When you and your child read a variety of books, your child is ready to...
- Listen to a story and explain what happened
- Use language to describe events and express feelings
- Recognize sounds
- Recognize syllables
- Recognize some upper and lower case letters
- Recognize rhymes
- Develop new words
- Communicate with others
- Understand print has meaning
- Make predictions
- Connects personal experiences to stories
- Develop the love of books and select favorite books
- Read from front to back, top to bottom, left to right
- Hold a book right side up
- Learn new words from stories
- Understand the difference between real and pretend play
- Pay attention to the speaker, story, and poem
- Point to and discuss pictures within the book
- Select and "read" favorite books to share with others
- Act out favorite stories while playing
When you and your child listen to music, your child is ready to...
- Recognize sounds
- Repeat rhythms and patterns (e.g. Clapping and other movements)
- Repeat songs and finger plays
- Share songs with family and friends
- Develops oral vocabulary
- Pay attention to the music and musician
When you and your child play games (word, letter, picture, puzzles, and computer) your child is ready to...
- Identify matching sounds
- Recognize and identify some upper and lower case letters
- Think creatively to solve problems
- Recognize beginning sounds of words
- Begin writing
- Use pictures to understand picture clues, (logos, icons)
- Understand print in their surroundings
- Retell stories
- Start and carry on conversation through turn taking
- Understand new words from pictures in games
- Follow simple oral directions
- Speaks clearly and understandably
- Sort common objects into categories (such as farm animals, zoo animals)
When you and your child use creative materials (such as, markers, crayons, play dough, pencils, paint, and paper), your child will be ready to...
- Identify their name in print
- Recognize that letters make up words
- "Read" familiar words in print
- Use print in their surrounding
- Draw and write for a purpose
- Create a picture or story
- Express their thoughts in pictures or writing
- Share stories and pictures with others
- Name and label objects with adult help
- Imitate writing top to bottom left to write
- Copy name
- Scribble or write familiar words
When you and your child read a variety of books...
- Counting Books
- Shape Books
- Color Books
- Concept Books - opposites, size, position words
- Picture Books - animals, transportation, food
- Books about Daily Routines (such as Good Night Moon)
- Book about Seasons
Your child is ready to . . .
- Recognize/name numbers
- Recognize/name shapes
- Recognize/name colors
- Put numbers in order
- Count to 10
- Sequence what happens during a child's day (such as, before, after, next)
- Sequence how to read a book
- Understand/use math words (such as, up/down, over/under, more/less, top/bottom, before/after/next, yesterday/today/tomorrow
When you and your child...
Play games such as Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, Card Games, Number Memory, and Hungry Hungry Hippo
Your child is ready to...
- Learn to count Identify numbers
- Name numbers
- Compare objects
- Sort, order and classify objects (such as size, color, and shapes)
- Sequence events - before, after, and next
- Match objects
- Recognize, identify, and make shapes (circles, triangles, squares, rectangles)
- Understand position words (such as up, down, beside, etc.)
When you and your child use Creative Materials (such as, markers, crayons, play dough, pencils, paint, and paper), your child will begin writing numbers by scribbling, reversing numbers, tracing and copying, and then will be ready to:
- Write numbers
- Draw and make shapes
- Understand differences (such as bigger/smaller, lighter/darker, taller/shorter)
- Learn to count
- Learn to sort
- Learn position words (such as top/bottom, up/down, in/out)
- Create simple patterns (such as blue crayon, red crayon, blue crayon, etc.)
- Create simple graphs which show comparison
- Draw and compare sets of objects - example: draw a picture of animals in zoo - which cage has more or less, or same number of animals
When you and your child do household chores together, such as:
- Help with laundry
- Set the table
- Help prepare meals (cooking)
- Follow a recipe
- Put things away where they belong
- Help with grocery shopping
- Clean their room
- Take care of pets
- Wash/dry/put away dishes
Your child will be ready to...
- Recognize numbers
- Understand math words: equal (same as), more, and fewer
- Count to 10
- Recognize coins; penny, dime, quarter
- Count to 10 while pointing to object and saying number
- Sort common objects into categories (such as clothes, toys, food)
- Recognize what happens during a certain time of the day
- Measure in a variety of activities
- Follow directions using math words (such as over, under, in, out, below and above)
- Make patterns; cups, plates, spoon, repeat
- Think creatively to solve problems
- Sequence/order events in context of daily activities
