Questions to Ask a Kindergarten Teacher in an Interview
For principals and hiring committees interviewing a candidate for a kindergarten classroom. The questions run in the order such an interview tends to take: the candidate and why this grade, the first weeks with children who have never been to school, play and the shape of the day, early reading and math and how progress is tracked, behavior, and then families and colleagues. Kindergarten is not one job (half day or full, an aide or none, a set reading program or the teacher's own), so have your own setup written down before you start and say it once the candidate has answered.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The candidate
Why kindergarten, and not first or second grade?
Why ask it
Candidates who mean it talk about what belongs only to this year: children who have never stood in a line, the first word sounded out, how different the same room is in June. If the answer would fit any elementary grade, ask which grade they would choose with a free hand. Some people apply to every opening in a building, and that is worth knowing before you place them with five year olds.
What should a child be able to do at the end of kindergarten that they could not do on the first day?
Why ask it
A full answer has both halves of the year in it: sounding out simple words and writing a sentence, and also waiting for a turn, managing a coat and getting through a day without an adult at their elbow. What is expected by June comes from the standards your school follows, so compare the answer with those and not with your own memory of kindergarten.
Describe the last kindergarten or early grade class you taught: how long was the day, how many children, and were you the only adult in the room?
Why ask it
A half day with an aide and a full day alone with twenty-five are close to different jobs, and a resume does not say which one the candidate had. Describe yours straight afterwards and notice what they ask about it. For a new graduate, ask the same about the student teaching placement.
What does a five year old need from a teacher that a seven year old no longer does?
Why ask it
It checks whether the candidate knows the age or only likes it. Expect directions given one step at a time, short stretches of sitting, help with shoes and with big feelings, and the same thing taught many times without irritation. 'More patience' on its own is thin, so ask what that patience looks like at 2:30 on a Friday.
Some people say kindergarten has become too academic, others that there is too much play. Where do you stand?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone says 'balance', so follow with this: if the day lost thirty minutes, what would you cut? Whatever they protect is the real answer. Hold back how your own schedule leans until they have finished, then say it plainly, because a teacher far from it in either direction will be unhappy by October.
What do you know about our kindergarten, and why do you want to teach it here?
Why ask it
A candidate can only know what your website and the posting say, so check beforehand what those show about the length of the day, the reading program and class sizes. Someone who has read them asks about one of them; someone who has not talks about loving children in a way that would fit any school. From a teacher changing buildings, find out what they hope is different here and whether you can really offer it.
Which part of teaching kindergarten are you still getting better at?
Why ask it
Useful answers are narrow and recent: keeping a small group going while eighteen others are at centers, fitting math into a short afternoon, the hard phone call home. 'I care too much' tells you nothing, so ask what they tried last year and whether it helped. For a new graduate the honest answer is nearly everything, and the one to value can say which part worries them most.
What license or certification do you hold for this grade, and what early childhood training is behind it?
Why ask it
Which credential covers kindergarten differs from place to place, and an elementary license may or may not include it, so confirm the rule with whoever handles licensing for your school before the interview. Past the paperwork, ask which course or placement changed how they teach young children. Being able to name one, and say what changed, is worth more than the certificate.
The first weeks
Take us through the first day of school in your room, hour by hour.
Why ask it
Teachers who have opened a kindergarten year plan very little content and a great deal of practice: where the coat goes, how to sit on the carpet, where the bathroom is, how each child gets home. Ask what they have ready for the child sobbing at 9:15 and the parent still standing in the doorway. A first day built around a worksheet about summer is a plan for a different grade.
Some children will arrive having never been to preschool or childcare. What do you do differently for them in September?
Why ask it
Good answers name what cannot be assumed: holding scissors, turning the pages of a book, being one of twenty, hearing a direction given to the whole group as meant for them. Notice whether the candidate speaks of these as things to teach or as things the child is missing. The same wording will reach that child's family at the first conference.
How do you handle a child who cries and clings at the classroom door every morning for the first month?
Why ask it
A month in, the plan needs the parent in it: a short goodbye agreed in advance, a job waiting inside the room, a message home once the child has settled. Ask at what point they would bring in the counselor or you. Irritation at the question itself is a fair preview of how the fourth week of tears at the door would be met.
A child has a toileting accident in the middle of a lesson. What happens next?
Why ask it
The answer you want is quiet and practical: the child leaves without an announcement, spare clothes are found, the lesson carries on, the family hears at pickup. Who may help a child change, and whether a second adult has to be present, is set by your school or district, so explain your procedure after they answer. Any flicker of distaste matters here, because in this grade an accident is an ordinary Tuesday.
How do you teach the routines of school, such as lining up, sitting on the carpet and using the bathroom?
Why ask it
The word to listen for is teach: shown, practiced, practiced again, and retaught after every long break. Ask how long they expect it to take before the routines hold. 'A few days' comes from someone who has not started a year with this age. People who have done it talk in weeks and sound unbothered about that.
Your class may hold a child who has just turned five and one who is nearly six and a half. How does that show in your planning?
Why ask it
Entry cut-off dates, and whether families may delay a year, depend on where you are, so describe the age spread you really get. The answer to hope for treats that range as ordinary: shorter tasks and more movement for the youngest, not more corrections. Follow with what they say to a parent who wonders whether their child is too young.
How do you handle lunch, recess and dismissal in the first weeks, when the children do not yet know where to go?
Why ask it
These are the parts of the day when a new kindergartner ends up lost or on the wrong bus, and often the class teacher is not the adult on duty. Strong candidates describe walking the routes, practicing with trays, and a tag on every backpack saying how the child goes home. Tell them who supervises each one in your building, and see whether they ask how those adults learn which child needs what.
What do you do in the first month for a child who is learning English and understands little of what you say?
Why ask it
Practical answers come quickly from teachers who have done it: pictures on the daily schedule, gestures, a kind partner, a few words learned in the child's language, and no mistaking a quiet child for one who cannot learn. If your school has a specialist for these children, say how often they come and ask how the candidate has shared a child with one before.
Play and the day
Walk us through a full day in your kindergarten, with roughly how many minutes each part gets.
Why ask it
The minutes are the point. Add up how long the children sit and listen before they first get to move, and see whether the candidate keeps those stretches short without being prompted. Then put your real schedule beside theirs, including the lunch and specials times they cannot move, and ask what they would rearrange.
What do children learn from play, and how would you explain that to a parent who thinks it is wasted time?
Why ask it
Have them answer as if you were the parent. Belief in play shows as detail about the block corner: counting, planning, bargaining over the long pieces, talking in whole sentences. When play is described as what children earn once the work is finished, you have learned how the day would really run.
What are you doing while the children are at centers or free choice?
Why ask it
There are three good answers: teaching a small group, watching and writing down what children can do, and joining the play to stretch the talk in it. Most teachers move between them. Nobody tells a panel they sit at the desk, so ask where in the room they would be standing and what would be in their hand.
How do you set up centers so that five year olds can run them without you?
Why ask it
The detail gives it away: how many children at each, how a child knows where to go next, what to do when finished, where the pieces go back. Ask how many centers are open in the first week. Launching all of them on the first Monday means a fall spent refereeing, and teachers who have been through that open one at a time.
How do you move the whole class from one activity to the next without losing ten minutes every time?
Why ask it
Ask to see the attention signal they use, right there at the table; one that works gets done without embarrassment. Then ask what happens between the carpet and the door, because a line of five year olds with nothing to do is where the pushing starts.
How do you build movement into the day outside recess?
Why ask it
State your real recess minutes before you ask. The useful answers put movement inside the teaching, such as actions for letter sounds or counting jumps, and do not depend on a dance video between lessons. If they have also said they take recess away for behavior, point out the conflict and hear how they resolve it.
What does the afternoon look like in a full-day kindergarten, when the children are tired?
Why ask it
Skip this for a half-day program. Teachers who have taught the full day tend to put the hardest thinking in the morning and fill the afternoon with stories, building, outdoor time and work done with the hands. If your schedule has a rest period, ask how they have run one and what the child who could not lie still was given to do.
How much do you use worksheets and screens, and what for?
Why ask it
There is no correct amount, so ask for the reasoning. A half page to check what stuck after children have handled real objects is one thing, and a daily packet that is the lesson is another. Name any program or device your school requires, so the candidate knows which parts are not theirs to drop.
Reading and math
How do you teach letter sounds and phonics, and in what order?
Why ask it
You do not have to be a reading specialist to judge this. Ask what comes after the first handful of letters: someone with a sequence answers at once and describes short daily practice in which sounds are blended into words early. If your school has adopted a program, name it after they answer and ask what they know about it.
Before children can read any words, how do you get them hearing the sounds inside spoken words?
Why ask it
The usual name for this is phonological awareness: rhyming, clapping syllables, hearing the first sound of a word, pushing spoken sounds together. People trained in early literacy have a game for each and will want to show you one. Someone coming from the upper grades may not know the term, so judge the activities they describe and not the vocabulary.
How do you run a reading block for a class where one child already reads books and another does not yet know the letters in their own name?
Why ask it
Plenty of kindergarten classes hold both of these children in September, so a long pause is itself information. Look for small groups taught at different levels and independent work that is not one sheet for everybody. Then ask how often a child changed groups last year, and what moved them.
What does writing look like in your room in September, and what does it look like in May?
Why ask it
In many schools September sounds like drawing, labels and the first letter of a word, and May like a few sentences spelled the way they sound. Tidy, correct sentences expected in the fall suggest the pace is off, and so does a class still tracing in the spring. Check your own end-of-year standard before the interview so you know what May is supposed to hold.
How do you teach a child to hold a pencil and form letters, and what about the child whose hands are not ready yet?
Why ask it
Many teachers of this age build the hand before the letter: play dough, tongs, scissors, short crayons, big shapes in the air and then small ones on paper. Ask what they do with the child who still grips in a fist in November. If the answer is more of the same sheet, ask what else they would try and who in the building they would ask.
How do you read aloud to the class, and what are the children doing while you read?
Why ask it
Ask for the title of a book they read to a class last month and why they picked it. Daily readers name one without thinking and can say where they stopped to ask a question or explain a word. Listen for children predicting, joining in on a repeated line or turning to a partner, and not only sitting still.
How do you teach counting so that it is more than reciting to twenty?
Why ask it
A child can chant to thirty and still be unable to hand you seven blocks. Candidates who know that talk about objects touched and moved one at a time, dice, fingers, ten frames and 'how many now?' after one is taken away. Ask how they would find the child who recites perfectly and understands little.
Apart from counting, what math happens in your room, and what are the children holding while they do it?
Why ask it
Kindergarten math is usually wider than numbers: sorting, comparing which group has more, shapes, patterns, and small adding and taking-away stories acted out with objects. Your own standards are the list to compare the answer with. The second half of the question matters as much as the first, because a child can fill a page with numerals and understand none of them.
How do you find out what each child knows in the first weeks without giving a paper test?
Why ask it
Expect two minutes alone with each child and a set of letters or counters, a sample of the child writing their name, and notes taken while watching play. If your school or district requires a set screening in the first weeks, say which one and ask whether they have given it. What you are really judging is what they did with the results the following Monday.
How do you keep track of each child's progress through the year, and what could you show us about one child in March?
Why ask it
Dated work samples from several months, a checklist of letters and sounds known, short notes, photos of what was built: any of these will do if they are kept up. Have them describe one child's folder from last year, without the name. Records that live only in the teacher's head leave a substitute, the family and next year's teacher with nothing.
It is January and a child still knows only a few letter sounds. What have you already done, and what do you do now?
Why ask it
The first half of the question is the test: someone who noticed in October has already tried a small group, five extra minutes a day and a conversation with the family. Then describe what formal support your school offers next and who decides on it. Be cautious about 'they all catch up', and equally about early talk of repeating the year, since the rules on that differ by place.
Behavior
What are the three or four expectations in your room, in the words the children would use?
Why ask it
Taught all year, they come out in the children's phrasing, often with the hand motion that goes along. Ask what happens the first time a child forgets one in September, and the first time in March. The difference between those two answers tells you whether expectations are taught or only enforced.
A child will not come to the carpet and is crawling under the tables while you teach. There is no aide. What do you do?
Why ask it
Strong answers keep the lesson going for the other twenty, offer the child a way back that saves face, such as a job or a choice of two spots, and leave the why for later. Chasing the child, or stopping the class to make an example, are both worrying. Finish by asking what they would change the next morning so it is less likely to happen again.
A child runs out of your classroom and down the hall. You have twenty-two others and no aide. What do you do?
Why ask it
It is worth asking because there is no clean answer: the teacher has a class that should not be left and a child who should not be out of sight. Listen for how they would call for help, what the other children would be doing meanwhile, and whether they would follow or stay. Say what your building's procedure is once they have answered, then ask what they would set up for that child the next morning.
How do you respond when a child hits, kicks or throws something at a classmate?
Why ask it
A sound order is safety, then the child who was hurt, then a few calm words to the child who did it, and later some teaching about what to do with anger. Your rules on incident reports, on removing a child from the room and on what each family is told should be explained after the candidate answers. Notice whether, in their telling, the child who hit is welcome back on the carpet an hour later.
Do you use a clip chart, a sticker chart or a class reward system, and why or why not?
Why ask it
Teachers disagree sharply on this, and a panel does not need one right answer. It needs the reasoning. Ask what a child who is on the bottom color by 9:30 has left to work for until three o'clock. If your building has a system every room must use, say so and see whether the candidate can live inside it.
What do you do about tattling?
Why ask it
Anyone who has taught the grade smiles at this, because it fills a good part of every October. Look for a rule the children are taught, usually that telling is for when someone is hurt or in danger, and for a way to hear the rest without a line forming at the teacher's desk. Be careful of an answer that would teach a child to stay silent about something real.
How do you teach children to settle a quarrel with a classmate without coming to you every time?
Why ask it
This takes sentences taught on a calm day and practiced with puppets or role play, such as 'I do not like it when you take my marker'. Ask for the exact phrases their last class used. Only separating the two children buys a quieter room and the same quarrel tomorrow.
How do you teach five year olds to name a big feeling and calm down, and is there a place in your room for it?
Why ask it
Listen first for the teaching: feeling words practiced on calm days with a chart or a story, and a breath or a squeeze the whole class has rehearsed. Many kindergartens also keep a calm spot with a cushion. The question underneath is whether a child chooses to go there or is sent, because a place children are put after misbehaving is a time-out corner under another name.
Tell us about a child whose behavior did not improve with what you normally do. Who did you go to, and what changed?
Why ask it
The story should have dates and other adults in it: notes on when the trouble happened, a talk with the family, a counselor or specialist brought in. Your school will have its own steps for referring a child for extra help or an evaluation, so set them out once the story is told. Pay attention to how the child is described by the end, fondly or as a problem that was handed on.
When do you call the office for help, and what do you expect to happen when you do?
Why ask it
This shows where their line sits and what they will expect from you. Calling over every refusal is one problem, and never calling when a child is unsafe is a worse one. Be honest about what your building can send and how fast, especially where the kindergarten has no second adult.
Families and team
For many families this is their first child in school. What do you tell them before the first day, and how?
Why ask it
First-time school parents do not know what the folder is for, how pickup works or that tears at the door are ordinary. Ask the candidate to describe the opening paragraph of the letter they send, and what they suggest practicing at home, such as opening a lunch box or putting on shoes. Plain language counts: a welcome letter full of school terms tells a nervous parent they are already behind.
How often do families hear from you, and what is in the message?
Why ask it
The channel is usually the school's choice, whether an app, a folder or email, so name yours. The candidate's part is the rhythm and the content: a weekly note on what the class is learning, with something about the individual child now and then. Ask how they make sure every family has had one piece of good news before any family gets a hard call.
A parent says their child is bored because they could already read before school started. How do you answer?
Why ask it
Have the candidate say it to you as the parent. A good reply takes the worry seriously, describes what the child is doing in reading that differs from the group, and names what kindergarten is teaching beyond reading without sounding defensive. A promise of extra worksheets is the weak version.
Six weeks in, a parent still wants to walk their child into the classroom every morning and stay a while. What do you say?
Why ask it
This tests whether warmth and firmness can live in one conversation. Look for a plan in steps the parent helps set: goodbye at the classroom door this week, at the end of the hall next week, with something for the child to do on arrival. Your school's own rule about adults in the building comes first, so tell the candidate what it is.
How do you run a first conference with the parents of a child who is struggling?
Why ask it
For a first-time school parent this may be the first worry anyone has voiced about their child. Hope to hear that the candidate opens with what the child does well, shows actual work, describes what has been seen without putting a label on it, and asks what the family notices at home. Nothing said in November should be news that the teacher has been holding since September.
What do you do when a five year old tells you something about home that worries you?
Why ask it
Reporting duties for school staff are set by law and by your school's own policy, and they differ by place, so know yours before you ask and state it afterwards. From the candidate, listen for three things: they hear the child out without pressing for details, they do not promise to keep a secret, and they act the same day in the way your procedure requires. If the first step they name is a talk with the parents, ask how they would know whether that was theirs to decide.
How do you reach a family that does not read the folder, answer messages or come to events?
Why ask it
The worrying answer assumes the family does not care. Better ones try another route: a phone call at a different hour, a word at pickup, a message in the home language, asking which channel the parent actually checks. Say what interpreting or translation your school can provide, so the candidate knows what they would have to work with.
How do you work with a classroom aide or paraprofessional, and what do you ask them to do during lessons?
Why ask it
Drop it if the job comes with no aide. Planning for the second adult means giving them a small group, a child to sit near or a checklist to fill in, and not only copying and wiping tables. Ask how they would handle it if the aide spoke to a child in a way they disagreed with.
How do you plan with the other kindergarten teachers and with the first grade team?
Why ask it
If yours is the only kindergarten class, ask who they would plan with instead. You are listening for give and take: shared materials, a pace agreed across rooms, and interest in what first grade teachers say children arrive without. A preference for a closed door can go with good teaching and still be hard on a small team.
How have you worked with a speech therapist, an occupational therapist or a special education teacher on behalf of a child in your class?
Why ask it
Kindergarten is often where a need is first noticed, so this teacher can expect to sit in a good many of those meetings. The good sign is a strategy carried back into the room, such as a picture schedule or a way of cueing a sound, and not only a child sent down the hall twice a week. Ask what they did for that child on the days the therapist was not in the building.
What questions do you have for us about our kindergarten?
Why ask it
Knowing the grade shows in what they ask: class size, aide hours, the length of the day, the reading program, recess, whether the year opens with a staggered start. Answer plainly, including the hard parts. It is better to lose a candidate over twenty-six children and no aide in the interview than in October.
Interviewing for a kindergarten classroom
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the first candidate arrives
Put the facts of your kindergarten on one sheet
Half day or full, the usual class size, how many hours an aide is in the room, the recess minutes, the specials, whether the year opens with a staggered start. Hand it to every candidate at the start, so they answer about your job and not the one they last had. Leave the school's positions off it: the reading program, the behavior system, the rule about parents in the building. Those come out after the candidate has answered, because a candidate who hears the house view first will agree with it.
Know which direction each applicant is coming from
Applicants for this grade tend to arrive from three directions. Someone moving up from preschool or childcare usually knows the age and the care, so spend longer on Reading and math. Someone moving down from second or third grade usually knows the curriculum, so spend longer on The first weeks, and do not skip the toileting accident or the child at the door. A new graduate has one or two placements to draw on and was in charge of neither: ask what the lead teacher did, whether they would do the same, and why.
Borrow an ear for the reading answers
The answers under Reading and math are the hardest on this page to judge if your own teaching years were with older students. Seat a kindergarten teacher on the panel for those, or a first grade teacher, who meets the results of every kindergarten year the following September, or the school's reading specialist. Ask them beforehand what they would hope to hear about the order letter sounds are taught in, and what would worry them.
If a parent or board member is on the panel
Brief them before the day. A parent's instinct is to ask a candidate whether they have children of their own, and questions about a candidate's family, age or health are restricted in many places. Give each panel member questions from this page to ask, and check the limits with whoever handles hiring for your school or district.
Fitting it into an hour
Three scenarios for every candidate
The toileting accident, the child under the tables, and the January child who knows only a few letter sounds. Put them to everyone in the same words, so the answers can be laid side by side afterwards. Fill in your real numbers first: twenty-four children, the aide not in until 10:30, the nearest bathroom down the hall. An answer that only works with a second adult is no use in a room that has none. One or two questions from each group around those three will fill the hour.
Have them say it to a five year old
Several of these questions end in something said to a child: the direction to line up, the words after a hit, the goodbye at the door. Ask to hear it in the voice they would use. Then count the parts. A direction with three steps and a reason attached is what the carpet would sound like all year, and 'shoes on, then line' is a different room.
Ask in plain words, and credit plain answers
Early literacy has its own vocabulary, and candidates fresh from training often use more of it than teachers with twenty years in the room. When you hear a term, ask what it looks like at the table with four children. When a candidate describes the right practice without the term, count it fully. You are hiring the teaching and not the glossary.
What to listen for across the answers
Routines come before content
Across The first weeks and Behavior, experienced kindergarten teachers keep returning to things taught and practiced: how to line up, how to ask for a turn, what to do when finished. Answers that go straight to lessons and consequences describe a class that already knows how to be at school, which no kindergarten class does in September.
Count the verbs
In a strong candidate's account the children count, build, clap, sort, draw, tell a partner. In a weaker one they sit, listen, watch and complete. Keep a rough tally through the Play and the day and Reading and math answers, and compare it between candidates afterwards.
Care is part of the job
Zippers, shoelaces, runny noses, spilled milk and wet clothes take up real minutes of a kindergarten day. Candidates who mention them unprompted, without a sigh, have accepted what the grade is. Any sign that this work belongs to somebody else deserves a direct follow-up, particularly where there is no aide.
Families turn up before you ask about them
A teacher who works well with first-time school parents brings them into answers about separation, accidents, a child who is behind and a child who hits, long before you reach Families and team. If parents appear only when you raise them, or mostly as an obstacle, expect the same once the year begins.
September and May are different rooms
A kindergarten class in May is barely the class that arrived in September, and people who have taught one say so without being asked: ten minutes on the carpet has become twenty, a drawing has become a sentence, a rule recited has become a rule kept. If every answer describes one fixed classroom, ask 'and in the spring?' and see what changes.
Seeing them teach, and deciding
Ask for a read-aloud
Ten minutes with a picture book and a real class is the most natural thing to ask of a kindergarten teacher, and it needs no lesson plan. Tell every candidate the same things beforehand: how many children, where they sit, how long they usually manage. Check first whether your school permits a visitor to lead a class, and who has to be in the room while they do.
Where to look while they read
Sit low and to the side, where you can see faces. The first minute matters most, when the book has not been opened and twenty children are still arriving on the carpet. After that, wait for the moment one child calls out or rolls away. How many voices join in on the repeated line tells you more than how well the candidate reads.
If you cannot use a class, use the room
Walk the candidate into the empty kindergarten room and ask where the carpet would go, what would hang at child height, and where the coats and lunch boxes end up at 8:15. People who have run the grade start moving furniture in their heads. It takes five minutes and involves no children.
Ask to see something they have sent home
A welcome letter, a weekly note, or last year's plan for the first week. One paragraph shows how they write to a parent who has never had a child in school. A new graduate can bring what they made on placement. Ask that anything carrying a child's name or photo be left at home.
Ask references about September
When you call a former principal or mentor teacher, ask how the first six weeks of the year went in the candidate's room and how the families spoke about them. The opening weeks ask the most of a kindergarten teacher, and someone who watched them will have a view. Then ask whether they would put their own five year old in that class.