What will my kindergartner learn about spelling?

Your kindergartner will begin to learn about spelling by connecting the sounds she hears in words to their letter representations. She will be introduced to all of the letters of the alphabet early in the year. Then throughout the year, the teacher will focus on one letter at a time and its sound. Your kindergartner will learn the sounds associated with the letters of her name. She will do activities to increase awareness of the sounds of the alphabet, such as making a collage of cut-out magazine pictures that begin with a particular letter.

Invented spelling

In kindergarten, children are encouraged to spell words the way they sound, which is called invented or inventive spelling. For example, your child may spell the word cat by writing ct. Children usually start writing with consonants and beginning sounds first because these sounds are more distinct than vowels and ending sounds. When children use invented spelling, they are showing their knowledge of the sounds letters make. Research shows that letting children use invented spelling as they begin to write allows them to focus on the purpose of writing — communication. As they learn the rules of spelling, they begin to apply them and make the transition to conventional spelling.

By the end of kindergarten your child will have learned to spell:

• Consonant-vowel-consonant words such as bat and fan
• His own name

What will my kindergartner learn about handwriting?

Since kindergartners’ fine motor skills are still developing, they are first introduced to handwriting through a variety of tactile (how it feels) approaches. Typical activities may include writing letters in finger paints, in a box of salt or in sand. They may also write letters in mid-air with their fingers and trace the letters at the blackboard or on paper. In kindergarten, students learn how to hold a pencil correctly. They usually begin to learn how to form letters by writing the letters in their names. They will practice writing upper- and lower-case letters of the alphabet, learning how to correctly shape and space them. They may learn how to write a letter as they learn the sound it makes. Kindergartners learn that we write from left to right and from top to bottom.

To find out what your kindergartner should be learning in art, read

What Your Child Should be Learning: Kindergarten Art

January 2006