Reading with Kindergarteners (5-6 years)
At this stage, children have a receptive vocabulary of about 13,000 words and an expressive vocabulary of more than 2,000 words. They produce longer and more complex sentences. They know all upper-case and lowercase letters and are learning the most common sound-letter correspondences, typically ones associated with letters of the alphabet (as opposed to letter combinations such as 'ch', 'sh' and 'ee'), although this depends on the particular reading programme that is used at their school. Depending on the type of programme, children will either be decoding consonant-vowel-consonant words with short vowels and single consonants (e.g., cat, red, sit) or with all vowels and consonants (e.g., pick, sheep, blue).
They will also be building a sight word vocabulary of common but irregularly spelled words (e.g., said, once, who). At this stage, children also develop more sophisticated phonological awareness skills such as rhyme production and blending and segmentation of word onsets and rimes (e.g., d-og, bl-ack, j-ump). Their ability to manipulate individual sounds in words (phonemic awareness) by blending and segmenting sounds also develops. These skills are essential for decoding (sounding out) and encoding (spelling). (Note: Although such skills typically develop at around this time, children are able to acquire them much earlier if given adequate guidance and practice by caregivers.)
Types of Books to Choose
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Choose longer books with more complex storylines than you have previously been reading aloud, but which are appropriate to your child's age and interests.
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Select books from a variety of genres (fiction, non-fiction, poetry).
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​Look for books that play with sounds (alliteration, tongue twisters, rhymes) and meaning (words with multiple meanings, puns, figurative language).
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Use wordless picture books with more complex plots.
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Find or create decodable books (ones that target only the sound-letter correspondences your child has learned) so that your child can read independently.
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Continue reading picture books, but also begin introducing chapter books (if you haven't already done so), especially beloved children's classics in original or adapted versions.
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Tips for Reading
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Use words encountered in books to help your child develop phonological awareness skills. Ask your child to break words into onset and rime (e.g., fish: f-ish) and produce rhymes (e.g., 'Can you tell me a word that rhymes with cake?')
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Phonemic awareness skills are critical for decoding and spelling. Encourage your child to blend sounds to make a word (e.g., 'Can you put these sounds together quickly to guess my word: /m/, /oo/, /n/?') and also segment sounds in a word (e.g., 'Can you stretch this word out and tell me all the sounds you hear, in the right order: sun?') Be aware that phonemic awareness can be tricky, even for adults, if one focuses on letters instead of on sounds; for example, box has three letters, but four sounds: /b//o//k//s/.
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Don't ask your child to decode words that contain sound-letter correspondences he or she has not learned. This encourages the habit of guessing at words and can also be frustrating. You do the bulk of the reading and when you come across a word your child can tackle independently, ask him or her to sound it out.​
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Continue to provide the meaning of unfamiliar words your child encounters. Talk about the words so that your child understands how they are used and can incorporate them into his or her expressive vocabulary.
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Your child's ability to comprehend what he or she reads relies on background knowledge. Help your child make connections between the content of books and what he or she already knows. Use think alouds to model how you make sense of what you read (e.g., 'Right here, the story says that Jack's mother is "wringing her hands". I think she must be worried because now that their cow has stopped giving milk, and they have none to sell, she and Jack could go hungry.')