Arkansas’s Definition of School Readiness: School ready children have the social and academic knowledge, skills and behaviors for school success and lifelong learning. School readiness occurs when families, schools and communities support and serve ALL children, so they are successful in school and in life.

This list of indicators identifies skills, knowledge and behaviors that will help your child be prepared for that special day – going to kindergarten. The checklist is NOT a test. It is a tool that you can use to help your child make the transition to kindergarten.

Social & Emotional Development

• Separates from caregiver to another trusted adult
• Shares, takes turns and plays cooperatively with other children
• Expresses basic emotions such as happy, sad, mad or scared
• Responds sympathetically to others’ distress with words and actions
• Recognizes similarities and differences in self and others (for example, boy or girl, hair and skin color)

Cognitive Development

• Is curious, interested and willing to try new things
• Completes a task such as working a puzzle
• Adapts to new situations
• Focuses and pays attention during an activity such as story time
• Engages in memory games such as “What’s Missing” and simple memory matching card games
• Uses number- and letter-like forms and/or drawings to represent ideas or feelings

Physical Development & Health

• Gallops, slides, hops, leaps and skips
• Steers a tricycle, balances on beam or sandbox edge
• Catches a ball with both hands
• Tosses or throws balls
• Kicks moving ball while running
• Pours liquids without spilling and builds with Legos® or blocks
• Uses a 3-point finger grip on pencil, crayon or paintbrush
• Makes a variety of lines and shapes such as circle, dash, plus sign, square and triangle.
• Uses scissors correctly to cut simple shapes and pictures
• Buttons, zips, laces and buckles
• Names a variety of foods and begins to classify food items as either fruits or vegetables
• Is aware of safe behavior and follows basic safety rules and routines
• Takes responsibility for personal self-care routines such as hand washing, brushing teeth, dressing and toileting
• Can express own health needs such as, “I’m hungry”, “My head hurts”, and “I’m tired”

Language Development

• Understands an increasing number and variety of words for objects, for actions, and to describe things
• Comprehends who, what, why and where questions
• Performs up to three-step directions
• Uses four- to six-word sentences
• Tells increasingly detailed stories or ideas
• Communicates clearly enough to be understood by most people
• Takes turns in conversation with others
• Responds to the English language
• Speaks and expresses self in English

Emergent Literacy

• Listens, tells and engages in story being read
• Participates in singing songs and saying rhymes
• Retells stories from favorite books and personal experiences
• Decides if two words rhyme for example, cat and bat
• Holds books right side up, turns pages one at a time from front-to-back
• Recognizes print they see in their everyday life (for example, stop signs and logos for Wal-Mart and McDonald’s)
• Recognizes and names some letters of the alphabet, especially in their own name
• Produces the correct sounds for some of the letters of the alphabet
• Writes some letters correctly, especially those in own name

Mathematical Thinking

• Counts in sequence up to 20
• Understands and uses terms such as first, second and last
• Counts objects using one number for each object
• Recognizes four objects in a group without counting
• Recognizes numerals 1-10
• Sorts objects by color, shape and size
• Recognizes and repeats patterns such as triangle, square, triangle, square
• Measures and compares height of objects
• Arranges objects from shortest to longest (for example, shoe sizes or different lengths of yarn)
• Recognizes and names familiar shapes such as square, triangle, circle and rectangle
• Understands and uses words such as inside, outside, up, down, over and under

Science & Technology

• Asks questions about the world around them (for example, “What do plants need to grow?”)
• Recognizes that living things change over time (for example, babies grow and become adults and seeds grow and become plants.)
• Recognizes and names these five colors: red, blue, yellow, green and black
• Uses simple technology devices such as touch screen, e-book reader or digital camera

Social Studies

• Knows own first and last name, age, and knows names of family members
• Understands and talks about today, yesterday, tomorrow, after lunch, day and night
• Is aware of familiar buildings and special places in the community such as home, school, grocery store and park

Creativity & Aesthetics

• Enjoys singing and moving to the beat and speed of music
• Explores drawing with crayons and markers
• Enjoys pretend play (for example, rocking a baby doll, driving a truck or pretending to talk on a toy telephone)