In kindergarten, children develop basic concepts of print and begin to engage in and experiment with reading and writing.
Children can:
- Enjoy being read to and themselves retell simple narrative stories or informational texts
- Use descriptive language to explain and explore
- Recognize letters and letter-sound matches
- Show familiarity with rhyming and beginning sounds
- Understand left-to-right and top-to-bottom orientation and familiar concepts of print
- Match spoken words with written ones
- Begin to write letters of the alphabet and some high-frequency words
What teachers do:
- Encourage children to talk about reading and writing experiences
- Provide many opportunities for children to explore and identify sound-symbol relationships in meaningful contexts
- Help children to segment spoken words into individual sounds and blend the sounds into whole words (for example, by slowly writing a word and saying its sound)
- Frequently read interesting and conceptually rich stories to children
- Provide daily opportunities for children to write
- Help children build a sight vocabulary
- Create a literacy-rich environment for children to engage independently in reading and writing
What parents and family members can do:
- Daily read and reread narrative and informational stories to children
- Encourage children’s attempts at reading and writing
- Allow children to participate in activities that involve writing and reading (for example, cooking, making grocery lists)
- Play games that involve specific directions (such as “Simon Says”)
- Have conversations with children during mealtimes and throughout the day
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Citation
Excerpted from: Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, part 4: Continuum of Children’s Development in Early Reading and Writing. (May, 1998) A joint position of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children position statement (full-text PDF) (opens in a new window).
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