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Minnesota Standards

Minnesota Kindergarten ELA Standards

All 35 Minnesota English language arts standards for kindergarten, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Minnesota Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

35 standards

Reading

18 standards
0.1.1.0
Show how print works by tracking words left to right and page by page, naming every capital and lowercase letter, and noticing the spaces between words.
0.1.1.1
Hear and make rhymes, clap syllables, say the first, middle and last sounds in a short word like cat, and swap a sound to make a new word, like cat to hat.
Common Core RF.K.2
0.1.1.2
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
Common Core RF.K.3
0.1.1.3
Read simple books built from the letter sounds and words taught in phonics lessons, getting the words right with an adult's help.
0.1.2.1
With help, read books at grade level and notice when something stops making sense, fixing it by sounding out words, asking questions or linking to what is known.
0.1.2.3
With prompting and support, pick and read books tied to personal interests and identity, like a story about a family much like the reader's own.
0.1.3.1
With prompting and support, pick and read books that show Dakota and Anishinaabe people, both long ago and today, and the views they hold.
0.1.4.1
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about the important details in a book, like who is in it and what happens.
0.1.4.2
With prompting and support, tell what a book is mostly about, like frogs or a trip to the zoo.
0.1.4.3
With prompting and support, name the characters in a story and tell where and when it takes place.
0.1.4.4
With prompting and support, explain how two facts, events, people or ideas in a nonfiction book are linked, like a seed and the plant it grows into.
0.1.5.1
Find the front cover, back cover and title of a book, and move through a digital book by tapping or swiping its pages.
0.1.5.2
Tell a made-up story apart from a book that gives facts, whether listening to it or reading it.
0.1.5.3
Notice how a book's pictures connect to its words, like a drawing that shows what the sentence on the page describes.
0.1.6.1
Tell what the author and the illustrator each do to tell a story, like one writes the words and the other draws the pictures.
0.1.6.3
Tell familiar kinds of texts apart while listening or reading, like storybooks, fact books and poems.
0.1.8.1
Listen for the beat, repeated starting sounds and lines that come back again and again in a story, poem or song read aloud.
0.1.8.2
Ask and answer questions about new words heard in a nonfiction book read aloud, like what a cocoon is.

Writing

12 standards
0.2.1.0
Write many capital and lowercase letters by hand, like the letters in one's own name.
0.2.1.1
Understand that each written word is a set order of letters, that spaces separate words, and that words go in order to make a sentence.
0.2.1.2
Match each letter to its own sound, like m with the mmm sound at the start of moon.
0.2.2.1
Write often with an adult's support, using drawing, telling ideas for an adult to write down, and putting letters on paper.
0.2.2.2
Share personal views, identity and voice by talking or drawing, like describing a picture of one's family.
0.2.3.1
Plan and draft a piece by drawing, telling or writing, then improve it together as a class or small group.
0.2.4.1
With support and guidance, give an opinion by talking, drawing or writing, like naming a favorite book and saying so.
0.2.5.1
With support and guidance, name a topic and give one or two facts about it by talking, drawing or writing, like dogs and that they bark.
0.2.5.2
With support and guidance, react to a story by talking about it or drawing, like showing a favorite part.
0.2.6.1
Tell a story about one's own experience or a character's by speaking, drawing or writing, like a day at the park.
0.2.6.2
With support and guidance, put a story's beginning, middle and end in the right order.
0.2.7.1
Ask questions to join in class research and writing projects, like what do bees eat.

Listening, Speaking, Viewing and Exchanging Ideas

5 standards
0.3.1.1
Share ideas in stories and group talk that include Dakota, Anishinaabe and other voices, following agreed talk rules and keeping turns going back and forth.
0.3.1.2
Show understanding of something read aloud or heard, like a poem or song, by asking and answering questions about details and asking for help when lost.
0.3.2.1
Speak loudly enough to be heard and say thoughts, feelings and ideas so that others understand.
Common Core SL.K.6
0.3.3.1
With prompting and support, share knowledge and ideas in written, spoken and digital forms, like a drawing with labels or a short talk.
0.3.3.2
With prompting and support, make a multimedia piece alone or with others to share, teach or entertain, keeping in mind that what goes online stays there.

The official Minnesota documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Minnesota's standards, not the official wording, which Minnesota Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.