Rhyme Awareness and Word Play

Hold books properly, follow print direction, and understand that printed words carry meaning and stories.

Recite familiar nursery rhymes, poetry, and fingerplays from memory using expressive rhythm and gestures.

Listen attentively to spoken read-alouds, retell key events in order, and understand story characters.

Gain new knowledge, learn conceptual vocabulary, and recall facts from non-fiction texts read aloud.

Hear, identify, match, and generate rhyming words in spoken language and games.

Clap, count, blend, segment, and delete spoken syllables and compound word parts.

Isolate initial continuous consonant sounds, notice alliteration, and discriminate distinct spoken vowel sounds.

Recognize, name, and match uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Identify letters across various visual media, different font styles, cursive/script forms, and computer keyboards.

Develop pencil grip, hand strength, hand-eye coordination, and foundational stroke patterns for handwriting.

Write one's own first name accurately from memory and experiment with writing letters and word approximations.

Dictate thoughts and stories to an adult scribe while understanding how written language differs from speech.

Initiate conversations, take turns speaking, and express ideas clearly in collaborative classroom settings.

Describe familiar objects, recount personal experiences, explain simple processes, and ask curious questions.

Speak with syntactic clarity, self-correct statements, and explore patterns, word origins, and language diversity.