Moving Beyond the Page Age 5-7 Placement Assessment

Part A: Alphabet
This assessment will help you determine if your child is ready for the language arts activities in the
Age 5-7 level curriculum. You will measure your child’s pre-reading skills using the provided list of
letters and sight words. Follow the directions below:

Directions
Give your child the “Letter Names and Sounds” page. Ask her to first go through and tell you the
names of all of the letters. Mark any she spoke incorrectly. Then ask your child to tell you the
sounds each letter makes. The vowels (as well as the letters “G” and “C”) — marked with asterisks
— make two sounds. See if your child can identify both sounds.

A* V R N J
name sound sound name sound name sound name sound name sound

F B W S O*
name sound name sound name sound name sound name sound sound

K G* C* X T
name sound name sound sound name sound sound name sound name sound

P L H D Y
name sound name sound name sound name sound name sound

U* Q M I* E*
name sound sound name sound name sound name sound sound name sound sound

Z
name sound

Total Letter Names: ________/26 Total Letter Sounds: ________/33

To begin working at the 5-7 age level, your child should be able to identify all 26 letters and know
24 of the 33 sounds. It is okay if your child requires some prompting for the letter sounds, in
particular those that make two sounds.

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Moving Beyond the Page Age 5-7 Placement Assessment

Letter Names and Sounds

A V R N J

F B W S O

K G C X T

P L H D Y

U Q M I E

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Part B: Sight Words

Sight words are an important part of your child’s growth in reading. These are words that she
does not need to sound out but simply knows “on sight.”

Directions:
Give your child the “Sight Words” page and ask her to read the ten words. Mark the words your
child reads incorrectly. There is no time limit for this assessment.

a an

the she

he and

it is

me no

Total: ________/10

To be ready for the reading at this age level, your child should be able to easily read at least 6/10
of these sight words.

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Sight Words

a an

the she

he and

it is

me no

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Part C: Writing

This writing assessment will help you determine if your child is ready for the writing activities in
the 5-7 age level of Moving Beyond the Page. This age level begins to introduce your child to
independent writing. While your child does not need to be a prolific writer to begin this age level,
she should feel comfortable communicating her own ideas verbally.

Provide your child with the “Responding to Images” page. Ask her to describe the scene in detail.
Your child should be able to provide several insights about the image without your needing to
prompt with specific questions. Your child might note that there is a cat (or kitten) in a tree, that
the cat is chasing a butterfly, that the tree is very tall, or that there is a dog barking at the base of
the tree.

Your child should be able to at least provide three accurate details about the scene depicted on the
page. She may begin to create a story based on the image. This is fine too. It is mostly important
that your child show the willingness to interpret the picture and share her ideas with you.

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Responding to Images

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Part D: Common Letters

This final portion of the writing assessment will help you gauge your child’s readiness to begin
expressing herself through writing. In this assessment, you will ask your child to write the ten
most common letters in upper and lower case. Your child should know the difference between
upper and lower case letters and should be able to form at least one version of all of the following
letters.

E T A I N O S H R D

When asking your child to write these letters, provide a prompt that uses the letter as the first
letter in a word. Samples have been provided below, but you should feel free to substitute any
words or names your child might recognize.

1. Write the letter “E” as in egg.

2. Write the letter “T” as in tag.
3. Write the letter “A” as in apple.
4. Write the letter “I” as in island.
5. Write the letter “N” as in nest.
6. Write the letter “O” as in orange.
7. Write the letter “S” as in sit.
8. Write the letter “H” as in hand.
9. Write the letter “R” as in room.
10. Write the letter “D” as in dad.

Look over your child’s writing to ensure that she can write at least one version of each of the most
common letters and that she knows at least five matching lower and upper case combinations.

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