What does a student learn in StatePennsylvania,GradeKindergarten,SubjectEnglish Language Arts?

Students learn that books have a front and back, that words run left to right across the page, and that spaces separate one word from the next.

Students learn to hear and play with the sounds inside spoken words: whether two words rhyme, how many syllables a word has, and what individual sounds make up a word.

Students learn to match letters to their sounds and use those matches to read simple written words. This is the building block for reading anything.

Students read simple books aloud smoothly, accurately, and at a natural pace. Reading this way frees up mental energy so students can focus on understanding what the words mean.

Students listen to or read a true book and answer questions about it using details straight from the page.

Students learn how nonfiction books are put together and why authors choose certain words. They begin to notice how a page's layout or a repeated phrase helps explain an idea.

Students listen to or look at two books or videos about the same topic, then put together what they learned from both. This builds a fuller picture than any one source gives on its own.

Students learn and use new words that show up in books and classroom lessons, like words for weather, animals, or shapes. Knowing these words helps students understand what they read and hear.

Students listen to and read simple nonfiction books about real topics, building the habit of making sense of facts and information on their own.

Students listen to a story and answer questions about what happened, pointing to words or pictures in the book that back up their answer.

Students learn how a story is put together and why an author chose certain words. They look at how those choices shape the feeling a story gives you.

Stories have themes, characters, and ways of being told. Students look at two books side by side and say what is the same and what is different about the ideas or the way the story is built.

Students learn words that show up in stories, like words that paint a picture ("the wind danced") or words that carry a feeling beyond their plain meaning. This is the start of reading between the lines.

Kindergartners listen to and talk about stories and poems read aloud, building the habit of making sense of what they hear. By the end of the year, they start reading simple books on their own.

Students pick a side ("cats are better pets") and give a reason why. This is the start of opinion writing, where the job is to say what you think and back it up.

Students pick a topic they know, then write or draw to share facts about it. The goal is to teach the reader something, not tell a story.

Students write short stories about things that happened to them or characters they make up. They put events in order and add details that help the story make sense.

Students practice the full writing process: picking an idea, getting words on the page, fixing it up, and sharing the finished piece with a reader.

Students pick a simple question and look for answers in more than one place, like a book and a picture, then put what they found together.

Students practice the basic rules of written English: starting sentences with a capital letter, adding a period at the end, and spelling simple words correctly. These habits build the foundation for all the writing students do in school.

Students take turns talking in group conversations, listen to what classmates say, and add their own ideas to keep the discussion going.

Students share what they know out loud in an order that makes sense to listeners. Ideas connect, so someone hearing them for the first time can follow along.

Students listen to a story, song, or video and then talk about what they learned from it. They can say whether they agree with the speaker and explain why.