Kindergarten English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Kindergarten english language arts in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Oral Language - Speaking & Listening. Students will speak and listen to explore, extend, clairfy, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Reading and Viewing. Students will be expected to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Writing and Representing. Students will be expected to use writing and other forms of representation to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imaginations.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases.
- Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?”
- Point out letters on signs, cereal boxes and the street.
- Ask your child to tell you a story about their drawing, and write down a sentence or two.
What each unit covers
Listening & Talking
Practises what a good listener looks like, asking who, what and where questions, speaking in whole sentences, and choosing a voice and words that suit the listener. Take turns chatting with your child and ask them to say back what they heard.
Talk & Listen
Chat about the day, ask your child to answer in a whole sentence, and let them ask you questions. Poems and rhymes are great practice too.
Clap the Beat
Breaking words into syllables (ba-na-na) by clapping. Clap along out loud: one clap for each part you hear.
Rhyme Time
Hearing rhymes (cat, hat) and spotting a word that doesn't rhyme. Rhyming games build the listening skills behind reading.
First Sounds
Hearing the first sound in a word (b in bus) and linking it to its letter. Say the words out loud together and stretch out the first sound.
Blend a Word
Listening for the sounds in a word, blending them to read it, and counting the sounds in words.
Picture Clues
Using the picture and the first letter to read a word or a short sentence, a key early reading strategy.
Sight Words
Recognizing common words such as the, see, can and my, plus colour and number words, by looking closely at their letters.
Book Detectives
How print works: telling letters, numbers, words and sentences apart, reading left to right and top to bottom, counting words, and what authors and illustrators do.
Think About a Book
Practises what readers do before, during and after a book: using the cover and what they already know to predict, making connections to their own lives, asking questions, seeing themselves in books, and noticing that people can respond differently to the same text.
Story Order
Putting events in order, and listening to short stories to tell what happened at the beginning, middle and end.
Letter Partners
Matching capital (big) letters with their lowercase (small) partners, including look-alikes such as b, d, p and q.
Capitals, Periods & Planning
Practises capital letters for names, I and the start of a sentence, periods and exclamation marks, five- or six-word sentences, planning a piece of writing by drawing or talking, putting ideas in order, simple text forms such as lists, letters, stories and information, and changing a piece after feedback.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the PEI report card guide.
Common questions
Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases. Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?” Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Prince Edward Island Curriculum Kindergarten english language arts units include listening & talking, talk & listen, clap the beat, rhyme time, first sounds, blend a word.
Free printable Kindergarten english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.