Working Together to Support Georgia's Kindergarten Students

The Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS) is one way to document and communicate your child's progress on the concepts in Georgia's kindergarten standards during his or her kindergarten year. GKIDS 2.0 is one measure of a student's readiness for first grade.

English Language Arts

This area of learning includes big ideas related to early language and literacy development. These big ideas support students' development of effective communication, foundational literacy skills, and process writing. We have developed activities to help you better support your child at home. You may access the activities by clicking on any of the progressions below. Should you wish to print the activities for quick reference, click on the printer icon included with each progression. Note: The Exceeding level is not assessed in the Concepts of Print progression. The Beginning level is not assessed in the Phonics progression.

Big Idea

Students build a foundation for achieving dynamic literacy practices to aid reading comprehension.

Progression: Phonological Awareness

Beginning

Activities

Same or Different?: When talking or reading books, ask your child to choose a word that you read. Ask your child to think of another word that begins with the same sound (e.g., Silly Sam sings songs about snakes and snails). Ask your child about the same word and another word that starts with a different sound (e.g., Sam, Fred; snakes, frogs).

Make a Sentence: Give your child two words. Ask your child to make a sentence using those words. For example, baseball, plate. Your child can respond “He threw the baseball too hard, missing the player and sliding into the home plate.”

Sentence Chop: Use one of your child's favorite decodable books. Ask your child to read the words so that they make sense (e.g., from Green Eggs and Ham: I am Sam, Sam I Am; Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like green eggs and ham). As your child reads ask them to clap for each word that they hear. You, as the parent, can count on your fingers the number of claps you hear from your child. Ask your child to read the sentence again and then as each clap is made, take away one of your fingers to see if your child clapped the correct number of times.

What Sounds Does this Letter Make?: As your child reads easily decodable text, spend some time focusing in on specific words. For example, help them blend the initial sound and then the vowel and any following consonants of each word (cat, c-at) and replace phonemes (cat -> bat, b-at).

How does it start?: Using books or index cards with three letter words, ask your child to produce the sound that the first letter makes (e.g., bad, ham, red, bet, hot, top, lid, pig, bug, fun)

Emerging

Activities

Two of a Kind: When talking or reading books, say three words to your child. Two of them should rhyme. Your child will listen for the rhyming pair and call it out. For example, "Pillow, plant, willow” — which two rhyme? Point out that the two rhyming words have the same sound at the end. Ask your child to say a word and then you produce the rhyme. Take turns passing the rhyming duties back and forth.

Wordle Junior: Place a number of letters in a bowl. Ask your child to draw out a few letters from the bowl. Ask what words could be made from the separate letters. Ask your child to read the word by first isolating the specific phonemes (letter sounds; e.g., b-i-g) and then by using the phonemes to make the word (e.g., big). If your child draws out three letters that do not make known words, you can explain that they made a nonsense word. Ask your child if they can think of a letter that he or she can exchange to make a known word (e.g., child chooses /n/, /b/, and /w/, and then substitutes out the /b/ for an /o/.)

Segmenting Words: Moments throughout the day practice segmenting spoken one-syllable words. Step outside with your child to find different things that are one-syllable words. For example, if you see a dog, say the word dog to your child. Ask your child to segment the word (d-og).

Phoneme Blending Bingo Create bingo cards with simple three phoneme words such as top, man, and bug. Speak the individual sounds in each word and have your child blend them together to identify the picture on the bingo card.

Real and Nonsense: Using index cards, write the rime (the following vowel and all subsequent sounds in the syllable) on a card. On another card, write the onset (initial consonant sound, blend, or digraph). Using the onset, ask your child to combine the onset and rime and determine whether the word is real or a nonsense word.

Syllable Symphony: As you and your child think about the parts of words, clap the syllables. Say the word again by syllable and count the number of syllables (hap-py, 2 syllables). Use familiar words such as your child’s name, familiar words from stories, or ask them to say a word to break apart into syllables. As they becomes familiar with the task, ask your child to produce the letter sounds at the beginning of the syllable for which the syllables are isolated.

How does it end?: Using books or index cards with three letter words, ask your child to produce the sound that the last letter makes (e.g., bad, ham, red, bet, hot, top, lid, pig, bug, fun)

Developing

Activities

Rhyme time: Play this fun game with your child: “I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with now. What's the animal?" Answer: cow. What else rhymes with cow? (plow, sow, bow). Extend the activity by taking turns generating pairs of words that rhyme (that/mat; table/cable; Jill/ hill; brown/town).

Making Compound Words: Get your whole family involved! Have each member of your family draw a card on which you have written one word. Then invite your child to find a partner whose word can join theirs to create a compound word. (e.g. doll, house, boat, ship, bird; compound words would be dollhouse, houseboat, birdhouse).

Clap it Out (Segment Syllables): Using words with multiple syllables, ask your child to clap as they say each syllable within the word (e.g., but-ter-fly; Fri-day; com-pu-ter; to-day; your child's name Rob-ert).

Blending Syllables: Think of some compound words or syllables within larger words. Starting with compound words (e.g., baseball, dollhouse, snowman), say the syllables and ask your child to put them together (e.g., base-ball, doll house). Move on from compound words to multisyllabic words (e.g., to-geth-er; to-mor-row, etc.)

Predictable Words: Help your child think about short words that have a predictable consonant-vowel-consonant (C-V-C) pattern (e.g., dog, run, cat). Extend the activity by asking them to substitute letters to make new pattern C-V-C words. As you read together, have your child point out this type of word in the text and then pronounce the word.

Oh, the Sounds Letters Make!: As you read texts with your child, have them point to a letter. Ask them, what sound does this letter make? Focus on consonants first, then short vowels sounds, and then long vowel sounds.

Demonstrating

Activities

Compound Fun: Think of words that when paired together create compound words (e.g., mail, box, man, post, bath, tub, snow, etc.). Give your child two words and create compound words. Keep adding the potential for compound words by adding another word to the mix. For example, if you say the word man, what compound words could be made (e.g., mailman, snowman, milkman)?

Syllable Deletion: Say a word to your child (compound or multisyllabic word) and then ask your child to repeat it. Then, tell your child to repeat that word without a syllable from the word. Say: "I'm going to say a word and ask you to take out a whole part. Say tomorrow. Now, say tomorrow without saying mor." "To…row." Other examples (silliness: sil-li-…; cafeteria: …-e-ter-ia).

Letters Speaking Together: Using words with letters that blend (e.g., stop, spot), model how the letters blend together. Ask your child to think of some words that have similar blends. To extend the activity, ask them to isolate the other letter sounds in the word. Use helpful tools like letter tiles or simple flash cards to assist with the task.

Blends and Ends: Focus on words within text that end with a final –e (e.g., like) or that blend (e.g., stop, who). Support your child as they learn rules associated with the final –e (i.e., other vowels in the word become long vowels) or blends of consonants.

Exceeding

Activities

Swap a letter: Create cards with singles letters of word families (e.g., c, m, s, p, fl for the “at" family to produce cat, mat, sat, pat, flat). Have your child draw a card with the phonemes and write down their selections.

What Sounds Does this Group of Letters (Blends/Digraphs/Trigraphs) Make?: As your child reads easily decodable text, spend some time focusing in on specific words. For example, help them isolate the sounds for each group of letters in a word. For example, using a digraph of ch at the beginning or end of a word (e.g., chat, chest, chip, chop, lunch, match, itch), using an ending trigraph of nth (e.g., month, ninth, tenth), or using a beginning trigraph of shr (e.g., shrimp, shrink, shrub).

Progression: Concepts of Print

Beginning

Activities

Mirror Image: As you read with your child, ask your child to model after you as you hold a book upright and read from the beginning. Try to fool your child and hold the book upside down and read from the end to see if they catch your error!

Book Rules: As you read with your child using your finger as a guide, talk about and model how one reads from left to right, from top to bottom, and from page to page.

Alphabet Search: Set up a sensory bin with sand, rice, or cornmeal and hide plastic alphabet bins inside. Have each member of your family search for a letter and identify its name and sound. Once all of the letters have been found, recite the alphabet with the family.

Upper or Lower Case?: Help your child match uppercase and lowercase letters with this fun game. Using a marker, label egg crates with either upper case or lowercase letters. On dried beans, write either upper case or lowercase letters on the beans. Ask your child to place their beans with the corresponding letter in the right compartment.

Emerging

Activities
Book Rules: As you read with your child using your finger as a guide, talk about and model how one reads from left to right, from top to bottom, and from page to page.
Upper or Lower Case?: Help your child match uppercase and lowercase letters with this fun game. Using a marker, label egg crates with either upper case or lowercase letters. On dried beans, write either upper case or lowercase letters on the beans. Ask your child to place their beans with the corresponding letter in the right compartment.

Developing

Activities

Tell me the Parts: Using a variety of print around your home and community, ask your child to point out letters, words, digits (numbers), and graphics. For example, using a magazine or a newspaper, ask your child to identify a common graphic and discuss with your child that the graphic is a symbol for something. As you read a book, ask your child to identify letters, words, and numbers on a page.

Books and all of their Parts: As you read with your child, ask your child to identify the front and back covers of the book. Make your own book with your child and ask them to list a title, author, and illustrator. Include a graphic in your co-designed creation!

A Word and Its Parts: As you read an easily decodable text, ask your child to identify a word. For that word, ask your child to point to a specific letter in that word. Extend the activity by asking your child if they can produce the sound for that letter.

One Word and the Next: As you read an easily decodable text, ask your child to put their finger on one word, then ask them to move their finger to the next word. Comment on the space in between two words. Author a brief story or poem with your child; as you do, comment on the spaces that are found between words.

Find that Letter!: Using environmental print (i.e.: signs, words on labels or items around your home) in the community or your home, play a “find that letter” game. For example, say I am looking for the letter, P, see who is the first to locate one! Let your child take the lead in calling out the letter to find!

Demonstrating

Activities

Keep a Child/Parent Daily Diary: Provide a small journaling book for your child. Ask your child to write about the most fun, interesting, or exciting thing about their day. Add your own statement about your day and ask your child to read both entries to you. Model appropriate capitalization, spacing, and punctuation in your writing to help your child make similar associations in their writing.

Letter, Word, or Sentence?: When reading books, ask your child to point to a specific word or letter. For example, let's find a letter on this page that is the same as the first letter of your name. Ask about a word. For example, help me find the word dog. Ask your child to use two fingers to point to two different words and comment that there are spaces between words. Ask your child how to identify the start and end of a sentence. Extend this activity in your child's own writing by asking your child to help write a thank you note, write down your day's activities, or document through words a picture that your child has drawn.

Progression: Phonics

Emerging

Activities

Bag It!: Cut out pictures from magazines, flyers, or other print materials. Sort the pictures by sounds (phonemes) into bags labeled (grapheme) with the letters of the alphabet. Extend the game by reviewing the elements of each bag and asking the child to form the letter sound when describing the pictures in the respective bags.

A Short Vowel Roll of the Die!: Tape A, E, I, O, and U to the face of a die. On small pieces of paper, write consonants. Ask your child to choose two consonants and then roll the die. Ask your child to create a word with their consonants and the letter rolled on the die. Ask your child to pronounce the word. Extend the activity by asking the child if the word is real or nonsense.

Developing

Activities

A Long Vowel Roll of the Die!: Tape A, E, I, O, and U to the face of a die. On a small piece of paper, write consonants. Ask your child to choose two consonants and then roll the die twice. Ask your child to create a word with their consonants (e.g., c and k) and the letters rolled on the die (e.g., a and e). Ask your child to pronounce the word. Extend the activity by asking the child if the word is real or nonsense.

Match Game: On small squares, write words that represent VC (e.g., on, in, up, at), CV words (e.g., to, be, at), and CVC words (e.g., cat, how, put, tub). Make two of each word. Place the words face down on the table. Ask your child to choose two cards, read the words, and see if they have a match.

Word Sleuth: Identify irregularly spelled high frequency words in environmental contexts (i.e., signs or words around the house and/or community) or print materials found in the home. Choose two to three words per day and make that your sleuthing mission for the day. Some sample words include the, was, from, have, of, there, want, you, said, and does.

Make a Substitution: On an index card, write individual vowels. On another card, write individual consonants that can be paired with those vowels. Ask your child to draw cards with a single vowel and then pair that letter with a consonant. Ask your children to pronounce their newly formed word.

One Syllable Bingo: Using a whiteboard with erasable markers, develop a three-by-three bingo card with high-frequency vowel-consonant (e.g., eat, up, ape, app, odd, on, in, an, out) and consonant-vowel one-syllable words (bee, key, toe, moo, tie, day, boo, zoo, hi, and no). Choose one word from a container at a time and ask your child to pronounce the word and find it on his or her bingo card. Three in a row wins!

Demonstrating

Activities

Same and Different: Say two similar words with different beginning sounds (e.g., pig and fig). Ask your child to note how the words sound the same and how the words are different. Say two similar words with different ending sounds (e.g., hip, hit). Ask your child if these two words sound the same or how they are different. Keep the game going by choosing additional words to explore.

Make a Substitution: On an index card, write individual and common endings for words (e.g., -ig, -ow, -at). On another card, write a letter that can be paired with those endings. Ask your child to draw cards with a single letter and then pair that letter with the word endings. Ask your children to pronounce their newly formed word.

Look, Cover, Write, Check: Write high-frequency irregularly spelled words such as the, was, from, have, of, there, want, you, said, and does. Ask your child to say the word aloud. Cover the word. Ask your child to write the word and then check the spelling together.

Exceeding

Activities

Blend and Digraph Diary: Using environmental print (i.e.: signs, words on labels or items around your home) or books you and your child read, have your child locate and write down words that use blends (e.g., bl, fi, sc, scr, nt, nk) or digraphs (e.g., ch, sh, th, wh, ng). See how many words you can add to your diary!

Team Vowel: Craft a list of words that have both long and sort vowels. Mix the words in a container. One team should represent short vowels, with the other team serving as the long vowel team. Take turns choosing a word and then identify whether the word represents a word with a short or long vowel sound. Place the word with either the long or short vowel. The first team with 10 words is the winner!

Deeper Dive: As you read your child's favorite books, stop and take a moment to dissect a word. Ask your child to sound out the word by emphasizing each phoneme (letter sound). Ask your child to identify the consonants and vowels in the word.

Deeper Dive. As you read your child's favorite books, stop and take a moment to dissect a word that might not be familiar to your child. Ask your child to sound out the word by emphasizing each phoneme (letter sound). Ask your child to identify the consonants and vowels in the word. Ask your child to write that word down on a list for new words to review.

Progression: Fluency

Beginning

Activities

Sight Words in a Flash. On index cards, list regularly and irregularly spelled high frequency words such as the, a, I, to, and, was, for, you, is, and of. Practice the speed with which your child can state the words as the cards are placed in front of them. Double the words and place them face down for a matching game to extend the activity. Add in the names of family and friends to develop automaticity in your child's sight word reading.

Emerging

Activities

Young Authors. Ask your child to dictate a story to you which you can write down. After it is written down, ask your child to read the story back to you. If your child stumbles on a word, ask your child to use their decoding skills to sound out their written words.

Developing

Activities

Let’s Read Together. Choose one of your child’s favorite books. As you read together, gradually lower your voice and let your child take the lead in their choral reading

Demonstrating

Activities

What Does this Book Tell Us? Choose a new book that looks to be of interest to your child. As you read together with a narrative (storytelling text), ask your child questions about what he or she might predict to be next to occur in the story. If you read an expository or informational text, stop along the way as you read to ask questions about the material you are reading. Think about questions that are concrete (point out something in a picture), abstract (What do you think might be the reason for…), and relational (relate the topic to the direct experiences that your child has had).

Exceeding

Activities

Let’s Read Together. Choose one of your child’s favorite books. As you read, help your child with their prosody (patterns of stress and intonation in language; phrasing, expression, juncture/pause, and intonation). As you read together, gradually lower your voice and let your child take the lead in their choral reading.

Progression: Handwriting

Beginning

Activities

Fun with Foam. Using materials such as shaving cream or pudding, show your child a model of both lowercase and uppercase letters. Ask your child to create that letter in the chosen material. Move the activity to paper and ask your child to either trace over or copy letters using a variety of writing tools.

Making a List. As you move through your day and need lists for a variety of reasons, ask your child to help you construct the list. Ensure that your child is holding the writing utensil or other writing device appropriately (i.e., with a tripod grasp) to make meaningful marks on paper.

Emerging

Activities

Let’s Write Together—Part I. Take turns with your child writing lowercase and uppercase letters. You can practice with a whiteboard, chalkboard, or paper. You can ask your child to form a specific letter and then your child can tell you what letter to form. Compare your responses and talk about the features of the letters you have written.

Developing

Activities

It’s All in a Name: Encourage your child to begin to spell using strings of letters. Children are curious about writing their names, names of their siblings and pets, and other key phrases (e.g., love you, places, and labeling drawings). Although your child’s spelling might not be perfect, praise attempts at their spelling.

Cub Reporter: Ask your child to write the words and brief sentences that you dictate. It is helpful to make the words or sentences into a short story. Once the story is complete, ask them to read the story back to you.

Demonstrating

Activities

Schoolwork Review: As your child brings home their schoolwork, review your child’s writing. Point out spacing between words, punctuation, and capitalization.

Let’s Label It. Ask your child to draw a picture. Label your child’s drawing or ask your child to write a story to go along with the picture.

Exceeding

Activities

Let’s Write Together—Part II. Ask your child to help in naturally occurring opportunities to write (e.g., names on lunch bags, lists for shopping, notes to family members, homework, etc.). Examine your child’s work and talk about the features of the letters your child has written.

Let’s Write Together—Part III. Ask your child to help in naturally occurring opportunities to write (e.g., names on lunch bags, lists for shopping, notes to family members, homework, etc.). Examine your child’s work and talk about the features of the words/sentences your child has written.

Pen Pals: Provide opportunities for your child to write letters or brief notes to family members or friends. As your child composes these letters or notes, talk about writing conventions such as spacing between words, punctuation, and capitalization.

Big Idea

Students grow in their learning as they purposefully engage with texts.

Progression: Interpreting Texts

Beginning

Activities

Book Study: While reading a book or beginning reader book with your child, ask your child to tell you why we read books. Then, ask your child to identify the author and/or illustrators of the book. Finally, ask your child to point to character.

Emerging

Activities

Name that Role: When reading a picture book, as your child what an author does or what do we call the person who wrote this book. Then, ask the student what an illustrator or what do we call a person that draws the pictures in a book.

Developing

Activities

Interesting Reading!: Provide a small book for your child. Ask your child to identify descriptive and/or interesting words that appeal to the senses.

Demonstrating

Activities

Fascinating Features: Using a fiction or nonfiction book, helps your child identify different text features (titles, headings, photos, and illustrations) that make the book unique. Make it an adventure and find as many fascinating features throughout the book as you read.

Let's Read! Read! Read!: With your child, read various types of books. Ask questions to help your child interpret the text. For example, ask the student to tell you the lesson of the story, or compare and contrast characters, or determine the connection between two individuals, events, or ideas in a book. Provide guidance as needed when answering questions.

Exceeding

Activities

Read! Read! Read!: Let your child independently read various types of books. Then, ask questions to check your child's interpretation of the text. For example, ask the student to tell you the lesson of the story, or compare and contrast characters, or determine the connection between two individuals, events, or ideas in a book.

Progression: Constructing Texts

Beginning

Activities

Storytelling: With your child, describe a recent vacation, trip to the store, or memorable experience. Then, ask your student to retell their experience using drawings, labels, pictures, letters, words, and/or sentences.

Emerging

Activities

Creative Captions: As your child produces drawings, ask him to describe in writing what he included in the picture or generate and write a title for the drawing.

Developing

Activities

Demonstrating

Activities

Swap a letter: Create cards with single letters of word families (e.g., cat, mat, sat, pat, flat). Have your child draw cards with the phonemes and write down their selections.

Story Writing: Encourage your child to compose brief stories. Allow your child to use invented spelling in their writing. Ask your child to read back their writing.

Exceeding

Activities

Story Writing: Encourage your child to compose brief stories. Allow your child to use invented spelling in their writing. Ask your child to read back their writing.

Big Idea

Students learn and apply the structures and conventions of standard English. Students observe and analyze how grammar works in reading and writing. Students build vocabularies and determine word meanings as they relate to reading and writing.

Progression: Grammar Conventions & Vocabulary

Beginning

Activities

How Should I Say That? Say or read silly sentences to your child and ask them to correct you using correct agreement between nouns and verbs.

Emerging

Activities

How Should I Say That? Say or read silly sentences to your child and ask them to correct you using correct agreement between singular and plural nouns and verbs (e.g., The dog eat/eats its food. Sally and Tom watch/watches the TV).

Sentence Components: Using popsicle sticks, write the subject on one popsicle stick and the predicate on another for several sentences. Ask your child to match the popsicle sticks together to form intelligible sentences.

Which Version? Help your child keep a vocabulary journal for unknown and multiple-meaning words. Have your child draw a picture of the multiple ways that a word can be used.

For example:

“The duck shook his feathers to dry off"; and “We can hide if we duck behind that wall."
“The bat flew into the cave"; and “He hit the ball with his baseball bat."
Look for clues in context within text. For example, the little girl ate her porridge (use the picture of the girl from the picture in the text).

Developing

Activities

The Big Five: Ask your child to ask you about your day. Use questions that include Who? What? Where? When? And How?

Creative Writing: Ask your child to craft simple sentences to express their thoughts. Combine the sentences together to craft a complete story. Read your story together and then ask your child some questions about their creation.

Scavenger Hunt: Cut pictures from magazines or other print material. Ask your child to categorize the words based on similarities and differences. For example, group together all of the pictures that indicate dinner foods, modes of transportation, toys. Do the same with differences (e.g., living or non-living things).

Dictionary Authors—Part I: For kindergarten, general vocabulary includes word components such as prefixes or suffixes. Academic words might refer specific uses of words such as “set your pencil down" or “those unifix cubes are a set of 10." Other words might be domain specific and use specific content areas such as “I saw the bird fly near the window"; or “That fly landed on my sandwich." Help your child create a dictionary with words with multiple or unique meanings. Use pictures for your child to remember the unique meanings.

Demonstrating

Activities

What is wrong? Using paper or a whiteboard, write five sentences that have uncapitalized starts to questions or sentences. Include the pronoun “I" in some examples. Ask your child to suggest corrections to your sentences.

Creative Writing: Ask your child to craft simple sentences to express their thoughts. Combine the sentences together to craft a complete story. Read your story together and then underline the subjects and verbs within the text. As you review the sentences, ask if the subject or verb would change if the subject became plural.

Dictionary Authors—Part II:

Use unique vocabulary words to communicate in different contexts. For example, a child might jump up and down in gym class but might also jump two spaces on a board game.

Mini-Thesaurus: Help your child create their own thesaurus to use in their writing. For example, help your child think of rich descriptive words to add to their writing, such as colorful words for

Big: large, gigantic, huge, tremendous
Special: extraordinary, remarkable, unique
Fun: exciting, super, interesting, playful

Exceeding

Activities

Making Many. Using paper or a whiteboard, write sentences that contain singular nouns and ask your child what they would change in the sentence to make the sentence correct (e.g., My friend plays with me, My friends play with me. I live in a blue house. My cousins live in red houses.)

Modified Bingo: Craft a bingo card with standard verbs. Ask your child to cover the word on their bingo card when you mention modified verbs including -ing, -es, and -s which change based on tenses and plurality (e.g., sing to singing; watch to watches; walk to walks).

Complete or Incomplete: Using paper or a whiteboard, write sentences that are complete and incomplete. If the sentences are incomplete, ask your child how they would complete the thought in the sentence.

Same or Opposite: Write vocabulary words on index cards. Flip a coin, heads means synonyms and tails means antonyms. Have your child choose a card and then provide either a synonym or antonym. For example, a vocabulary word might be tired, sample synonyms might be exhausted, sleepy, worn out. Sample antonyms might be awake, alert, and ready.

Working Together to Support Georgia's Kindergarten Students

English Language Arts

Big Idea​​​

Students build a foundation for achieving dynamic literacy practices to aid reading comprehension.

Big Idea

Students grow in their learning as they purposefully engage with texts.

Big Idea

Students learn and apply the structures and conventions of standard English. Students observe and analyze how grammar works in reading and writing. Students build vocabularies and determine word meanings as they relate to reading and writing.

Big Idea