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Missouri Standards

Missouri Kindergarten ELA Standards

All 29 Missouri English language arts standards for kindergarten, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

29 standards

Reading

11 standards
K.R.1.A
With help, predict from a book's cover, ask and answer questions, retell big ideas, link events to their own life, and find the beginning, middle, and end.
K.R.1.B
With help, grow vocabulary by sorting pictures into groups, naming opposites like hot and cold, telling apart verbs like walk and march, and using a picture dictionary.
K.R.1.C
With help, link a book's ideas to their own life and notice how two texts, fiction or nonfiction, are alike and different.
K.R.1.D
Spend steady stretches of time looking at and reading books on their own, at a level that suits a kindergartner.
K.R.2.A
With help, name a story's setting, characters, and key events, retell a main event, tell what the author and illustrator each do, and compare characters' adventures.
K.R.2.B
With help, clap along to the steady beat of a poem and notice words that rhyme or sound alike, like cat, hat, and bat.
K.R.2.C
With help, name the characters in a puppet show or a short play performed by actors.
K.R.3.A
With help, name the topic and details of a nonfiction text from its words and pictures, predict from the title, spot text features, and read signs like STOP.
K.R.3.B
With help, react to details in a nonfiction text that tell how things look, sound, feel, smell, or taste.
K.R.3.C
With help, ask and answer questions to understand a nonfiction text, name its main topic and key details, and compare two texts on the same topic.
K.R.4.A
With help, name different kinds of media, like TV shows, ads, and websites, and notice techniques they use, like catchy music or bright colors.

Reading Foundations

4 standards
K.RF.1.A
Name every capital and lowercase letter, say the alphabet in order, follow print left to right and top to bottom, and point to each word as it is read.
K.RF.2.A
Play with sounds in spoken words: make rhymes, spot words that start alike, blend sounds like c-a-t into cat, and split short words into their sounds.
K.RF.3.A
Write letters for most consonant and short vowel sounds, read common sight words, sound out simple words, and see how changing a letter makes a new word.
K.RF.4.A
With support, read books suited to a kindergartner with a clear purpose, making sense of what the words say.

Writing

8 standards
K.W.1.A
With help, plan a piece of writing by drawing pictures, talking it through, or writing letters and words.
K.W.1.B
Turn a plan into a first draft that puts actions or details in order using pictures, letters, and words.
K.W.1.C
With help from adults or classmates, reread a draft, add details in answer to their questions, and fix it so words have spaces between them.
K.W.1.D
With help from adults or classmates, try out paper and digital tools to finish and share a piece of writing.
K.W.2.A
With help, draw and write to share an opinion about a topic or book, give a sensible reason others should agree, and use words that fit the topic.
K.W.2.B
With help, draw and write to name a topic or book and tell facts about it, using words that fit the topic.
K.W.2.C
With help, draw and write a real or made-up story or a poem that tells events in order, describes a character, and shares a reaction to what happened.
K.W.3.A
With help, research a class topic by listing questions, choosing people or books that can answer them, gathering facts, and adding pictures to notes.

Language

2 standards
K.L.1.A
Pick out nouns and verbs, then speak and write with plurals, words for time and place, question words, and complete sentences.
K.L.1.B
When writing, print capital and lowercase letters, capitalize I and the first word, end sentences with punctuation, spell their own name, and spell other words by sound.

Speaking/Listening

4 standards
K.SL.1.A
Follow class listening rules, keep a conversation going back and forth, and carry out a one-step direction like put your book away.
K.SL.2.A
Show active listening the way the class expects, like looking at the speaker and keeping hands still.
K.SL.3.A
Take turns talking, keep a conversation going, and show they understood a read-aloud or video by retelling it and asking fitting questions.
K.SL.4.A
Tell about something that happened to them in complete sentences, loud and clear, using a prop, picture, or other visual to help.

The official Missouri documents

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