What does a student learn in StateMississippi,GradeKindergarten,SubjectEnglish Language Arts?

Teachers read a story aloud, then ask students simple questions about what happened. Students answer and practice asking their own questions about the story.

Students retell a story they know, naming who was in it and what happened. A teacher or parent helps with questions like "What came next?" or "Who did that?"

Students name who is in a story, where it takes place, and what happens. A teacher or parent helps them find those answers by asking questions while they read together.

Students stop at unfamiliar words and ask what they mean, then use the story's pictures or nearby sentences to figure them out.

Students learn that not all books are the same. A storybook tells a tale with characters and events, while a poem looks and sounds different on the page.

Students learn that books have two jobs: an author writes the words and an illustrator draws the pictures. Given a picture book, students can point to who did each job.

Students look at the pictures in a book and explain what moment in the story each picture shows. A teacher or adult helps them make the connection between what they see and what they read.

This standard doesn't apply to literature. For stories and poems, students focus on what happens, who the characters are, and how the words and pictures work together.

Students look at two stories they know and talk about how the characters' adventures are alike and different. A teacher helps them find the comparisons.

Students listen to stories and poems read aloud as a group, staying focused and ready to talk about what they heard.

A teacher reads a nonfiction book aloud and asks questions like "who" and "what." Students answer in their own words and start to ask questions of their own about what they heard.

A teacher reads a nonfiction book aloud and asks questions to help students say what the book is mostly about. Students then recall a few facts or details from it.

Students look at a book about the real world and explain how two things in it are connected. A teacher or parent helps them find the link, like why rain makes plants grow.

When a word in a nonfiction book is unfamiliar, students ask what it means and answer questions about it. Teachers help by pointing to clues in the words and pictures nearby.

Students learn that a book has specific parts: the front cover shows the title and often a picture, the back cover wraps it up, and the title page inside names the book and its author.

Students learn that a book has two key people behind it: the author wrote the words and the illustrator drew the pictures. Students can name both and explain what each one contributed.

Students listen to or read nonfiction books as a group and talk about what they learned. The focus is on paying attention and understanding, not just hearing the words.

Reading starts with knowing how a book works. Students learn that print runs left to right, that words have spaces between them, and that the words on the page are what a reader reads aloud.

Reading goes left to right and top to bottom, just like following a path. Students learn that a book's words have a direction, and turning the page continues that path.

Reading a word means reading its letters in order. Students learn that every spoken word has a matching written form, with specific letters that always appear in the same sequence.

Spaces between words on a page show where one word ends and the next begins. Students learn to spot those gaps in print and understand why they matter.

Students name every letter of the alphabet, both the capital and small versions. This is the first building block of learning to read.

Students learn to hear and play with the sounds inside spoken words. They clap syllables, blend sounds together, and break words apart by ear before they ever see them written down.

Students listen to words like "cat" and "bat" and hear that they end with the same sound. Then they come up with their own rhyming words to match.

Students clap out or tap the syllables in a spoken word, like breaking "rain-bow" or "el-e-phant" into parts. They can also put those parts back together to say the whole word.

Students practice pulling apart and pushing together the beginning sound and the ending chunk of a spoken word. For example, they hear /k/ and /at/, then blend them into "cat."

Students listen to a short word like "cat" or "hop" and say each sound separately: the first sound, the middle vowel, and the last sound. This is practice in hearing that words are built from individual sounds.

Students swap or add one sound in a short word to build a new one. Change the first sound in "cat" and it becomes "bat." Change the last sound and it becomes "can."

Students use letter-sound knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words on the page. This is the core decoding work of learning to read.

Students match each consonant letter to the sound it makes, like knowing that B says /b/ and S says /s/. This is the building block for sounding out words.

Students learn that vowels can make two different sounds. The letter "a," for example, sounds different in "cat" than it does in "cake." Recognizing those patterns helps students sound out new words on their own.

Students learn the sounds each vowel makes: a, e, i, o, and u. Knowing those sounds helps students start sounding out simple words on their own.

Students recognize and read short words that appear constantly in books, like "the," "is," and "you," without needing to sound them out.

Students look at two words that are spelled almost the same, like "cat" and "cut," and find which letter sounds different. That one changed letter changes the whole word.

Students follow along during read-alouds and group reading, paying attention to what the words mean. Reading together in class isn't just recitation. Students are expected to understand what they hear and read.

Students pick something they like, such as a book or an animal, and share their opinion about it. They might draw a picture, tell a teacher what to say, or write a few words themselves.

Students pick a topic and explain it using pictures, spoken words, or writing. They name what the topic is and share at least one fact or detail about it.

Students draw, dictate, or write about something that happened, tell it in order from start to finish, and share how they felt about it.

This standard doesn't apply in Kindergarten. Writing production and distribution skills start in Grade 3, so there's nothing for Kindergarten students to work toward under this code.

Teachers and classmates give feedback, and students use it to add more detail to their writing. It's one of the first steps in learning that writing can always be revised and improved.

With a teacher's help, students use a computer, tablet, or other device to write and share their work. They may type, draw, or work alongside a classmate to put their writing somewhere others can read it.

The class picks a topic together, reads several books about it, and writes down what they found or think. Students share ideas as a group, not on their own.

Students draw on something they've seen, done, or read to answer a simple question, with help from an adult. The information might come from their own memory or from a book or picture a teacher shares.

This standard doesn't apply in Kindergarten. Writing research skills start in 4th grade, when students are ready to pull evidence from books and other sources.

This standard starts in 3rd grade. Nothing is assessed here in Kindergarten.

Students take turns talking and listening in a group conversation, staying on topic long enough to go back and forth at least a few times.

After a teacher reads a story or plays a video, students ask questions about what happened and answer questions from others. If something is confusing, they speak up and ask for help understanding it.

Students ask questions when they need help or don't understand something, and answer questions others ask them. It's one of the first habits that makes classroom conversations work.

Students talk about people, places, or things they know, like a family member or a favorite spot. With a little help from the teacher, they add more detail to make the picture clearer.

Students pair a drawing or simple picture with what they say or write to help listeners understand the details better.

Students practice talking loudly and clearly enough for others to hear, putting their thoughts into words the class can follow.

Students learn the basic rules for putting sentences together when they speak and write. This means using the right words in the right order so their ideas make sense to others.

Students practice writing every letter of the alphabet, both capital and lowercase, by hand.

Students practice naming common people, places, and things, and pair them with action words like "run" or "eat." This builds the basic sentence building blocks they will use for the rest of their reading and writing life.

Students practice saying plural words out loud by adding an "s" or "es" sound to the end, turning one dog into dogs or one wish into wishes.

Students learn the question words (who, what, where, when, why, how) and use them to ask and answer questions out loud and in writing.

Students practice small connecting words like "in," "on," "by," and "with" to show where things are or how they relate. These words appear in nearly every sentence.

Students practice saying complete sentences out loud, then stretch those sentences by adding details. This happens in group activities with the teacher, not on paper yet.

Writing uses capital letters at the start of sentences, punctuation at the end, and simple words spelled correctly. Students learn these basic rules so their writing makes sense to a reader.

Students learn that every sentence starts with a capital letter and that the word "I" is always capitalized, no matter where it appears.

Students learn that a sentence ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. They practice spotting those marks in books and naming what each one is called.

Students hear a sound in a word and write the letter that makes it. This covers consonant sounds and the short vowel sounds in words like "cat," "hop," and "cup."

Students sound out simple words and write the letters that match each sound. At this stage, "kat" for cat is a win.

This standard starts in second grade. Kindergartners focus on letters, sounds, and basic words before formal language rules are introduced.

Students figure out what an unfamiliar word means by looking at the words and pictures around it. This is a foundational reading habit they practice across every book and subject in kindergarten.

Words can mean more than one thing. Students learn that a familiar word like "duck" can also be a verb, then practice using both meanings correctly in speech or writing.

Word endings and beginnings change a word's meaning. Students use clues like -ed, -s, un-, or -ful to figure out what an unfamiliar word means.

Students learn that words connect to each other and that small differences in meaning matter. With a teacher's help, they sort words into groups, act out verbs like "walk" and "stomp," and notice how "happy" and "thrilled" feel different.

Sorting is an early vocabulary skill. Students group familiar things by what they have in common, like putting pictures of fruits in one pile and pictures of animals in another.

Students sort familiar words into groups, like "animals" or "food," and explain what the words in each group have in common.

Students match common action words and describing words to pictures or examples. For instance, they show what "happy" looks like or act out what "jump" means.

Students learn words by pairing them with their opposites: hot and cold, big and small, fast and slow. Knowing a word's opposite helps students understand what the word really means.

Students connect new words to real things around them. They hear a word like "colorful" and think of something in their classroom that matches it.

Students practice words that mean almost the same thing but feel different, like the difference between "walk" and "stomp." They act out each word to show they understand how the meanings change.

Students use new words they picked up from books, classroom talk, and stories. When they write, speak, or answer questions, they reach for those words instead of sticking to the ones they already knew.