Maryland ELA RF.K.3.a

ELAKindergartenReading Foundational Skills

The Standard

RF.K.3: Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding and encoding words. Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabetic principle. Form/print all upper and lowercase letters correctly, using a common path of movement. Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. Know and apply phonics skills in order to decode and encode one-syllable words. Read common high-frequency words by sight. Decode and encode words that are minimal pairs. Decode words with the most common inflectional suffixes.

Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabetic principle.

Maryland College and Career Ready Standards for English Language Arts (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students connect letters on a page to sounds in spoken words. They use those sounds to figure out simple words.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student hears the first sound in mat and points to m. Given m, a, and t, they say each sound and blend them to read mat.
Common Misconceptions: Some students say a letter’s name instead of its sound. Others choose a letter because its shape looks familiar, without checking the sound they hear.
How to Assess It: Show the letters m, s, and t. Say sun, then ask students to point to the letter that shows its first sound and say that sound.

Lesson moves

Give children m, a, and t tiles and three sound boxes; say mat and have them place a tile for each sound.
Write sun and sit on the board; ask, “What sound starts both words, and which letter shows it?”
Play sound bingo with letter cards; call /m/, /s/, and /t/ while children cover the matching letters.
Use a grocery flyer; have children find milk, circle m, and say the first sound they hear in milk.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to RF.K.3.a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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

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