Kindergarten ELA NJSLS Standards

Speaking and Listening Domain

Writing Domain

Reading Domain

Sentence Composition (Grammar, Syntax, and Punctuation)

Spelling

Sound-Letter Basics

Foundational Skills: Writing Language

Fluency

Phonics and Word Recognition

Phonological Awareness

Print Concepts

Foundational Skills: Reading Language

Language Domain

With prompting and support, develop knowledge of language and its conventions when speaking and listening.

Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.

Form regular plural nouns orally by adding -s or -es (e.g., dog, dogs; wish, wishes).

Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).

Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).

Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

Recognize and produce rhyming words.

Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

Orally repeat multi-syllable words and pronounce the separate syllables.

isolate and pronounce the initial, final, and medial sounds (phonemes) in spoken, single-syllable words, (simple syllables that do not include final /l/, /m/, /r/, or /x/ sounds and consonant blends).

Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding and encoding words.

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing many of the most frequently used sounds of each consonant.

Associate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.

Read high-frequency words and grade level irregular words with automaticity.

Recognize the parts of high-frequency words that are regular and the parts that are irregular.

Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ (e.g., nap and tap; cat and cot).

Read emergent-reader texts (decodable texts, including words with one-to-one letter-sound correspondences) orally with sufficient decoding accuracy to support comprehension.

With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.

Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).

Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at school that are colorful).

Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.

Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g., knowing duck is a bird and learning the verb to duck).

Use the most frequently occurring affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, -ing) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of writing.

Match upper and lowercase letters.

Write upper and lowercase letters, with reference to a model.

Write left to right and include a space between words.

Identify the letters used to represent vowel phonemes and those used to represent consonants, knowing that every syllable has a vowel.

Write a common grapheme (letter or letter group) for each phoneme.

Orally segment the phonemes in any single syllable, spoken word.

Demonstrate command of the conventions of encoding and spelling common, regular, single-syllable words by:

Representing phonemes, first to last, in simple words, using letters with a transparent relationship to sound (e.g., the “o” in “rope” may be spelled with a single letter, o).

Writing or selecting a missing initial or final consonant when spelling a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word.

Spelling VC (vowel-consonant) [at, in] and CVC [pet, mud] words with short vowel sounds.

Writing frequently used words accurately.

Attempting phonetic spellings of unknown words.

Writing initial and final consonant blends (must, slab, plump).

Demonstrate command of the conventions of sentence composition.

Repeat a sentence, identifying how many words are in the sentence.

Write simple sentences.

Capitalize the first word in a sentence, capitalize proper names, and include spaces between words.

Use end punctuation.

Use manipulatives or digital tools to construct complete sentences.

Write sentences with increasing complexity.

Supply the “who,” “is doing,” “what,” in a subject-verb-object sentence frame.

Match periods, question marks, and exclamation points to statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.

With support, distinguish between a complete sentence and a sentence fragment.

With support, write statements in response to questions, and questions transformed from statements, using conventional word order.

Elaborate a simple subject or simple predicate, in response to questions who, what, where, when, how, or why.

Use conjunctions appropriately in sentences (e.g., and, but, so, and because).

With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

With prompting and support, identify the main topic and key details of an informational text (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in an informational text (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two informational texts on the same topic (e.g., characters, experiences, illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

Recognize common types of informational texts (e.g., biographies, recipes, how-to manuals) and identify features of print (e.g., front cover, back cover, and title page of a book).

With prompting and support, identify the central message and retell familiar literary texts, including key details (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a literary text (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two literary texts on the same topic (e.g., characters, experiences, illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

Recognize common types of literary texts (e.g., storybooks, poems) and identify features of print (front cover, back cover, and title page of a book).

Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Follow agreed-upon norms for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).

Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

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

Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces on topics or texts (e.g., My favorite book is...).

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts to convey ideas.

Introduce a topic.

Develop the topic with at least two facts or other information and examples related to the topic, including pictures.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate real or imagined experience or events.

Establish a situation and/or introduce characters; organize an event sequence (beginning, middle, end).

Provide limited details of experiences, events, or characters.

Provide a reaction to the experiences or events.

With prompting and support, engage in brief but regular writing and drawing tasks

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

With prompts and support from adults, recognize that writing carries a message and should make sense to others.

With prompting and support, generate questions through shared research in response to a topic, text, or stimulus (e.g., event, photograph, video, book).