New York City public school students start kindergarten when they turn five by December 31st. Independent and private school kindergarten programs require children to be five by September 1st.
If your child turns five years old right before these deadlines, you may feel that they are on the younger side and be wondering if they are ready. As a former independent school administrator and part of the admissions team, we made decisions about incoming kindergarteners based on if we thought they had “kindergarten readiness skills,” meaning that they had the capacity to learn and grow, eventually meeting most of the benchmarks and standards by the end of kindergarten. At times, students would benefit from an extra year of pre kindergarten and, in my experience, it’s best not to rush this process.
I’ve put together some skills that children work on throughout kindergarten that we considered when analyzing if they were ready to move up. Children do grow at different rates, so this is just to give you a sense of what they work on - they do not need to master all of these skills, just be growing and progressing. Also, keep in mind that the school I worked at, while inclusive, was not a special education school setting; if your child has an IEP, think about the supports that they will need to help them meet these goals. Perhaps speech and language support? Maybe a para? If you applied your child to independent and private schools this can also give you a sense of what they may be assessing during their playdates and interviews.
I hope the insights on kindergarten skills below help give you a sense of what most programs are looking for. As always, I’m available to discuss your child’s specific needs and any questions you may have.
Social and Emotional Development:
Separate from caregivers without excessive distress
Follow directions willingly
Transition between classes and different areas of the classroom
Increase self-reliance (put personal belongings away, clean up after themselves with some reminders)
Develop self-control and self-regulation
Display curiosity
Share with others and take turns
Relate to adults and peers
Self-Help Skills:
Dress independently, with some support for buttons, zippers, and snaps
Use the restroom without assistance
Wash hands with minimal reminders
Clean up after themselves with prompting
Literacy Skills:
Recognize, print, and identify the sound of alphabet letters (uppercase and lowercase)
Learn basic sight words and use phonetic skills to sound out unknown words
Write sentences using inventive spelling
Listen to and read stories
Perceptual and auditory skills
Motor skills (general and eye-hand coordination)
Language skills (organizing thoughts and communicating with others)
Listening skills (paying attention and following directions)
Number knowledge (understanding numbers, order, correspondence, attributes)
Desire to read
Language Development:
Engage in listening activities
Improve vocabulary and expressive abilities
Sequence storytelling
Explain thinking
Solve problems verbally
Exchange ideas and ask questions
Familiarity with nursery rhymes, stories, and poems
Identify and distinguish between rhyming words
Listen without interrupting
Retell stories and directions
Math Skills:
Master number names and count sequence
Count to 100
Count all to tell the number of objects
Understand one-to-one correspondenceProblem-solving using drawings or concrete objects
Introduction of size and quantity comparisons, time-telling, interpretation of graphs, classification, patterning, measurement, and geometric shapes
Work on addition, subtraction, and numbers 11-19 for place value
Express mathematical ideas to peers and teachers
Discuss weather and calendar concepts
Fine Motor Skills/Handwriting:
Hold a pencil and practice printing, coloring, tracing, pasting, and cutting
Gross Motor Skills:
Running, jumping, hopping, walking up and down stairs, and bouncing a ball