Skills to Develop for Reading Success

Pre-kindergarten:
-Ability to recognize environmental print (words found on everyday items).
-Recognize when words rhyme.  
-Know most or all letter names.
-Distinguish separate words.
-Pretend to read and write.
-Retell simple stories.
-Sing the alphabet (without blending l,m,n,o,p).

Kindergarten:
-Write and identify upper and lower case letters, as well as numbers up to 30.
-Recognize own name, and simple words (such as I, am, a, the, is)
-Listen to and retells stories.
-Know basic sounds of letters.  
-Read simple, decodable text (words that can be sounded out).
-Rhyme, clap syllables, and blend sounds to make words.
-Understand concepts about print (front and back of book, what an author is, understand that print gives information about book, can match words one-to-one with finger as reading, moves from left to right)
-Understand concepts of letters (can be upper and lower case), and what words and sentences are.
-Know basic punctuation (such as period, question mark, comma, and exclamation point).

Basic Tips:
-Set up a regular time to read.
-Talk with your child about the stories you have read.  
-Draw pictures and write about stories.
-Reread stories as often as your child would like.  Encourage him/her to read stories more than once.  
-Find books that repeat sentence stems (ex: Susie likes to ride her bike.  Susie likes to eat breakfast.)
-Encourage your child to pick out books.  
-Guide your child to developing special interests.
-Keep reading to your child even if he/she can read.
-Don’t always require your child to read if they can.
-Involve your child in real life reading and writing activities such as writing name on birthday cards, reading street signs, or helping with a grocery list.