Early Literacy Skills Checklist for New JK Students
Courtesy of the GECDSB Speech and Language Department
As parents it is important for you to know the skills we would want students to be familiar with before
entering JK. Take the time to look over the checklist and work on these skills with your child between JK
registration and when they start school in September.
 Recognize his/her own name
 Write your child’s name on paper and put it around the house; on their room, near their
shoes/coat etc., on arts and crafts they work on and talk about what it says e.g., “Look on your
door what does that say?”
 Write his/her own name
 Also work on your child writing their own name; have them trace their name first, then use
bubble letters so they fill in the blanks, then have them copy their name, then help them work
on writing it on their own.
 Hold a book upright, turn pages, follow along with you as you read and may even recognize some
words in familiar stories
 While reading books talk about the front of the book, the back of the book, how we start
reading on the left etc. Also read and re-read familiar stories together and pause at the end of
the sentence to see if they can fill in the blank and recognize the word e.g., Humpty Dumpty sat
on a ____ (point to ‘wall’ and see if they can read it).
 Recognize many letters of the alphabet as well as the sounds those letters make
 Use alphabet books, alphabet flashcards, alphabet magnets, alphabet puzzles, alphabet apps on
phones/IPods/IPads/Tablets. Work on labeling the letter name and the sound it makes e.g., A
says ‘aah’, B says ‘buh’ etc.
 Beginning to point to words in a story and even beginning to count how many words in a sentence
 While reading books together at home point to words in sentences as you read them. Also have
them point to words as you read them. Then go back after the story and count words in
sentences.
 Beginning to recognize and clap out syllables in words with you
 Talk about syllables in words, also clap out syllables in words together e.g., clap out syllables in
banana – ba(clap) na(clap) na(clap).
 Recognize a rhyme and also make up rhymes of their own
 Read nursery rhymes together like: Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill etc. Go over the words that
rhyme in those stories. Talk about how rhyming words sound the same at the end. Also make
up rhymes together e.g., cat rhymes with: fat, mat, sat, rat etc.