Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension: The ABCs of Learning to Read in Kindergarten

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 18:24:26 +0000

Sending your little one into that kindergarten classroom is a huge step—for both of you! Much of this year will be about learning how to be a student. That means how to work together in the classroom, how we act in school and in groups, and of course, how to build a strong foundation for reading. All this change can be tough on your child. Spending time reading together can help you reconnect and give you both opportunities to share your feelings and experiences during this transition. Learning to read is a huge job and it involves several key parts. Here’s an overview of what goes into the process, and how you can help your 5- to 6-year-old grow as a reader during kindergarten.

Here are the 14 things that your kindergarten child needs to know to learn to read:

Phonemic Awareness

Hears and identifies sounds at the beginning, middle, and ends of words (“What sound do you hear at the beginning of lap?” “Llll!”) Be sure to say the sound of the letter rather than its name when talking with your child about this idea. In this example, you would say the lll sound rather than the name of the letter L.
Thinks of other words with the same beginning or ending sound. (“Can you think of other words that end with the zzz sound? How about fizz, buzz . . .” Then let your child brainstorm.)
Understands words are made up of different sounds that come together and be able to separate them. (“Man has three sounds—‘mmm, aaa, nnn.’”)
Phonics
Identify all letters and their sounds. (For the vowels, it’s fine for your child to focus on one of the sounds the letter can make, such as A says “a” as in at; but you can start talking about the long vowel sounds, too. A can also say its name, “aye” as in ate.)
Begin to understand that letters join together to make words. (“First, I see an N. That’s nnn. And then an O… ohhh. That’s nnn… ohhh… no!”)
Write letters, beginning to form some words. (Don’t worry—the spelling probably won’t be solid for another year or two!)
Fluency
Your child is probably putting some of the pieces into place to become a fluent reader—but is not there yet. This is completely normal for a kindergartener! Keep practicing and give it time.
Vocabulary
Your child is learning new words every day.
Kindergarteners should be able to explain their ideas in-depth when they are speaking through detailed, complete sentences.
Understanding of figures of speech is just beginning. (For example, when we say, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” we don’t mean that cats and dogs are actually falling from the sky.)
Comprehension
Ask and answer questions about stories that are read out loud.
Make predictions about a story based on the title, cover illustration, and the first few pages.
Begin to make connections within a book—with your help. (“People have to drink water to live. So do plants!”)
Understand the main idea of a story. (“Clifford felt really sad when Emily Elizabeth went to school. But he was even happier when she came home and told him what she learned!”)

Phonemic Awareness

What is it?

Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that spoken words can be broken apart into smaller chunks of sound. These units of sound are called phonemes. Here’s an example: the word bat is made of three phonemes: the sounds /b,/ /a,/ and /t./ When kids know that these three sounds are part of the word bat, they are showing that they have phonemic awareness.