Academic Skills

1. Language, Literacy, and Communications

This area focuses on the foundational building blocks of reading and writing.

• Emergent Reading: Recognizing that print carries meaning, identifying parts of a book (front/back), and predicting what happens next in a story using pictures.

• Phonological & Phonemic Awareness (The “Hearing” Skills)

  At the preschool level, the focus is typically on the sounds of language more than written words. The ECIPs outline a progression from “large” sounds to “small” sounds:

  • Rhyme & Alliteration: Children should be able to recognize and eventually produce words that rhyme. They also begin to notice “alliteration”—when several words in a row start with the same sound (e.g., “Big bouncy ball”).

  • Sentence & Word Awareness: The ability to hear that a sentence is made up of separate words (e.g., clapping once for every word in a sentence).

  • Syllable Awareness: Preschoolers should be able to “segment” words into syllables by clapping or tapping (e.g., Ap-ple).

  • Onset & Rime: The ability to distinguish the initial consonant sound (onset) from the vowel and everything after it (rime), such as hearing that “c-at” starts with a /k/ sound.

  • Phoneme Isolation: In older preschool stages, the goal is to identify the  sounds that make up a word (e.g., s/u/n)

• Phonics & Alphabet Knowledge (The “Print” Connection)

  • Letter Recognition: Children are expected to identify and name upper- and lowercase letters, starting with those in their own name and high-frequency letters (E, T, A, O, I, N, S, R, H, and L).

  • Sound-Symbol Correspondence: This is where phonics begins. Children learn to recognize that specific letters are associated with specific sounds. For example, knowing that the letter “M” makes the /m/ sound.

  • Concepts of Print: Understanding that print moves from left to right and top to bottom, and that those “squiggles” on the page correspond to the sounds we speak.

  • Emergent Writing

    • Physical/Fine Motor Development: Before a child can write letters, they must develop the physical control required to handle tools.

      • Grasp: Moving from a “fisted” or “palmar” grasp to a more controlled “tripod” grasp (using thumb and forefinger).

      • Tool Use: Increasing control when using crayons, markers, pencils, and even digital tools or paintbrushes.

      • Hand-Eye Coordination: The ability to stay within a designated space on a page or trace simple lines and curves.

    • Writing Progression: Movie from scribbles to letter-like shapes and actual letters to “write” sounds they hear, such as writing “B” to represent the word “Bear.” By the end of preschool, most children are expected to write their own first name.

• Oral Language: Using increasingly complex sentences, following multi-step directions, and participating in back-and-forth conversations. Repeat and retell information.

2. Mathematics

Minnesota standards emphasize “number sense” rather than just rote counting.

• Number Sense: Counting objects one-by-one (one-to-one correspondence) up to 20 and identifying “more” vs. “less.”

• Algebraic Thinking: Recognizing, duplicating, and extending simple patterns (e.g., Red-Blue-Red-Blue).

• Geometry & Spatial Sense: Identifying 2D shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, rhombus/diamond) and using positional words like “under,” “beside,” or “behind.”

• Measurement: Comparing objects by length, weight, or capacity (e.g., “This bucket holds more water”).

3. Scientific Thinking

Preschoolers are expected to act as “little scientists” through observation and inquiry.

• Observation: Using the five senses to describe properties of objects (color, size, shape, hard/soft, heavy/light).

• Hypothesizing: Asking “why” or “what if” questions and making simple predictions about the natural world.

• Physical Science: Exploring how objects move (pushing/pulling) or how materials change (melting ice).

• Life Science: Identifying basic needs of living things (plants need water; animals need food).

4. Social Systems (Social Studies)

This covers the child’s understanding of their role in a community.

• Human Relationships: Recognizing different family structures and roles within a classroom.

• Geography: Developing a basic “mental map” of familiar places like the classroom, playground, or home.

• History: Understanding sequences of time (yesterday, today, tomorrow) and personal history (how they have grown since they were babies).