Kindergarten Reading Vocabulary

Reading at “Just Right” Levels

As a teacher, you know that it is important for new readers to read books that are at a level that provides just enough challenge and not too much frustration. VocabularySpellingCity notes three popular reading level measurements for each book on the kindergarten list. Knowing the reading levels helps you match word lists to your kindergarten curriculum. The lists for independent reading are words that the students know but are learning to read. When pre-readers work with games like Audio Word Match, they make connections between the letters on the page and the words they speak.

Independent Reading and Read-Aloud Books

The spoken vocabulary of new readers is more complex than their written vocabulary. For kindergarten readers, it is important to engage their interests in literature that is beyond their reading ability and keep expanding aural vocabulary through read-aloud works as well as independent reading works. VocabularySpellingCity provides literature lists for read-aloud chapter books to help students expand their vocabulary and their exposure to literature, as well as for books that students can read on their own.

Common Core State Standards for Literature

VocabularySpellingCity literature word lists include six books and four poems from the Common Core State Standards literature list. Books like P. D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? and poems like Marchetter Chute’s Drinking Fountain provide students ample opportunity to practice their reading skills and to meet reading standards in literature such as being able to “ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text” and “With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.” Reading instruction with these books also helps students to meet the requirements for Reading: Foundational Skills including print concepts, phonological awareness, and phonics and word recognition.