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Common Core ELAKindergartenFoundational Skills

RF.K.3: Letter Sounds and Sight Words

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3 · Cluster: Phonics and Word Recognition.

Make Sight Word PracticeAll 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Common Core State Standards, Kindergarten, Reading: Foundational Skills · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RF.K.3 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners learn the main sound for each consonant and the short and long sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read sight words like the, of and you without sounding them out. They also tell look-alike words apart by the letter that differs, like cat and cot.

Put together, these let children sound out short words like cat and sit. Pairs like sh and the silent e in cake wait for 1st grade, along with vowel teams and -ed and -ing endings (RF.1.3).

RF.K.3 I Can Statements

  • I can say the sound each consonant makes.
  • I can say the short and long sound of each vowel.
  • I can read words like the and you by sight.

RF.K.3 Worked Example

One short sentence read with all four lettered parts at work: consonant sounds, vowel sounds, sight words and look-alike words.

Problem

Read “The cat is on the mat.” Then change one letter in cat and read the sentence again.

Reading one sentence with letter sounds and sight words
  1. Say the sound each consonant makes, not its name.c /k/, t /t/, m /m/, n /n/
  2. The a in cat is short, the sound at the start of apple. Its long sound says its name, as in acorn.short a: c-a-t; long a: acorn
  3. The and is are sight words. Read them straight off, without sounding out.the, is
  4. Sound out the rest, one sound at a time, then blend.c-a-t, o-n, m-a-t
  5. Read the whole sentence, pointing to each word.The cat is on the mat.
  6. Change the middle letter of cat to o. Only the middle sound changes, so read it again.cat → cot: /a/ → /o/
AnswerThe cat is on the mat. With one letter changed: The cot is on the mat.

Check it: If the child reads cot the second time, they are looking at every letter, not guessing from the first one.

Common Mistakes with RF.K.3

Saying letter names instead of sounds

Reads cat as “see, ay, tee”

Try this: Separate the two jobs: ask “What’s its name?” and “What does it say?” as different questions, and blend only with sounds.

Guessing from the first letter

Sees cot and reads cat

Try this: Line up pairs that differ by one letter, cat and cot, pin and pan, and have the child point to the change.

Sounding out every sight word

Tries “t-h-e” and “o-f” and gets stuck

Try this: Treat the, of and you as whole words: say it, spell it, say it again, and meet it in a sentence the same day.

Where RF.K.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRF.K.2Hear the first, middle and last sounds in a spoken word.
AlongsideRF.K.1Name all the upper and lowercase letters.L.K.2Spell simple words by their sounds.
Comes NextRF.1.3Decode words with sh, ch and th, silent e and vowel teams, and read -ed and -ing endings.

Practice RF.K.3

Sight Word Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolRead, trace and write practice for the sight words your class is on, like the, of, to and you, one or two new words a week.Kindergartenthe, of, to, you
Make a Worksheet

Quick Check

  1. What sound does the letter m make?
  2. What is the short sound of i? Say a word that has it.
  3. Read pin and pan. Which letter is different, and what sound does each make?

RF.K.3: Other Names

RF.K.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3

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.