15+ Valuable Skills needed for Kindergarten

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At age 5, children begin their schooling career.  If you have one of those children who is nearing the age of 5, the question runs through your head, “What does my child need to know for kindergarten?” I’m here to give you a list of what a child should know when entering kindergarten, and suggestions to teach a child each of these skills.

 

Kindergarten isn’t the same as what it was when we were younger. Children used to enter school without a list of skills they needed to know. Knowing your ABCs and how to count to 10 was proficient enough. Nowadays, teachers don’t have the time to work on the basic schooling skills because of the pressures put on the schools to perform.

The list I’m providing isn’t nationwide requirements. It may be more than what some schools require and less than what others require. I’ve been researching many school requirements across different states to get a general sense of what schools are looking for. (My son is one of those kids who will be beginning kindergarten in the fall.)

If you want to get a jump start on some of these skills check out How to Start a Preschool Schedule with your Toddler to work on some of these skills!

I’m focusing on the academic skills a child should know, rather than the physical or social, but I will provide a brief overview at the end for some of those requirements.

What are schools looking for?

Academically

1. Be able to give their first and last name when asked.

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Have them practice! Ask them their name. If they don’t respond with the correct answer within a few seconds, prompt them with the correct answer. (Allow children processing time, though. Some children process the question in their mind first and then answers. They don’t have that path made in their brain yet, it’s still forming so they may not answer the question as quickly in the beginning)
  • Also, have children practice introducing themselves to others, rather than you answering for them. If they need a prompt, give them the beginning sound rather than the full name.

2. Be able to write their first name properly-first letter capitalized, the rest lowercase.

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Write in playdoh
  • Write the name with highlighter and have the child trace it
  • Put Barbasol shaving cream on the table and have the child trace out the letters with their fingers
  • Pour salt or sugar in a baking tray and have the child trace the letters

3. Use a pincer grasp with writing instruments

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Use triangle shaped writing instruments for beginner writers
  • Have child use a clothespin to pick up pom pom balls
  • Use the broken jumbo crayons to practice writing with. The smaller crayon will force the child to only use the fingers that are needed for the pincer grasp

4. Be able to count to 30 and tell what number comes before or after a given number to 20

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Count everything around! Have your child count the pepperoni on a pizza. Count the Cheerios in a bowl, or the skittles in a jar.
  • I used this great activity with my son when we were working on greater than or less than. It not only worked on counting but on which number is smaller and which is bigger.
    

    I had leftover nacho trays to make these caves. I cut out a half circle to make the entrance. Painted it brown, then glued cotton balls on the bottom. I then printed out my charts and put teddy grahams in each cave. We then compared which cave had more or less.

5. Identify basic shapes (square, triangle, rectangle, circle, oval, star, rhombus (diamond), and heart)

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Here is a great option to print a free toddler shape book to work on basic shapes
  • My Shape Pizza Activity (Linked to the free PDF printable for the activity)
    

    Using felt sheets, make each “topping”. Trace the shapes onto each sheet. Glue the yellow hexagon onto the card stock circle that is attached to the black felt sheet. I printed out my paper and laminated it so we could use dry erase marker to do this activity over and over.

    

6. Know all the letters in their first name

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Identify each letter as the child works on writing their name.
  • Work on the alphabet with a visual so the child gets to see the letter with the name

7. Know basic colors (red, green, blue, orange, yellow, purple, pink, black, white, brown)

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Matching-match objects to the appropriate piece of construction paper
  • Sort skittles/m&ms by color
  • Go on a color scavenger hunt

8. Identify numbers 1-10 in random order

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Flashcards are a great way to work on this-write on note cards the numbers and mix them up. Have child identify each number
  • When you see numbers at the checkout aisle, ask your child to identify which register you’re at.

9. Identify most upper case and lower case letters

• Ways to work on this skill

  • The mailman game is a great way to work on ABCs
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a great book to read to your child to see both upper cases and lower case letters.
  • Write down the upper case letter and lower case letter on note cards. Cut each note card in half and have children match up uppercase letters with their lowercase match

10. Identify most sounds and letters

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Whenever you work on letters with your child, you can work on sounds with each letter.
  • Here’s a site that offers free printables for each letter.
  • This is a great product that I loved and used with my son to work on letter sounds.

11. Use finger to count objects up to 10

• Ways to work on this skill

  • This is pretty easy to line up any 10 objects and practice pointing and counting each object

12. Knows parts of a book and proper tracking of words

• Ways to work on this skill

  • While reading a book aloud to your child, spend time talking about the title, author, and illustrator. When reading, point to the words you are reading so your child can follow your finger and learn the proper tracking of words.

13. Be able to rhyme words

• Ways to work on this skill

  • Sing silly songs that rhyme. Numerous nursery rhymes having rhyming words in them
  • Read books with rhyming words (Dr. Seuss books!)

14. Retell a simple story in the order it happened

• Ways to work on this skill

  • After reading a book, ask your child what happened first/middle/end in the book. Give the child multiple choice answers to begin if they don’t understand what you’re asking. Eventually, your child won’t need the multiple choice answers to your questions.

15. When given a word (boy), and given a sound of another letter (t), the child can form the new word (toy)

• Ways to work on this skill

  • This is a combination of a few other skills together. This is a great site to download printables to work on this skill and learn word families

Social and Physical skills desired for Kindergarten

• • Go to the bathroom independently (button and zip clothes without help, wash hands independently)
  • Take off and put on jacket, mittens, hat, boots
  • Sit for a story 5-10 minutes
  • Clean up after themselves
  • Shares toys and materials with other peers
  • Children should be excited about attending Kindergarten
  • Be okay being separated from parents
  • Be able to listen and follow 2-3 step directions (Go to the circle and sit down, Get your snack and come back to the table)
  • Children should be able to solve problems without aggression towards their peers or teachers
  • Children should be able to use scissors properly

ABC Mouse is a great, online, program for your kids to teach them skills they need for kindergarten. ABC Mouse has lessons for kids as young as 2 and goes all the way up to age 8! They offer a FREE 30-day trial to try it out! See if the lessons help your child if you aren’t happy with the results, you can cancel anytime! Otherwise, ABC Mouse offers a monthly subscription to their service online. They have a special offer happening right now for 38% off an annual membership!

Click here to see all the lessons (over 850) ABC Mouse has to offer!

 

 

If your child doesn’t have certain skills listed, it’s not a big deal. Every child develops at a different rate and most will catch up.

Some people swear that preschool offers a lasting “one-up” on kids who did not attend preschool, while others don’t believe it does.

Read this list but keep in mind, not all schools ask that kids have these skills, but if your kid has some of the skills, they’ll be that much more ready for kindergarten.

I tried to keep the suggestions to teach the skills simple, without requiring many extra costs. Kids can learn anywhere and in any environment. The best way for a child to learn is through their play!