North Carolina Standards
North Carolina Kindergarten ELA Standards
All 39 North Carolina English language arts standards for kindergarten, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.
39 standards
Reading Foundational Skills
5 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
Write both the capital and the small letters of the alphabet by hand, like A and a or G and g.
RF.K.3
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.4
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.5
Read very simple beginner books with a purpose in mind and understand what they say.
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
With help, ask and answer questions about story words that show feelings or senses, like grumpy, crunchy or a loud bang.
RL.K.5
Know common kinds of texts when they see them, like a storybook, a poem or a nursery rhyme.
RL.K.6
With help, explain the jobs of a story’s author and illustrator, like one writes the words and the other draws the pictures.
RL.K.7
With help, describe how the pictures and the words in a story team up, like a picture showing the wolf the words describe.
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
9 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 and answer questions about unfamiliar words in a nonfiction book, like what hive or burrow means.
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
With help, explain how the author and illustrator of a nonfiction book share the job, like words giving facts and pictures showing them.
RI.K.7
With help, describe how the words and pictures in a nonfiction book teach together, like a labeled drawing that shows the parts of a plant.
RI.K.9
With help, point out how two books about the same topic are alike and how they differ, like two books about frogs.
RI.K.10
Join in when the class reads a story together, listening, answering and following along.
Writing
6 standardsW.K.1
Draw, dictate and write to name a book or topic and tell what they think of it, then add details with an adult’s help when others ask questions.
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
Draw, dictate and write to tell about one event or a few linked ones in order and how they felt about it, adding details with an adult’s help.
W.K.4
With adult help, try out different digital tools to create and share writing with classmates or as a whole class, like a class slideshow.
W.K.5
Join in class research and writing projects on kindergarten topics, like finding out together what pets need and making a class book.
W.K.6
With an adult's help, answer a question by remembering something that happened or by looking in books the teacher provides.
Speaking and Listening
5 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
Speak loudly enough to be heard and say thoughts, feelings and ideas so that others understand.
SL.K.5
Add a drawing or other picture to a description when it helps show more detail.
Language
5 standardsL.K.1
Use early grammar when speaking and writing, like plurals such as cats and boxes, question words like who and why, words like on and under, and full sentences.
L.K.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence, the word I and names, use end marks like periods, and spell simple words by their sounds, like cat or sun.
L.K.4
Figure out new words from kindergarten books and lessons using clues around them, parts like -ing or re-, and how words relate, like big and huge.
L.K.5
With adult help, explore how word meanings differ by sorting objects into groups, naming opposites like hot and cold, and acting out walk, march and tiptoe.
L.K.6
Put new words to use that they learned from conversations, books they read or hear, and class talks about books, like gigantic from a read-aloud.
The official North Carolina documents
- 2017 ELA Standard Course of Study · adopted 2017 · since 2018-19, through 2026-27
- 2026 ELA Standard Course of Study · coming next · adopted January 2026 · from 2027-28
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of North Carolina's standards, not the official wording, which North Carolina Department of Public Instruction publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.