Mississippi Standards
Mississippi Kindergarten ELA Standards
All 41 Mississippi English language arts standards for kindergarten, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Mississippi Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
41 standards
Reading Literature
9 standardsRL.K.1
With help, ask and answer questions about the important parts of a story, like who is in it and what happens.
RL.K.2
With help, retell a familiar story, like The Three Little Pigs, keeping the important parts in.
RL.K.3
With help, say who is in a story, where it takes place and the big things that happen in it.
RL.K.4
Notice a new word in a story and ask what it means, or answer when someone asks about one.
RL.K.5
Tell a storybook from a poem and name other common kinds of books and texts.
RL.K.6
With help, name who wrote a story and who drew its pictures, and tell what each one does to help tell the story.
RL.K.7
With help, look at a picture in a storybook and say which moment of the story it shows.
RL.K.9
With help, tell how what happens to the characters in two familiar stories is alike and how it is different.
RL.K.10
Join in when the class reads a story together, listening, answering and following along.
Reading Informational Text
10 standardsRI.K.1
With help, ask and answer questions about the important parts of a story, like who is in it and what happens.
RI.K.2
With help, say what an informational book is mostly about and retell some of the facts it gives.
RI.K.3
With help, tell how two people, events or facts in an informational book go together, like a seed and the plant it becomes.
RI.K.4
With help, ask what an unfamiliar word in an informational book means and answer questions about words in it.
RI.K.5
Show where the front of a book is, where the back is, and find the page inside that gives the title.
RI.K.6
Name who wrote a text and who drew its pictures, and tell what each one does to share the text's ideas or facts.
RI.K.7
With help, say which person, place, thing or idea from an informational book a picture or photo shows.
RI.K.8
With help, find the reasons an author gives for a point, like why a book says dogs make good pets.
RI.K.9
With help, tell what is alike and what is different in two books about the same topic, like two books about bears.
RI.K.10
Join in when the class reads a story together, listening, answering and following along.
Reading Foundational Skills
4 standardsRF.K.1
Follow print left to right and top to bottom, know that letters in order make a word with spaces between words, and name every upper and lowercase letter.
RF.K.2
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.
RF.K.3
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.
RF.K.4
Join in when the class reads a story together, listening, answering and following along.
Writing
7 standardsW.K.1
Use drawing, telling and some writing to name a topic or book and give an opinion about it, like My favorite book is the one about dogs.
W.K.2
Use drawing, telling and some writing to name a topic and share a few facts about it, like what cats eat.
W.K.3
Use drawing, telling and some writing to tell what happened, in the order it happened, and share a reaction to it.
W.K.5
With an adult's help, listen to classmates' questions and ideas about a piece of writing and add details to make it better.
W.K.6
With an adult's help, try tools like a tablet or computer to make and share writing, sometimes together with classmates.
W.K.7
Take part in a class project, like reading several books by one author together and sharing opinions about them.
W.K.8
With an adult's help, answer a question by remembering something that happened or by looking in books the teacher provides.
Speaking and Listening
6 standardsSL.K.1
Talk with classmates and adults about kindergarten topics and books, following the rules, taking turns and keeping the conversation going.
SL.K.2
Show understanding of a read-aloud, a talk or a video by asking and answering questions about it and asking when something is confusing.
SL.K.3
Ask a question to get help, find something out or clear up something confusing, and answer questions from others.
SL.K.4
Describe a familiar person, place, thing or event, like a pet or a birthday, and add more detail when prompted.
SL.K.5
Add a drawing or other picture to a description when it helps show more detail.
SL.K.6
Speak loudly enough to be heard and say thoughts, feelings and ideas so that others understand.
Language
5 standardsL.K.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
L.K.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
L.K.4
Figure out what a new word means, like duck as a bird and duck as a move, and use endings and beginnings like -ed, -s and un- as clues.
L.K.5
With an adult's help, sort objects into groups, pair words with their opposites, link words to real life, and act out the difference between walk, march and strut.
L.K.6
Use new words picked up from conversations, from books and from being read to when talking and responding to stories.
The official Mississippi documents
- 2025 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for English Language Arts · adopted 2025 · required since 2025-26
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Mississippi's standards, not the official wording, which Mississippi Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.