Kindergarten Registration 2026-2027

What Kindergarten Students Need to Know and Practice for the 2026–2027 School Year

Every child develops at a different pace. Students are not expected to master everything before entering kindergarten. Families can use this guide to build confidence, independence, and school readiness through everyday practice.

About My Family and Me

Students should be able to:

• Say their first and last name.
• Recognize their written first name.
• Begin writing their first name using an uppercase first letter and lowercase remaining letters.
• State their age.
• Identify their parent, guardian, or trusted adult by name.
• Know how they get home from school—bus, car rider, daycare, or walker.
• Recognize their personal belongings, including their backpack, lunchbox, and jacket.
• Know that their address and telephone number are important emergency information.
• Identify trusted adults who can help them.

Following School Routines

Students should practice how to:

• Enter the classroom and follow the morning routine.
• Put away their backpack, lunchbox, folder, and other belongings.
• Sit appropriately during group lessons.
• Listen while another person is speaking.
• Follow one- and two-step directions.
• Raise their hand and wait to be called on.
• Walk safely in a line.
• Transition from one activity to another.
• Use an inside voice when appropriate.
• Clean up materials after an activity.
• Complete a short activity before moving to something else.
• Follow classroom, hallway, cafeteria, playground, and bus rules.

Communication Skills

Students should be able to:

• Speak clearly enough to communicate basic needs.
• Ask for help when needed.
• Tell an adult when they are hurt, sick, worried, or uncomfortable.
• Express the need to use the restroom.
• Answer simple questions about a story or experience.
• Participate in age-appropriate conversations.
• Listen and respond to others.
• Use words to express feelings and solve problems.
• Understand that it is always appropriate to tell a trusted adult about an unsafe situation.

Social and Emotional Skills

Students should practice how to:

• Separate from a parent or guardian for the school day.
• Identify basic emotions, such as happy, sad, angry, worried, excited, and frustrated.
• Express feelings using appropriate words.
• Take turns and share materials.
• Play and work cooperatively with others.
• Respect personal space.
• Keep hands, feet, and objects to themselves.
• Accept guidance and correction from an adult.
• Wait briefly for assistance or a turn.
• Try again when something is difficult.
• Use calming strategies, such as taking deep breaths, counting, or asking for a break.
• Apologize and make better choices after a mistake.
• Recognize that classmates may have different abilities, backgrounds, and needs.
• Show kindness, respect, and empathy.

Independence and Self-Care

Students should practice how to:

• Use the restroom independently.
• Flush the toilet and wash and dry their hands.
• Manage clothing before and after using the restroom.
• Blow or wipe their nose and dispose of the tissue.
• Cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or elbow.
• Open and close a backpack.
• Put on and remove a coat or jacket.
• Manage simple buttons, snaps, and zippers.
• Open common lunch and snack containers.
• Eat independently and clean their eating area.
• Use eating utensils appropriately.
• Ask for assistance when something cannot be opened or managed safely.
• Keep track of personal belongings.

Executive Function Skills

Students should begin developing the ability to:

• Pay attention during a short lesson or activity.
• Remember and follow simple directions.
• Start a task after receiving instructions.
• Remain with a task for an age-appropriate amount of time.
• Organize and put away materials.
• Move calmly between activities.
• Adjust when a routine or activity changes.
• Stop and think before acting.
• Control impulses with adult support.
• Identify what is needed to complete a task.
• Ask questions when directions are unclear.
• Check whether a task is finished.
• Continue working after making a mistake.

Early Reading and Language Skills

Students should begin to:

• Enjoy listening to stories.
• Hold a book correctly.
• Turn pages one at a time.
• Understand that print carries meaning.
• Know that English print is generally read from left to right and top to bottom.
• Identify the front cover, back cover, title, and pictures in a book.
• Retell familiar events or parts of a story.
• Identify characters and settings.
• Make simple predictions about what may happen next.
• Recognize some rhyming words.
• Clap or count the syllables in familiar words.
• Identify the beginning sounds in some words.
• Recognize some uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Begin connecting letters with their sounds.
• Recognize their first name in print.
• Speak in complete thoughts or sentences appropriate to their development.
• Use pictures to describe or create a story.

Early Writing Skills

Students should practice how to:

• Hold a pencil, crayon, or marker with increasing control.
• Draw lines, curves, circles, and simple shapes.
• Draw a recognizable picture.
• Use drawings to communicate an idea.
• Trace or copy letters and simple shapes.
• Attempt to write their first name.
• Begin writing familiar letters.
• Understand that writing communicates a message.
• Add details to a drawing or dictated story.

Early Mathematics Skills

Students should begin to:

• Count aloud in sequence.
• Count objects one at a time.
• Understand that the last number counted tells how many objects are in the group.
• Recognize some written numerals.
• Match a numeral to a group of objects.
• Compare groups using more, fewer, and the same.
• Sort objects by color, shape, size, or type.
• Copy and extend simple patterns.
• Recognize basic shapes, including circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.
• Identify common colors.
• Use positional words such as above, below, beside, behind, inside, and outside.
• Compare objects using bigger, smaller, longer, shorter, heavier, and lighter.
• Understand basic time words such as first, next, last, before, after, today, and tomorrow.
• Begin solving simple real-life addition and subtraction situations with objects.

Fine-Motor Skills

Students should practice how to:

• Use crayons, pencils, and markers.
• Use child-safe scissors appropriately.
• Cut along a straight or curved line.
• Use glue without excessive amounts.
• Build with blocks or connecting pieces.
• Complete age-appropriate puzzles.
• Manipulate play dough.
• String beads or complete other lacing activities.
• Pick up and sort small objects safely.
• Handle books and classroom materials carefully.

Gross-Motor and Physical Skills

Students should be able to participate in activities that involve:

• Walking and running safely.
• Jumping with two feet.
• Hopping with increasing balance.
• Climbing playground equipment safely.
• Throwing, rolling, and catching a ball.
• Maintaining personal space during movement.
• Participating in simple games.
• Following basic playground and physical-activity rules.

Safety Skills

Students should know how to:

• Follow directions during safety drills.
• Remain with their teacher or assigned group.
• Walk rather than run in hallways.
• Use playground equipment safely.
• Follow bus and car-rider procedures.
• Never leave school with an unfamiliar person.
• Tell a trusted adult if they feel unsafe.
• Understand that medications should only be given by an authorized adult.
• Avoid sharing food when allergy restrictions may apply.
• Recognize that emergencies require quiet listening and immediate compliance.
• Understand basic body safety and personal boundaries.

Cafeteria Expectations

Students should practice how to:

• Carry a lunch tray or lunchbox carefully.
• Identify their lunch and food items.
• Sit while eating.
• Use appropriate table manners.
• Speak at the expected cafeteria volume.
• Ask an adult for assistance.
• Clean their eating space.
• Throw away trash and follow dismissal directions.
• Avoid sharing food with classmates.

Transportation and Dismissal

Students should know:

• Their regular way of going home.
• Their bus number, daycare name, or car-rider information when developmentally appropriate.
• To listen carefully during dismissal.
• To remain in the assigned dismissal area.
• To tell an adult if they are unsure where to go.
• That transportation changes must come from a parent or guardian through the school’s approved process.
• To never change dismissal plans based only on another child’s instructions.

Technology Readiness

Students should begin learning how to:

• Handle a device carefully.
• Carry a device with two hands.
• Use a mouse, touchpad, or touchscreen.
• Select and move items on a screen.
• Use headphones appropriately.
• Follow the teacher’s directions when using technology.
• Visit only teacher-approved applications or websites.
• Ask for help before clicking unfamiliar links or messages.
• Understand that school devices are learning tools.
• Keep passwords and personal information private.

Healthy School Habits

Students should:

• Follow a consistent bedtime routine.
• Get adequate sleep each night.
• Eat breakfast before school or participate in the school breakfast program.
• Arrive at school on time each day.
• Attend school consistently unless sick or otherwise excused.
• Wear clothing and shoes appropriate for learning and physical activity.
• Bring a backpack and required school materials each day.
• Avoid bringing toys, valuables, or unauthorized electronics to school.
• Tell an adult when they are not feeling well.

A Kindergarten Student Should Know

By the beginning of the school year, every child should understand these five essential messages:

1. My teacher and school staff are here to help me.
2. I can ask questions and ask for help.
3. I should use kind words and safe actions.
4. Mistakes are part of learning, and I can try again.
5. School is a place where I belong, learn, grow, and make friends.

Family Reminder

Kindergarten readiness is about much more than knowing letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. A child’s ability to communicate needs, follow routines, manage belongings, interact respectfully, and attempt tasks independently is equally important. Families should read, talk, count, draw, play, and practice everyday routines with their child throughout the summer and school year.