Kindergarten English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Kids see this subject as “Letters & Words”.
Focus areas
- Reading: letters and sounds, rhyming, sight words, and asking about stories
- Writing, speaking and listening: drawing and telling ideas, and taking turns in conversation
- Language: building vocabulary and using grammar, spelling and punctuation
Units
Unit 1
Letter Partners
Matching capital (big) letters with their lowercase (small) partners, including look-alikes such as b, d, p and q.
Benchmark: 0.2.1.0; 0.1.1.0 · knowing and printing the uppercase and lowercase letters
Unit 2
First Sounds
Hearing the first sound in a word (b in bus) and linking it to its letter. Say the words out loud together and stretch out the first sound.
Benchmark: 0.1.1.1; 0.2.1.2 · hearing first sounds and matching each sound to its letter
Unit 3
Rhyme Time
Hearing rhymes (cat, hat) and spotting a word that doesn't rhyme. Rhyming games build the listening skills behind reading.
Benchmark: 0.1.1.1 · hearing and making rhymes
Unit 4
Clap the Beat
Breaking words into syllables (ba-na-na) by clapping. Clap along out loud: one clap for each part you hear.
Benchmark: 0.1.1.1 · counting the syllables in spoken words
Unit 5
Sight Words
Recognizing common words such as the, see, can and my, plus color and number words, by looking closely at their letters.
Benchmark: 0.1.1.2 · reading common high-frequency words
Unit 6
Story Order
Putting events in order, and listening to short stories to tell what happened at the beginning, middle and end.
Benchmark: 0.2.6.2; 0.1.4.3 · putting the beginning, middle and end of a story in order, and naming its characters and setting
Unit 7
Book Detectives
How print works: telling letters, numbers, words and sentences apart, reading left to right and top to bottom, counting words, and what authors and illustrators do.
Benchmark: 0.1.5.1; 0.1.6.1 · the front cover, back cover and title of a book, and what authors and illustrators do
Unit 8
Picture Clues
Using the picture and the first letter to read a word or a short sentence, a key early reading strategy.
Benchmark: 0.1.5.3 · how the pictures and the words in a book go together
Unit 9
Blend a Word
Listening for the sounds in a word, blending them to read it, and counting the sounds in words.
Benchmark: 0.1.1.1; 0.1.1.2 · blending sounds into simple words and decoding them
Unit 10
Talk & Listen
Chat about the day, ask your child to answer in a whole sentence, and let them ask you questions. Poems and rhymes are great practice too.
Benchmark: 0.3.2.1; 0.3.1.1 · speaking clearly and taking part in discussions
Unit 11
Word Parts & Meanings
Practices how a small word part changes a word (-s for more than one, -ing for happening now, un- for not), grouping words by topic, opposites and same-meaning words, and naming picture parts with labels.
Benchmark: 0.1.8.2 · asking and answering questions about the meaning of new words
Unit 12
Ask and Find Out
Children practice asking who, what, where, when and why questions and choosing where to look for answers: a book, a grown-up, a picture or a simple test. This is the research and inquiry part of the standards.
Benchmark: 0.2.7.1; 0.1.4.1 · asking questions in shared research and answering questions about key details
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