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Common Core ELAKindergartenWriting

W.K.3: Tell What Happened, in Order

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.3 · Cluster: Text Types and Purposes.

Get a Narrative PromptAll 41 Kindergarten ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.

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

What W.K.3 Means in Plain English

Kindergartners tell about something that happened to them, one event or a few close together, in the order it happened, and say how they felt. Two boxed drawings, the slide and then the puddle, plus “I laughed and laughed,” make a complete story.

Order is the hard part: young writers start with the most exciting moment. In 1st grade (W.1.3) the story needs two or more events in order, a few details, time words like then and after, and an ending.

W.K.3 I Can Statements

  • I can tell about something that happened to me.
  • I can tell what happened first, next and last.
  • I can tell how I felt about what happened.

W.K.3 Worked Example

The same two events told twice. Only the order and the ending change.

Prompt

Tell about something that happened to you on the playground. Draw it, then tell or write what happened.

Not Yet(Drawing: a child in a puddle.) I got all wet. I went down the slide.Both events are real, but they come backward: the reader hears about the wet pants before the slide that caused them. Nothing says how the child felt.
Meets the Standard(Two drawings: first the child at the top of the big slide, then the child sitting in a puddle at the bottom.) I went down the big slide. I landed in a puddle! My pants got wet and I laughed and laughed.The slide comes first and the puddle second, in the drawings and in the words, and the last sentence gives the reaction: laughing.
Moves to Use
Tell the story to a partner before you draw.Draw what happened first in box one, then what happened next.Touch each box and tell it in order.End with how you felt: happy, scared or silly.

Common Mistakes with W.K.3

The whole day instead of one event

“I woke up. I ate cereal. I went to school. I played. I went home.”

Try this: Ask “Which part would you tell a friend about?” and have the child draw only that part.

The best part first

“I got all wet. I went down the slide.”

Try this: Fold the paper into two boxes, have the child act out the event, then draw each step in its own box.

A story with no reaction

Ends with “And then I went inside.”

Try this: Post a feelings chart with faces and words, and have the child pick one for the last sentence of the page.

Where W.K.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.K.2Retell familiar stories with key details, the same ordering done with someone else’s story.
AlongsideRL.K.3Identify the characters, setting and major events in a story.SL.K.4Describe familiar events out loud and, with prompting, add more detail.
Comes NextW.1.3Recount two or more events in order with details, time words like then and after, and an ending.

Practice W.K.3

Writing Prompt GeneratorFree ToolA personal narrative prompt for K to 2, printed with a picture box for the event and lines for the words.Personal NarrativeGrades K to 2Picture box
Make a Prompt

Quick Check

  1. In the strong response, what happened first?
  2. Which sentence in the strong response gives the reaction?
  3. Put these in order: “A sprout came up and I was so happy.” “We planted a seed.” “We watered it every day.”

W.K.3: Other Names

W.K.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.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.