Kindergarten reading?

What are your kids learning reading wise in k? Mine are doing sight words and that's really it right now. I guess the peers are so far behind they have to do a lot of baby stuff like letters and colors.

 

Mine have word rings with high frequency words that we have to practice at home, they also go along with the stories they are reading in school. In school they do reading groups and read 2-3 books a week (they bring them home each Friday to read to us). They also do writing and comprehension with the stories they are reading, they also have a separate writing journal that they use a few times a week at school. In our county you have to be reading between a level 7-9 at the end of K, that starts you on grade in first grade. Mine have been doing reading groups and reading books in reading groups since the 3rd week of school.

 

Both of my girls were reading in preschool, but one of them really took off with it over the summer and the other one pretty much dropped any attempt at reading. So I have an extremely strong reader and one who is learning to read right along with the rest of the her class.

They do small reading groups focused on specific skills that group needs to work on. There's a lot of effort put into comprehension of what they are reading. They both do sight words, but actually my strong reader got through all 250~ish of them and is now working on spelling them.

Twice a week their reading folder comes home with books that they used during reading group that they need to read 2-3 times each.

They also have writers workshop where they started with drawing a picture as their story, and then moved to writing about the picture. Again, my strong reader usually brings home several pages of story and my other daughter is right there with the rest of the group in writing a few simple sentences (she likes the picture drawing a lot more).

I volunteer for the sight words (Rocket Words) in each of their classes, and most of the children are still working in their first group of words. They need to recognize at least 19 sight words by the end of kindergarten. So most of the children are right on track to meet that minimum. Just my reader and another boy in her class are so far ahead of that, otherwise everyone else is at around the same level (in their 2 separate classes). There were a two children who I needed to work with to recognize all the letters before we started the sight words, but they did that pretty quickly and are in their first group of sight words too.

 

In kindergarten it was sight words. Nothing more.

 

They have probably more than 20 sight words they know but they are weird words lol. On their list from school it's about 25 and they know half of it

 

They have probably more than 20 sight words they know but they are weird words lol. On their list from school it's about 25 and they know half of it

 

In our school, reading groups start at K. K groups range from learning the alphabet and letter sounds to children already reading simple books. There is one higher reader who goes to a first grade high group for more of a challenge. My girls are working on reading simple stories and continue to add sight words weekly. I believe our K goal is 100 simple site words.

 

Some of yours are writing stories in journals? OMG, that's sooooo much more than what our K teaches. :faint:

Ours are doing sight words, independent "reading" (I put it in quotes because mine don't read, so they basically look at pictures), retelling a story, and "writing" a story (in their own words/pictures/however they want to retell on paper).

Despite my best efforts, my girls had NO interesting in learning to read (from me) until they got to K. I still have one that will go at her own pace and doesn't care to sit down with me to learn but the other is very interested. I could tell it bothered one of mine that some of her friends can read and she can't, when she started school. To be honest though, we haven't gotten too far. I'm hoping it's like everything else and one day they both will explode with the concept.

 

This sounds similar to our K.

 

Our journal entries for K were them drawing a picture of something and then copying or trying to phoenetically spell out a sentence such as "my favorite color is blue"

Aaron would write "my fvrite culur is blu"

or something like that at the beginning and got a lot better at the end.

 

Note: Mine are the same age, but in 1st due to cut-off differences.


I am in the building a lot and the K kids in our area are working on a wide range. Most have mastered letters, a few are reading fairly well-- with the rest in between working on sight words and/or simple text readers.
They also do journals (in 1st and K). It should be a picture and writing at the kiddos level (some write only a title, some write a sentence, others write a paragraph-- phonetic spelling).

My kids are both strong readers (did not do K), but did NOT do sight words in preschool- they learned to read at home. Though in PS, they do do letters and colors- which they already knew.

Even their 1st grade class has kids that are at preprimer level (letter/sounds, a few sight words) to 3rd grade + level readers.

I would hesitate to call anything K related as 'baby stuff'. There are kiddos in the class that may be ESL, young for grade, never have done preschool and it is important to cover that material. I have made sure to point of to my girls that everyone is learning and may be learning different things. Just because they (my girls know it) does not mean anyone that does not is not 'smart' or is a 'baby'. There are a lot of kids that may need that reinforcement as well or kids with special needs. The K work in the hall reflects a wide wide range of skills and that is standard and developmentally normal.

A good teacher will also keep her higher learners moving along as well though. If you are worried that your girls are not getting challenge enough, as to talk to the teacher and see what else they can do.


Are sight words all your kiddos are doing? Or is it were they are at in reading so that is what they are working on? There is a difference- there is a few kiddos in 1st that their reading work is sight words for the most part. That is where they are at, other kiddos are reading fluently.


I know in our K and 1st they have whole class words that go on the word wall that EVERYONE is supposed to know (and practice spelling). Then they each have their own individualized sight word lists.

 

In class they are doing sight words and moving into sounding things out, which is pretty much right where my girls are too. They got the concept of phoenetics (as well as learned several sight words) when they were 3ish, and I kept thinking they'd be "really reading" any day now, but they still have very limited ability to actually sound out a whole sentence (even an easy one) and know what it means.

They don't get assigned any homework whatsoever (which I like), but DH and I have just decided that we actually need to practice with them, rather than just trusting that they'll learn to read someday. I know they would eventually, but I don't want them to be behind schedule -- I know they are capable of it, they just get too impatient and want us to read things for them instead.

I've also been a little surprised that they do so much work in kindergarten with numbers, colors, etc. (what I think of as preschool stuff), but there can also be a wide range of learning within those basic concepts. Some kids might be learning how to count to 20 while others can use that same lesson to do actual arithmetic -- or some kids might be learning to recognize the color purple while others are learning how to spell "purple." The subject matter might seem "easy," but a good teacher can help each child learn something new from it.

 

The girls went into k knowing addition subtraction to 10. They are very good at math for their age. Jessy does sound things out if by herself. She won't in front of anybody. Jazz is pretty much not interested so much. The teacher sent home noted stating at the beginning that the would do journal type stuff with the phonetic spelling but none do far. I make the girls sound out words when they want to spell something