CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.4

ELAKindergartenCraft and Structure

The Standard

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts · Reading Standards for Informational Text

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students notice when a word in a nonfiction text is unfamiliar. They ask what it means and use pictures, nearby words, and teacher help to answer.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students point out a word they do not know and ask what it means. With a picture, nearby words, or teacher help, they give a sensible meaning.
Common Misconceptions: Students may skip unfamiliar words or guess from the first sound alone. They may ask about a word but give an answer unrelated to the picture or nearby words.
How to Assess It: Show the sentence, “A rabbit rests in a burrow under the ground,” with a picture. Ask, “Which word might be new? Ask about it, then tell what it means and what helped you.”

Lesson moves

Give pairs photo and sentence cards to mark unknown words with sticky notes, then match each word to a picture meaning.
After a nonfiction read-aloud, partners ask, “What does ___ mean?” and answer using a picture or nearby words.
Play Word Detective: read fact cards, and students ring a bell at an unknown word, ask its meaning, then choose a picture clue.
Examine a classroom safety poster, circle unfamiliar words, and use symbols or pictures to explain each word.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.K.4, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Learning progression

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

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