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Common Core ELAKindergartenLanguage

L.K.6: Use New Words from Books and Talk

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.6 · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

All 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.

Common Core State Standards, Kindergarten, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What L.K.6 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners pick up words from read-alouds, class talk and their own responses to stories, then use those words when they speak. After hearing that a bear crept into a gloomy cave, a child retells it with crept and gloomy instead of went and dark.

A word takes many hearings and many tries before it belongs to a five-year-old, so the teacher plans for reuse across the week. In 1st grade (L.1.6) students keep adding words this way and start using joining words like because to show how ideas connect.

L.K.6 I Can Statements

  • I can use a new word from a story when I talk.
  • I can tell what a new word means.
  • I can listen for new words when my teacher reads.

L.K.6 Worked Example

One retelling that leaves the read-aloud’s new words behind, and one where they come back.

Prompt

After a read-aloud about a bear who crept into a gloomy cave: Tell your partner what happened at the cave.

Not Yet“The bear went in the dark cave. It was scary.”A correct retelling in everyday words, but the two new words the class just heard, crept and gloomy, are nowhere in it.
Meets the Standard“The bear crept into the gloomy cave. Crept is really slow and quiet, like this. Gloomy means dark and kind of sad.”Both new words come back in the child’s own retelling, and the child shows what each one means instead of just echoing the book.
Moves to Use
Listen for a new word in the story and say it back.Use the new word when you tell about the story.Show what it means: act it out or say it another way.Use the word again tomorrow, somewhere new.

Common Mistakes with L.K.6

Heard once, gone by Tuesday

Gloomy comes up in Monday’s read-aloud and nobody says it again

Try this: Post the week’s new words with a picture by the carpet, and use each one yourself, on purpose, every day.

Using the word without the meaning

“The bear was gloomy,” when the child means the bear was big

Try this: Ask “What does gloomy mean?” after a child uses it, and accept acting it out as a full answer.

Only the teacher uses the new words

The teacher says enormous all week while students still say really, really big

Try this: Recast the child’s sentence with the new word and ask them to say it back: “Yes, enormous! Say it again with enormous.”

Where L.K.6 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.K.10Join in group read-alouds with purpose and understanding, the main source of new words.
AlongsideL.K.4Work out what a new or multiple-meaning word means.RL.K.2Retell a familiar story, a natural place to reuse its new words.
Comes NextL.1.6Use new words from talk and books, including joining words like because.

Practice L.K.6

Quick Check

  1. Which two new words from the read-aloud does the strong retelling use?
  2. What everyday words did the weak retelling use instead?
  3. A child says, “The bear crept.” What follow-up checks that the child knows the word?

L.K.6: Other Names

L.K.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.6

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.