Maryland ELA SL.K.4

ELAKindergartenSpeaking and Listening

The Standard

Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with modeling, prompting and support; provide additional detail.

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

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Children describe people, places, things, and events they know. With a model or a question from the teacher, they add a detail about what something looks like, does, or what happened.
What Mastery Looks Like: A child can say more than a name, such as, 'My dog is brown and likes to run.' When asked, 'What else?', they add another detail that fits.
Common Misconceptions: Some children stop after naming the subject, such as, 'That's my dog.' Others repeat the same fact or switch to an unrelated story when asked for more.
How to Assess It: Show a picture of the classroom and ask, 'What place is this? Tell me about it.' Then ask, 'What else do you see there?' Listen for a relevant added detail.

Lesson moves

Put a classroom object in a mystery bag; let children feel it and describe its shape or texture before showing it.
Show a photo of the playground and ask, 'What do you see there? What else can you tell us?'
Play Guess My Object with a pencil, eraser, and crayon; children give two clues while classmates guess.
After lunch, have partners describe the cafeteria to a new student, including what they saw there.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SL.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.

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