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

Students answer questions about a story and start asking their own. A teacher or parent helps by pointing to the pictures or rereading a line.

Students retell a story they know by sharing who was in it and what happened. A teacher or parent helps them remember the key parts.

Students name who is in a story, where it takes place, and what happens. A teacher or parent helps by asking questions like "Who is this about?" or "Where are they?"

Students listen to a story, name what it is mostly about, share the key details they remember, and guess what might happen next.

Students stop at words they don't know and ask what they mean. They look for clues in the story to figure out the answer.

Students learn that not all books look or sound the same. A storybook tells a tale with characters and events, while a poem uses rhythm and shorter lines.

Students learn who wrote a story and who drew the pictures, and what each person's job is. The author made up the words; the illustrator made the pictures that go with them.

Students look at the pictures in a book and explain what part of the story each one shows. A teacher or parent helps them make the connection between what they see and what happened in the words.

Students look at two familiar storybook characters and talk about how their adventures are alike and different. A teacher helps with questions to get them started.

Students listen to stories and poems read aloud in a group, paying attention and thinking about what the text means. Reading together at this age builds the habits students need to read on their own later.

With help from a teacher, students ask and answer simple questions about a book or passage they just read. They point to details in the text that support their answers.

With a little help, students name what a nonfiction book or article is mostly about and share a few facts they learned from it.

Students explain how two things in a nonfiction book are connected, like how rain leads to puddles or how one person's work helped another. A teacher or parent guides them with questions.

Students learn to stop and ask what an unfamiliar word means while reading a nonfiction book. A teacher helps them find clues in the text or pictures.

Students point to the front cover, back cover, and title page of a nonfiction book and name what each one is for.

Students learn who wrote a book and who drew the pictures, then explain what each person's job is. The author puts the ideas into words; the illustrator makes pictures that show those ideas.

Students look at the pictures in a nonfiction book and explain how each picture connects to the words on the page. A teacher or parent helps them talk through what the picture is showing.

Authors don't just state facts. They give reasons to back them up. Students learn to spot those reasons in a book or article, with help from a teacher or adult.

Two books can cover the same topic but look or explain it differently. Students compare two informational books on the same topic and spot what's alike and what's different, with a teacher's help.

Students listen to and talk about nonfiction books read aloud as a group, with a reason for reading in mind.

Print sits on a page in a specific order: left to right, top to bottom, one word at a time. Students learn how a book works, where words begin and end, and why spaces between words matter.

Reading moves in a direction. Students learn that English text starts at the top left of a page and tracks right across each line, then down to the next, one page at a time.

Spoken words can be written down using letters in a specific order. Students learn that the letters on a page stand for the sounds they say out loud.

Students learn that the blank spaces between words on a page are what separate one word from the next. Pointing to each word while reading shows this in action.

Students name every letter of the alphabet, both capital and lowercase, when they see it on the page.

Students learn to hear the building blocks of spoken language. They practice breaking words into syllables, listening for rhymes, and identifying individual sounds in short words.

Students listen to pairs of words and decide whether they rhyme, then come up with their own rhyming words. Think "cat" and "hat," or "dog" and "log."

Students clap out or count the syllable beats in spoken words, then put those beats together or pull them apart. For example, "pen-cil" has two beats.

Students take apart a spoken word like "cat" into its starting sound and ending chunk, then push those pieces back together to make the word again.

Students listen to a short word like "cat" or "hot" and say each sound separately: the beginning sound, the middle vowel, and the ending sound.

Students swap or add a single sound in a short word to make a new word. Change the first sound in "cat" and it becomes "bat." Change the last sound and it becomes "cap."

Students use letter sounds they know to sound out and read unfamiliar words. This is the foundation of learning to read.

Students learn that each letter makes a specific sound, then practice saying that sound aloud. The focus is on consonants, the letters that are not a, e, i, o, or u.

Students learn that each vowel (a, e, i, o, u) can make two sounds: a short sound like the "a" in "cat" and a long sound like the "a" in "cake." They practice matching those sounds to the letters they see in words.

Students memorize short words that show up on almost every page, like "the," "you," and "are," so they can read them without stopping to sound out each letter.

Students look at two words that are almost identical and figure out which letters sound different. For example, they hear the difference between "cat" and "cut" by focusing on the vowel in the middle.

Students read simple beginner books with a clear goal in mind, not just calling out words. They show they understand what the words mean together.

Students pick a book or topic they have a feeling about and share their opinion through pictures, spoken words, or writing. They name what the book or topic is and tell the reader what they think or prefer.

Students pick a topic and share what they know about it by drawing a picture, telling a teacher what to write, or writing words themselves.

Students draw pictures and write or dictate words to tell a short story about something that happened, keeping events in order and sharing how it felt.

A teacher or classmate gives feedback, and students use it to add details that make their writing clearer or more complete.

Students use a computer, tablet, or other device to write and share their work, with help from a teacher or adult. They may type words, add pictures, or work alongside a classmate to finish a piece.

Students use a computer or tablet to find information and put what they learned into their writing.

Students work with the class to explore a topic together, then help write or share what the group found out. This could mean reading several books by the same author and talking about which ones they liked.

Students answer a simple question by drawing on something they lived or saw, or by looking through a book or source a teacher gives them. Adults help along the way.

Students take turns talking and listening in group conversations with classmates and adults about books and topics they're exploring in class.

Students learn to take turns talking and listen while others speak during class discussions.

Students take turns talking and listening in a back-and-forth conversation, responding to what the other person said instead of starting a new topic.

Students listen to a story or lesson, then ask or answer questions about the important parts. If something is confusing, students ask about it instead of guessing.

Students learn to ask a question when they need help or don't understand something, and to answer questions others ask them.

Students talk about people, places, and things they know, like a pet or a favorite spot, and add more details when a teacher or adult asks a follow-up question.

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

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

Students listen to stories and take part in activities that introduce different cultures and countries from around the world.

Students act out simple roles, guess what might happen next in a story, and follow spoken or picture-based directions with a teacher's help.

Students learn the basic rules of English, like how to name things and build simple sentences. They use those rules when they write words or talk out loud.

Students practice writing capital and lowercase letters by hand. The goal is to print many letters clearly, not just a few.

Students name everyday things (like a dog or a chair) and action words (like run or eat) in their speaking and writing.

Students learn that adding an "s" or "es" sound turns one thing into many. One dog becomes dogs; one wish becomes wishes.

Students learn to use question words like who, what, where, when, why, and how to ask about people, places, and events. It is the grammar behind every question they will ever ask.

Students use small connecting words like "in," "on," "by," and "with" to show where things are or how they relate. Think of these as the words that hold a sentence together.

Students practice saying complete sentences out loud during group activities with the teacher, then try adding more detail to make each sentence longer.

When writing, students use capital letters where they belong, add a period at the end of a sentence, and spell simple words correctly.

Students learn two capitalization rules: the first word of every sentence starts with a capital letter, and the word I is always capitalized.

Students learn that a sentence can end with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point, and they practice naming whichever one they see.

Students hear a sound in a word and write the letter that makes it. This covers the basic consonant sounds and short vowel sounds, like the a in "cat" or the b in "bat."

Students sound out simple words and write the letters that match those sounds. This is the beginning of spelling: connecting what a word sounds like to how it looks on the page.

When students run into a word they don't know, they use clues from the sentence or picture around it to figure out what it means.

Words can mean more than one thing. Students learn that a familiar word like "duck" can also be a verb, then practice using each meaning correctly in a sentence.

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

Students learn that words connect to each other and that small differences in meaning matter. A teacher helps them notice that "cold," "cool," and "freezing" all describe temperature but say very different things.

Students group familiar things by what they have in common. A dog, a cat, and a fish all belong to "animals." A circle, square, and triangle all belong to "shapes." Sorting builds the idea that words belong to bigger categories.

Students learn words like "hot" and "cold" or "run" and "stop" by pairing each one with its opposite. Understanding antonyms helps students see how words connect and contrast.

Students connect words to real things they know. For example, after learning the word "bumpy," they think of a gravel road or a brick wall.

Students sort out how words like "walk," "tiptoe," and "stomp" each mean something slightly different, then show what they mean by acting them out.

Students use new words they've picked up from books, stories, and classroom talk. The goal is simple: when the right word shows up in conversation or writing, students reach for it.