South Dakota ELA K.RF.3.c

ELAKindergartenReading Foundational Skills

The Standard

K.RF.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding and encoding words.

Understand that graphemes represent phonemes.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students connect a sound they hear in a word to the letter that shows it in print. They point to the letter and say its sound, not just its name.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a picture of a sun, a student says /s/ and points to s. When shown m, they say /m/ and name a word that begins with that sound.
Common Misconceptions: Some students say “em” when asked for the sound of m. Others choose s for the first sound in bus because they see s in the word.
How to Assess It: Show pictures of a moon, sun, and top beside m, s, and t. Ask students to match each picture to the letter for its first sound, then say each sound aloud.

Lesson moves

Hand out m, s, and t tiles with moon, sun, and top picture cards; students place each picture under its first-sound letter.
Write sun and ask, “Which letter shows the first sound you hear, and what sound is it?”
Play sound bingo with m, s, and t letter cards; call /m/, /s/, or /t/ and have students cover the matching letter.
Point to the S on a STOP sign photo; ask students to say the first sound in stop and find its letter.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to K.RF.3.c, 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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