What should a child know by the end of kindergarten? A checklist
Here is the actual end-of-kindergarten expectation, line by line, with the standard it comes from. Two things before you start: this is a wide normal range, not a target, and a child who is behind on one line and ahead on four is completely ordinary.
Reading
- Names most upper and lowercase letters
- Says the sound for most consonants, and both sounds for each vowel
- Recognises rhyme and claps syllables
- Says the first sound in a spoken word
- Blends three sounds into a word, with support
- Reads about 10 to 40 common words by sight
- Reads simple books with purpose and understanding
Pulling apart every sound in a word is emerging at this age, not expected. If a child can isolate the first sound reliably, they are where they should be.
Math
- Counts to 100 by ones and by tens
- Writes the numerals 0 to 20
- Counts up to 20 objects, touching each one once
- Knows the last number counted is how many there are
- Says which of two groups has more, up to ten
- Adds and subtracts within 10; fluent within 5
- Breaks numbers to ten into pairs — 5 is 4 and 1, or 3 and 2
- Sees a teen number as ten and some more
- Names 2D and 3D shapes whichever way round they are
Handwriting
- Prints many capitals and some lowercase letters
- Holds a pencil in a tripod grasp
- Writes their own first name
Letters varying two to four times in height within one word is normal at five. So is reversing letters 30 to 60 percent of the time. Neither is a warning sign yet.
The three that matter most
If you only track three lines on this page, track these:
- Letter sounds, instantly. Not letter names — sounds, with no pause. Everything in reading is downstream of this.
- Blending three sounds into a word. This is the moment reading starts. A child with sounds but no blending is stuck at the door.
- One number per object while counting. A child who can recite to twenty but cannot count six buttons has not started counting yet.
What if they are not there?
Most gaps at this age close with a few minutes of the right practice daily, and the right practice is almost always one step below where you think the child is. Start easy. The commonest reason a five-year-old stalls is a gap further down, not the thing in front of them.
What is worth asking a teacher about: no letter sounds at all by the end of the year, no blending after months of explicit practice, or counting that still breaks down below ten. None of those is a diagnosis — they are reasons to ask someone who can assess properly.
Practise any line on this list, free
Every skill above has a rung. No account, no card, and it works offline once it has loaded.
Written by the Ladderbug team. We build a free reading and math site for ages 4 to 11, so we have an interest here — where that interest might bend an answer, we have tried to say so on the page rather than hide it.