KINDERGARTEN assessments assessments

Kindergarten Screening

Kindergarten children will be involved in a screening program this spring. The purpose of the screening is to identify a baseline of information in order to provide the most appropriate instruction and to identify students who would benefit from a summer kindergarten camp experience to help ensure a smooth transition in the fall. The screening will be completed by classroom teachers and school support personnel (i.e., reading specialists, intervention specialists, etc.)

Early Literacy/Math

The Ohio Department of Education has developed a screening instrument that must be given to all kindergarten students. The assessment includes ways for teachers to measure a child’s school readiness. Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards are the basis for the new assessment. It has six components: social skills (including social and emotional development and approaches towards learning), mathematics, science, social studies, language and literacy, physical well-being and motor development. Teachers can begin working on the assessment at the start of the school year and have until November 1 to complete the screening tool.

Speech and Language

Administered during the second quarter, this screening includes a brief sampling of listening, speaking, articulation of speech sounds and social conversational skills. You can help the development of your child’s speech and language skills by playing word games, giving directions of increasing difficulty, asking questions, discussing the sequence of your daily activities and exposing your child to new vocabulary through daily conversation and reading aloud to your child.

Fine Motor Screening

The purpose of the fine motor portion of the kindergarten screening in the second quarter is to determine readiness for writing letters and words and to use the tools typically used as part of the kindergarten curriculum, including:

• Observation of sitting stability and support for writing

• Observation of pencil grasp, hand strength and stability

• Assessment of pre-writing skills (ability to draw lines of different sizes and directions and cross midline)

• Assessment of fine motor control, including scissor skills, coloring and starting/stopping pencil movements with a visual target

• Documentation of which letters the child can write (if any), and if the child can write their name