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Common Core ELAKindergartenReading: Informational

RI.K.3: Connect Two Ideas in an Informational Text

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.3 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

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

What RI.K.3 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners explain how two things in a nonfiction book go together, with the teacher prompting. In a book about snow, the sun and the shrinking snowman are two separate facts, and the connection is the because: the sun warms the air, so the snow melts.

Connections can be a cause, a sequence like a seed becoming a plant, or two people who work together. In 1st grade (RI.1.3) children describe these links without the prompting, and in 2nd grade (RI.2.3) they describe how a series of steps or events connect.

RI.K.3 I Can Statements

  • I can tell how two things in a book go together.
  • I can use the word because to connect two facts.
  • I can show which part of the book tells each thing.

RI.K.3 Worked Example

A short weather read-aloud, a question about how two of its facts connect, and two answers that both use the facts but only one links them.

Read the Story
Snow is made of tiny bits of ice.When the sun shines and the air gets warm, the ice turns into water. We say the snow melts.That is why a snowman gets smaller and droopier on a sunny day.Snow in a shady spot, out of the sun, stays cold and lasts longer.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does the sun have to do with the snowman getting smaller?
Not Yet“The sun is hot and the snowman is cold.”Both facts are right, and both are in the book, but they sit side by side. The child has not said how one makes the other happen.
Meets the Standard“The sun makes the air warm, and the ice in the snow turns into water. So the snowman melts and gets smaller.”The answer links the two with so: the warm sun comes first and the melting happens because of it, just as the second and third lines say.
Question Stems to Use
How do the … and the … go together?What happened because of…?What made the … change?What came first? What came next?Can you say it with the word because?

Common Mistakes with RI.K.3

Listing both facts without linking them

“The sun is hot. The snowman is cold.”

Try this: Give a sentence starter with because in it, “The snowman melts because…”, and have the child finish it out loud.

Turning the connection around

“The snowman melted, so the sun came out.”

Try this: Act it out: one child is the sun, one is the snowman. Ask who has to move first for the other to change.

Connecting with a feeling, not a fact

“The snowman is sad because it’s sunny.”

Try this: Enjoy the idea, then ask “What does the book say really happens to snow in the sun?” and reread the second line.

Where RI.K.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.K.1Answer questions about single facts in a text, before linking two of them.
AlongsideRL.K.3Name the characters, setting and big events in a story and see how they fit together.RI.K.8Find the reasons an author gives for a point, another kind of link between two ideas.
Comes NextRI.1.3Describe the connection between two people, events or ideas without the teacher’s prompting.

Practice RI.K.3

Quick Check

  1. What is snow made of?
  2. What happens to the ice when the sun shines and the air gets warm?
  3. Why does snow in a shady spot last longer?

RI.K.3: Other Names

RI.K.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.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.