First Grade Readiness Expectations

My child has just completed kindergarten at a private school. Next year, he'll be in first grade at a public school. How can I tell if he has learned what he should to be ready for first grade at the new school? -- Eager to Know
Answer: What you need to know is what the children in kindergarten at the school he will attend have studied this past year. The public school is probably closed right now. However, the district office should have this information. Or you can go online and look at your state's curriculum for kindergarten.
Looking at the curriculum from several states, we see that the following expectations should frequently be met by the end of the kindergarten year:
In language arts, the children should:
--Know how to write their first and last names.
--Be able to link some letters and sounds.
-- Be able to read some high-frequency words.
--Understand that words have one or more syllables.
--Realize sentences begin with a capital letter and have an ending punctuation mark.
--Recite familiar poems, songs and rhymes.
--Write a story with drawings and some letters.
In math, the children should:
--Identify and describe basic shapes (square, triangle, circle).
--Sort a group of objects in several ways (color, size, type).
--State whether a group of objects has more or fewer objects than another group.
--Count accurately up to 20.
--Match numerals up to 10 with their names.
--Match quantities up to 10 with numerals.
--Have some familiarity with the concepts of addition and subtraction.
Do remember this: (1) If there are skills on your local or state checklist that your son has not acquired, you can help him improve in these areas this summer. (2) Not all children will have a superior mastery of all the skills that they were supposed to pick up in kindergarten.