5 Goals for Your Kindergarten Reader

By the end of kindergarten, most children associate letters with sounds, and they can identify and write upper and lower case letters. Children usually understand consonant sounds before vowel sounds.

Most kindergarten children learn to recognize whole words by sight. Sight words include words they use often, like "the," or their names. By the end of the year many children can recognize and read sight words in books.

Most kindergarten children develop a stronger concept of print. They learn to distinguish punctuation marks, letters from words, and when words start and end.

Kindergarteners learn that writing goes from left to right. They understand that we read until the end of the line, then we return to the left to read a new line.

Most kindergarten children can understand basic motivations for characters and events. They can make predictions and relate the story to their own lives.