Elementary Reading Benchmarks

What can kindergartners do? By the end of kindergarten, look for your child to be able to:

Recognize his name in print
Write his first and last name
Write many upper and lower case letters
Write some letters and words as they are spoken
Retell stories heard read aloud
Make up and tell his own stories
Pretend to be characters or act out events from books in play centers
Sing the alphabet song
Listen for the beginning sounds of words
Make up rhymes
Clap out syllables in his name and words
Read easy books with the letter-sound relationships he is learning
Connect new words to his own knowledge and experience
Use words important to his schoolwork, such as names for colors, shapes, and numbers
Identify words that have the same beginning sound
Blend spoken sounds into simple words
Recognize some common words on sight (e.g., a, the, I, my, you, is, are)
Make predictions based on pictures or information in a story
Know the difference between fiction and nonfiction
Independently look at a book quietly
Identify the sequence of events in a story
Listen to classmates and adults without interrupting

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