What Your Child Should Know Before Kindergarten
July 25, 2019
My first-born is starting kindergarten next month. Back in May, he had his Kindergarten Round-up (something that they have around San Luis Obispo county for the little ones who are about to start kindergarten in a few months) where they tested him on at least 10 things: like drawing a picture of himself, writing his name, counting to 20 and more! I was surprised that they were testing them on all that because I was expecting a 'round-up' to be like an orientation. My son passed all of it, thankfully, but I saw another little boy cry while he was being tested. Talk about pressure! I truly feel like kids can't miss preschool like the old days or else they'll be behind. Before we left the round-up, one of the school staff members gave me a big packet for my son to work on over the summer before he starts preschool and a list of what my child should know before his first day of kindergarten. Here is the list below:
What Your Child Should Know Before Kindergarten
Reading:
What Your Child Should Know Before Kindergarten
Reading:
- Recognize 26 of the 52 letters (upper and lowercase)
- 10 letter sounds
- Readers read left to right
- All letters in their first name
Writing:
- Use correct grasp to hold pencil, marker, crayon
- Pretend to write a left to right direction
- Write first name
Math:
- Count to 20
- Recognize 1 - 10
- Point and count up to 10 objects
- Make simple patterns
- Recognize basic shapes and colors
Behaviors:
- Listen to adults
- Share
- Take care of things and put them away
- Button and unbutton own clothes
- Zip and unzip own clothes
- Try to tie own shoes
I have to admit that my 5 year old still needs to work on his "Behaviors" category as he cannot zip his own sweatshirt yet nor tie his own shoelaces and he needs to work on the sharing a bit too.
We have 3 weeks left until the first day of kindergarten! Today, I had my son work on zipping a sweatshirt. The unzipping was easy. It's the zipping.
Update:
Both of my kids have went through Kindergarten Round-Up and finished Kindergarten. From our experiences, besides the backpack or lunch (if your child is bringing their own lunch) no other supplies are needed for Kindergarten class (unless specified by your teacher). The school provided all the pencils, papers, markers and other school supplies to the kids at the public elementary. However, it is nice to have supplies at home if needed if they want to work on other stuff on their own. If you're like our family, we've accumulated over 1,000 crayons just from gifts from grandparents, friends and organizations at this point and probably will never have to buy a new box of crayon until I have grandchildren, which will probably be 2 decades from now.
We have 3 weeks left until the first day of kindergarten! Today, I had my son work on zipping a sweatshirt. The unzipping was easy. It's the zipping.
Update:
Both of my kids have went through Kindergarten Round-Up and finished Kindergarten. From our experiences, besides the backpack or lunch (if your child is bringing their own lunch) no other supplies are needed for Kindergarten class (unless specified by your teacher). The school provided all the pencils, papers, markers and other school supplies to the kids at the public elementary. However, it is nice to have supplies at home if needed if they want to work on other stuff on their own. If you're like our family, we've accumulated over 1,000 crayons just from gifts from grandparents, friends and organizations at this point and probably will never have to buy a new box of crayon until I have grandchildren, which will probably be 2 decades from now.
Posted by SanLuisObispoMom.com. Posted In : Preschool
Originally from San Diego, California, I'm a San Diego State University alumna, veteran's wife and mom of two kids who were born two years apart. After living on the East Coast for 6 years, we now reside in San Luis Obispo County and here, the exploration continues. In between work and momming it, I like to exercise.
@sanluisobispomom