown that children are building the foundations for language and literacy even before they start school.
Check out what milestones you can look for in Pre-K and Kindergarten.
Keep in mind that every child develops differently, and these milestones may be reached sooner or later depending on the child.
End of Pre Kindergarten (Pre-K) Reading Milestones
These milestones are also relevant to Transitional Kindergarten (TK).
SOUNDS & SYMBOLS 🔤
Letter Names - Able to name 15-18 letters of the alphabet
Letter Sounds - Able to identify some letter sounds, especially the sounds in first name
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS 🔊
Rhyming - Can rhyme words such as bat, cat, hat
First Sound Matching - Can isolate and match the first sound in words
Letter Sounds - Can combine compound words (butter-fly) and can blend the beginning sound of a word with the rest of the word (f-ish)
LANGUAGE 🗣️
Vocabulary - Can identify the names of everyday objects and pictures in books
Oral Language Comprehension - Can understand spoken language in sentences and follow one and two step commands. Can often predict what happens next in a story.
End of Kindergarten (K) Reading Milestones
SOUNDS & SYMBOLS 🔤
Letter Names - Recognize, name, and write all 26 letters of the alphabet
Letter Sounds - Can identify letter sounds associated with all 26 letters of the alphabet
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS 🔊
Rhyming - Can identify rhyming pairs such as boy/toy and man/fan
First Sound Matching - Can match words with the same beginning sound such as hand/ hair
Deletion - Can delete the initial or final sound in a word, such as changing the word stop to top
Nonword Repetition - Can repeat 1, 2 and 3-syllable nonsense words such as plip and nufty
Blending - Can combine 3 sounds to form a word such as /f/ /i/ /sh/
LANGUAGE 🗣️
Word Matching - Can match commonly associated items when given a choice, such as finding the two things that are alike in a group: shoe, sock and backpack
Following Directions - Can follow 2-step directions such as: Go to the kitchen and get a plate from the cabinet.
PHONICS ✔️
Nonword Reading - Can read nonwords that follow simple syllable patterns such as ip and zop
Word Reading - Can read simple frequently occurring real words such as my and that
End of Grade 1 Reading Milestones
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS 🔊
Deletion - Can delete part of an initial blend or ending soundin a word, such as changing the word scream tocream or bent to ben
Nonword Repetition - Can repeat 3-syllable nonsense words such asquix-flo-gar or thrum-ble-dax
PHONICS ✔️
Nonword Reading - Can read nonwords that follow the silent e syllablepatterns such as dase and stobe
Nonword Spelling - spell nonsense words with up to 5 soundssuch as sprod
VOCABULARY 📖
Expressive Vocabulary - Can identify more uncommon tangible items
FLUENCY 🎯
Word Reading - Can read simple frequently occurring grade level real words such as again and some
COMPREHESION 🧠
Word Matching - Can match commonly associated nouns and verbs when given a choice, such as find the two things that are alike: cherish and admire or bashful and shy
Following Directions - Has an understanding of conceptual vocabulary (first, below, then) and can follow multi-step directions with conditional demands
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