Preschool Assessments: An Easy Routine that Works

Preschool assessments can be time-consuming, hard on the kids, and take you out of your normal classroom routine.

Preschool Assessments: Keep it Simple

As I mentioned above, preschool assessments can be tedious! Consequently, I will do formal assessments three times a year. The first, a few weeks after the beginning of the year, to create a baseline. Second, a few weeks after our winter break. The last will be conducted a few weeks before school is over for the year.

First of all, I will do a developmental and behavior assessment. This assessment is based mostly an observational notes and day to day observations. Therefore, the formal assessment I do with the kids is a cognitive and skill assessment. This assessment consists of math concepts, literacy/phonics, writing, shapes, and colors. Assessments of this sort can be long. For this reason, I will break up my assessment schedule into two or three parts. As a result, assessment time is easier on me and the kids. I like to think the results are more accurate as well.

Because it is important for children to feel successful, I will begin with the easiest part of the assessment first. I like to start with a page of colors. Because most 3 to 5-year-old children no their colors fairly well, they begin the assessment with a triumphant feeling. Therefore ensuring a greater chance of success going forward.

Preschool Math Assessments

The next section of the assessment will be a page of basic shapes. In this section, I am fully prepared for my students to not know some of their basic shapes. A three-year-old might call a rectangle a square, or a diamond a triangle. With this in mind, be gentle when the children are not answering questions correctly. And, consequently, it is important for the teacher to understand what is developmentally appropriate.

After the shapes portion, I will move on to a numeral identification section. I have divided this section between zero and 10 for my 3 to 4-year-olds. Next, I have another line of numbers 11 through 20 for my 4 to 5-year-olds. I will only ask my 4-5’s the higher numbers if they got most of the lower ones correct. From there, we move on to rote counting, one to one correspondence, and patterning.

For the 1-1 correspondence and patterning I bring out a basket of unifix cubes in 3 to 4 colors. For 1-1 correspondence I will ask them to count out a certain number of blocks from the basket to the table. I start with a quantity they can successfully count. Then we add more and they count out what the new quantity represents.

We will use the same unifix cubes for making patterns. The patterns students will attempt are as follows; AB, AABB, ABB, & ABC. So, we will begin with a basic AB pattern. I will make an AB pattern, then ask the student to keep it going. I will only move on to the next pattern if a student has completed the previous pattern successfully.

Preschool Literacy Assessments

As I stated before, assessments can be very long for young children. So, I will stop at this point and save letters, letter sounds, and fine motor assessments until the following days.

The next section of the formal assessment will be uppercase letters. In my years of teaching I have found that young children have more success identifying uppercase letters. Thus I always begin with uppercase letters. One of my favorite tricks is to begin with the first letter of their name. Nest, I will point to the other letters in their name. If they can name the letters of their name correctly, I will then move on to the other letters. If you have a lot of struggling students, I have some great tips for learning letters here!

If a 3 to 4-year-old guesses half the uppercase letters correctly then I will move on to lower case letters. If they cannot, I will stop there. I will not ask 3 to 4 year old children any letter sounds unless they have correctly named nearly all upper and lower case letters. It is rare that I ever asked my 3 to 4-year-olds any letter sounds. My PreK students on the other hand, will be asked for letter sounds.

Preschool Writing Assessment

I will then move on to the writing portion. In this part of the assessment I am looking for how the children hold a marker or a crayon. (I like to use markers because they are fatter and easier for her little hands to grasp)  I will watch how the child is holding the marker or crayon without giving any coaching. If they are using their ‘pinchy’ fingers I will write it as a good pencil grip. Subsequently, if they are still using a palmers grasp on the marker, I will market as a poor pencil grip. A fair pencil grip would be one where they are using their ‘pinchy’ fingers, but their fine motor skills are weak and they do not have much control over the marker.

I will bring a name strip into the assessment area and coach them through writing their name. But I will not coach them through how to hold the marker.  I actually think this is my favorite part of the assessment because there are such dramatic changes in fine motor coordination and name writing between the beginning middle and end of the year!

Preschool Development Assessment

For the behavior and developmental assessment, I have created my own simplified versions. There is a 3- year-old assessment as well as a separate PreK/Kindergarten assessment. Even though it has been simplified, it is still quite lengthy, but it does not involve the sitting and answering questions. However, it does rely on weeks of observations in all the areas of early childhood development. These areas of development are scored “D”-Developing, “W”-With Help, & “M”-Mastered. Just as with the cognitive and skill assessment this assessment will be done three times a year and shared with the parents at the first and second parent teacher conference is and given either to the parents at the end of the year or to the child’s new teacher when requested.

If You Need More Help…Its Here!

I have both behavior/developmental, and cognitive skills assessments available together in my TPT store. Preschool, PreK, & K Assessments; Cognitive and Developmental. This resource is paired with Parent/teacher conference checklists, and pre-conference questionnaires. There is even a fantastic Assessment Summary one-page document to give to parents at conferences. **As a newly-added bonus, there are Data collection sheets for teachers as well**!

I think you will find this resource very helpful if you are looking for new assessment tools. I created this resource by streamlining many other assessments that I have used in my over 10 years of teaching preschool and pre-kindergarten. The preschool and PreK at my school uses both these assessments.

Good Luck and Enjoy it!