United States · Common Core State Standards
Kindergarten English Language Arts
This curriculum introduces kindergarteners to the joy of reading and the power of expression through phonetic awareness, narrative exploration, and collaborative communication. Students build a strong foundation in letter sounds and print concepts while developing the ability to analyze and compose simple texts.

01Worlds of Wonder: Exploring Narratives
Students investigate how stories are built by identifying characters, settings, and major events in diverse picture books.
Exploration of how characters act and feel within a story and how those feelings change over time.
Identifying where and when a story takes place using both illustrations and text clues.
Understanding the sequence of events and how problems are solved by the end of a narrative.
Focusing on the central conflict or problem in a story and how characters work to resolve it.
Students make personal connections to stories, relate them to other texts, and link them to real-world experiences.
Understanding that authors write the words and illustrators draw the pictures, and how both contribute to the story.
Practicing retelling stories with key details in the correct sequence.
Introducing the basic differences between stories that are made up (fiction) and books that give facts (nonfiction).

02Curious Researchers: Discovering Information
Students learn to navigate non-fiction texts to find facts and understand how authors share information about the real world.
Identifying the main topic and supporting details in informational picture books.
Using diagrams, photographs, and labels to gain information that words might not provide.
Exploring the relationship between two individuals, events, or pieces of information in a text.
Identifying and using common text features like titles, headings, and table of contents to find information.
Formulating and answering questions about key details in informational texts.
Identifying similarities and differences between two informational texts on the same topic.
Discussing why authors write informational texts (to inform, explain, describe).
Practicing recalling specific facts and details from nonfiction books.

03Young Authors: Writing with Purpose
Children use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to share their experiences and express their opinions.
Composing narrative pieces about a single event or a personal experience in chronological order.
Learning to state a preference or opinion and provide a reason for that point of view.
Responding to questions and suggestions from peers to add more detail to writing and drawings.
Using drawing, dictating, and writing to share information about a topic.
Working with peers to produce and publish a shared piece of writing.
Using basic digital tools to produce and publish writing, including collaborative opportunities.
Participating in shared research and writing projects to answer a question.
Recalling information from experiences or texts to answer a question or present information.

04Language Architects: Words and Sounds
Students master the conventions of English while expanding their vocabulary through word play and collaborative conversation.
Developing strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words and exploring word relationships.
Practicing the rules of conversation, including listening to others and taking turns speaking.
Understanding the basic rules of grammar, including capitalization and punctuation in simple sentences.
Sorting words into categories (e.g., colors, shapes, foods) to build vocabulary and understand relationships.
Producing complete sentences when speaking to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
Identifying and using common nouns (people, places, things) and verbs (actions) in sentences.
Practicing the identification of nouns (people, places, things) and verbs (actions) within simple sentences.
Sorting common objects into categories and describing them by their attributes (e.g., size, color, shape).
Recognizing and producing rhyming words and identifying words that begin with the same sound.
Understanding that print is read from left to right, top to bottom, and that books have covers, titles, and pages.