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I agree with @Foodnerd81: ... I am a K-2 literacy teacher and those types of activities aren't ones that we would expect our Pre-K students to do.

I would work on attention building in other ways.... playing short board games, card games, etc. Reading interactive books together would be a great way to build her stamina while also allowing her to be a part of the process and keep it fun. My favourite interactive books are :

-Press Here, Mix it Up, Let's Play, Say Zoop - Herve Tullet
-Touch the magic tree, Touch the brightest star, Plant the tiny seed - Susan Davis
-Don't Push the Button, Don't Touch This Book - Bill Cotter

My newly turned 4yo is like this for “homework” she goes to speech therapy so we like to work on her words and do flash cards and stuff and it’s exactly as you describe. She doesn’t have some of the other stuff you describe but I do think those expectations are unrealistic for her age. And just because other kids can do it, does not negate the fact that it’s still not an appropriate expectation.

Our speech therapist said this too - it can be hard if you have a class full of kids speaking 2 years above what’s developmentally normal, but we still need to focus on what’s appropriate. It seems there might be some of that happening here

Possibly look at having her evaluated for ADHD? A LO I know is much the same and that’s what she wound up being diagnosed with. It’s enabled her to get more help at school and with social skills as well. Anyway, worth considering and taking a look at the symptoms in girls which are often different from boys.

@Cherrybee: i agree that the expectation level is a little high for her age, but it sounds like you share the teacher’s concern about her difficulty with focusing. I see kids like this sometimes in my work and some of the things that we try to address are helping structure the environment and requests so that they work for the child.

For example, “put on your shoes” may be too complex of a task for her to maintain attention so you could try breaking it down and having her do one step at a time, like:
-go find your shoes.
-bring them to the chair
-put the shoes next to the chair
-sit down
-put one shoe on
-put the other shoe on

and with sitting to do the letters you were working on, you could try getting everything set before you start, asking her what she needs, helping her list the items and then step by step going through them.

Concentration is a skill like anything else. It comes more easily to some than others but almost everyone can improve with practice. I would be cautious about pursuing any kind of formal diagnosis at this young age due to the range in “typical performance”. You may need to re-evaluate this in the future if she isn’t able to progress with your support.

Is she in kindergarten a year early? Or in Preschool/Pre-K?

That expectation is insane to me. Completely insane. Watchful waiting would be my opinion...and consider another school if this is one you chose. ETA: if this is the expectation in Pre-K I would be terrified to see the expectations going on up. A lot of research has shown that pushing academics this hard when kids aren't ready really backfires in the long run. If you are going to stay, I would personally have some serious conversations with the teachers/admin. This worries me a lot as a teacher and as a parent of a bright but easily distracted kid.

@Foodnerd81: so I don’t work in education but I do early childhood mental health. A lot of parent child relationship issues due to cps involvement, childhood trauma etc etc. So I feel like I am not the best judge of what is “typical” because I already see huge differences between development in my kids at home and the kids I see at work. My big girl is 6 and in kindergarten and I still tell her to put on socks and shoes before we go to school. But not broken down like I outlined. At some point I should probably stop but I am saying it to the 2 year old too so it is working for now.

With that caveat, I would say the goal in shaping behavior like this “put your shoes on” example is to move toward increasing independence. So after you narrate for a while, raise the bar by asking the child to provide the next step. “After we get our shoes, what comes next?” With lots of praise and positive feedback. And then when they have that, prompt 2 steps in a row etc etc.

At my house my kids always like to talk about what we are doing ahead of time, so we can build in some of this by listing the routine out together.

Does that help at all?

As a long-time educator and 1st grade parent, I think those expectations are realistic. In fact, most kids will be doing it by the end of the year so it is to your child's benefit to work with her where she is at, sooner than later. Your job as a parent can be to fight it and advocate for what you want or to be a supporter of education and your child's teacher's recommendation and figure out how to make it happen. Or find a middle ground. As for your original question, how to support her focus, you could try doing a trade off. And play along to give her 'energy' to focus and work with her short attention span. So do a 'play' with the words, then write a few words. Alternate back and forth. Then later you build up endurance/stamina with slowly increasing the work time/play time.
One thing that worked for my daughter in kinder was I said, pretend you are in class and you are my student. Then I just said teacher'y things to keep her motivated, sprinkling in names of her classmates and any tidbits I knew about her environment to keep it like a 'playful' on task time. Keep expectations slow and low, encouraging and above all, be patient. You are her first and main teacher.

@808love: her daughter is only 4! My daughter is 5 in preK and these are so far beyond expectations of anything her teachers have ever said to us for preschool! She just got valentines and there were maybe two kids that I could read the names they wrote. No way they’re reading or writing sentences in a few months.

Honestly, she sounds like a normal kid with an educator who wants her to fit in a “box” rather than to work with her to find the best way for her to learn!

E isn’t stupid, her teacher just needs to harness her energy and creativity in a way that makes her want to learn!

My 5 year old sounds pretty similar. Terrible at playing by himself, talks constantly. Always wants an adult with him. Poor “focus”... we’ve been trying to work on it with him in various ways in anticipation for K next fall.

We got a time timer which has helped quite a bit. It’s a visual countdown so he can see how much time he has left. We started small and work our way up. Started with quiet time play by himself for 20 min. We also have workbooks and little pages for him to work on. We started with 5 minutes to sit and focus on it. We’re only up to about 10 min. But he definitely will focus more. Agree with many others about the young age. But I do think his focus could be better so we are trying this approach! Good luck.

@Mrs. Carrot:

My son is 4.5 and also like this. He can hardly get through going to the bathroom because he's constantly singing, turning things into imaginary machines (even toilet paper), whatever. To be honest, I won't be surprised if ADHD is in his future, given his genetics, but I'm not worried about it yet. I was also an early reader and S, who is a bright kid, definitely isn't ready to start reading yet.
It sounds to be like your LO's school or teacher has unrealistic expectations and is unable to be flexible to fit your daughter's needs. We actually just changed pre-K programs partially because of this. My son's previous school was having the kids do handwriting worksheets and structured teacher-directed journal entries. He's a very curious kid who loves learning, and he really wasn't liking school. I was worried that his love of learning was going to be crushed under the worksheets and pressure to sit still and do teacher directed work. (Which I don't even think is entirely age-appropriate) It wasn't the only reason we switched, but I'm much happier to have him explore reading, writing, and learning math concepts through play right now.
Having said that, I am working with him on learning to stay focused on the task at hand. I've been telling him, "train your brain. Let's finish this one activity first, then we can do XYZ."

@tlynne: Thank you! This is what our pre-K teacher said too when I expressed concern about my daughter (same behavior as OP is describing).

@Cherrybee: any update on this?