Is your child ready for 1st grade? If you have been enjoying the lazy days of summer as I have,
then now is the time to get back in shape for school. There is an abundance of research that
demonstrates most children require a full 9 weeks of instruction to simply get them back to
where they were developmentally at the end of their previous school year. This is a lot of time
wasted that could be spent advancing your child's development. I have searched several
educational sources to create a 1st grade readiness checklist (skills your child should have
mastered in kindergarten or over summer). If your child has mastered all of these things that
great, continue to read and write at home. If your child has not mastered any of these skills,
then take note and work diligently to accomplish these skills before school starts.
Questions to Ask...
1. Does your child know the entire alphabet, along with all the accompanying sounds in
capital and lowercase?
2. Does your child read two and three letter words easily?
3. Does your child count from 1 to 100 and back down from 100 to 1?
4. Does your child understand, create, and identify simple patterns?
5. Does your child write his/her first and last name using correct casing?
6. Does your child write descriptive sentences, such as "The lazy cat refused to chase the rat"?
7. Does your child write all 26 letters in capital and lowercase neatly?
8. Does your child recognize and identify all of the basic colors
9. Does your child skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's up to at least 100? (2,4,6,8...and 5,10,15,20...)
10. Does your child write all of the numbers between 1 and 100?
11. Does your child know basic word families? (at, bat, cat, fat go together & an, ban, can, Dan,
fan go together)
12. Does your child recognize and identify basic shapes?
13. Does your child recognize and identify basic coins (dollar coin, 50 cent piece, quarter, dime,
and nickel) and their value?
14. Does your child know the difference between consonants and vowels?
15. Does your child understand comparisons/opposites? (greater than/less than, hot/cold,
shorter/taller...)
16. Does your child know that sentences start with a capital letter?
17. Does your child know that sentences end with a period?
18. Does your child know that questions end with a question mark?
19. Does your child tell time on the hour and half hour?
20. Does your child understand and recognize rhyming words?
21. Does your child recognize and understand one-half?22. Does your child speak in complete
sentences?
23. Does your child mark vowels in a word or sentence if asked?
24. Does your child complete assignments based on oral direction? (draw a red line over the cat,
circle the blue monkey...)
25. Does your child read months and days on a calendar?
26. Does your child make it until 4 pm without a nap?
27. Does your child know addition and subtraction facts 0-9?
