RI.K.7: Connect Pictures and Words in Nonfiction
Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.
The Official Wording
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
Common Core State Standards, Kindergarten, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RI.K.7 Means in Plain English
Kindergartners look at a picture in a nonfiction book and say, with the teacher prompting, what it shows and which words it goes with. In a book about robins, the words say she builds her nest with grass, and the picture shows her carrying a long piece of it.
Pictures in nonfiction carry facts, not just decoration. In 1st grade children tell which facts come from the pictures and which come from the words (RI.1.6), then use both together to describe a book’s key ideas (RI.1.7).
RI.K.7 I Can Statements
- I can tell what a picture in a book shows.
- I can find the words that go with a picture.
- I can say what I learn from a picture.
RI.K.7 Worked Example
A robin read-aloud with its two pictures described in place, a question that sends children between a picture and the words, and two answers.
In spring, a robin builds a nest.Picture: a robin flying to a tree with a long piece of dry grass in its beak.She uses grass, twigs and mud. She presses the nest with her body to make it round.Picture: four blue eggs in a round nest.Soon there are eggs in the nest, and the robin sits on them to keep them warm.
Common Mistakes with RI.K.7
Naming the picture without connecting it
“A bird.” “Eggs.”
Try this: Follow every naming answer with “What does it show the robin doing?” and then “Which words tell us that too?”
Telling a story about the picture
“The bird is flying to her mommy’s house.”
Try this: Read the words on the page again, then ask whether the picture matches them or tells something the book never said.
Skipping the pictures altogether
The child listens to every word but never looks at the photos
Try this: Pause before turning each page and give a few seconds for looking, asking “What do you notice in the picture?”
Where RI.K.7 Fits
Practice RI.K.7
Quick Check
- What is the robin carrying in the first picture?
- What three things does the robin use to build her nest?
- What does the second picture show?