English Language Arts - Kindergarten

Avon Lake City Schools 

Curriculum Framework

Kindergarten ELA

Course Overview:

Students in Kindergarten are provided an environment rich in reading and writing opportunities to help them develop skills and strategies to use in any educational setting. The focus in English Language Arts (ELA) at the Kindergarten level is to teach our young learners the foundational skills in order to learn to read, write, and communicate effectively through explicit and systematic instruction. The Skills strand of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program teaches students the decoding skills needed for (future) independent reading. The Knowledge strand of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program is designed to help students build the background knowledge and vocabulary critical to listening and reading comprehension. Through introducing, presenting, and discussing read-alouds in each domain, teachers build students’ listening and reading comprehension and oral language skills.

Textbook (Title and Publishing Company): 

Core Knowledge Language Arts, Amplify

Online/Supplemental Materials:

Heggerty Phonemic Awareness

Assessments: 

KRA

NWEA MAP

mCLASS

Curriculum & Benchmark Assessments 

Content/Topics/Learning Goals

Subject to Pacing and Schedules

1st Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Unit 1-3

  • Build awareness of environmental noises, of words within sentences, and of sounds within words

  • Learn several writing strokes used to create letters

  • Blend syllables together to form multisyllabic words

  • Orally produce two- and three-sound words by blending sounds.

  • Introduce eight sounds and practice blending sounds into words. 


  • Knowledge Domains 1-3 (Nursery Rhymes & Fables; The Five Senses; Stories)

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Identify rhyming words

    • Identify literary elements such as character, main events, and moral lessons.

    • Compare and contrast characters from different rhymes, fables, and stories

    • Sequence events in a rhyme or story

    • Retell a story by drawing and writing details about the characters and events

    • Use graphic organizers to categorize and sort information about the senses

    • Create timelines recording important events

    • Orally create and expand sentences

    • Describe characters, setting, and plot from different stories

    • Write and draw events and details to retell a story

2nd Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Units 4-6

    • Recognize and write new sounds/symbols: /n/, /h/, /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /p/, /e/

and practice blending these sounds into words

  • Introduce b/,/l/, /r/, /u/, /w/, /j/, /y/, /x/, /k/ spelled ‘k’ and practice blending these sounds into words. 

  • Practice previously learned letter-sound correspondences.

  • Automatize the letter-sound correspondences and blending procedures they have learned so far. 

  • Introduce consonant clusters, letter names, rhyming words, and reading text independently.

  • Knowledge Domains 4-6 (Plants; Farms; Native Americans)

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Compare and contrast using a graphic organizer

    • Describe characters, setting, and plot from different stories

    • Choose the best word to describe what is happening in images

    • Sequence events in an informational and literary text

    • Distinguish the meaning of the words to and from in context.

    • Write and draw information from the text 

3rd Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Units 7-8

  • Introduce digraphs

  • Develop automaticity in blending and segmenting sounds 

  • Introduce double-letter spellings for consonant sounds


  • Knowledge Domains 7-8 (Kings and Queens; Seasons and Weather)

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Distinguish the meaning of the words to and from in context.

  • Describe the characters, setting, and plot of a story

  • Sequence story events

  • Compare and contrast using a graphic organizer

  • Draw and write events from stories

  • Orally describe details from informational and literary text

  • Ask and answer questions using who

  • Record information in a report

4th Quarter -  

  • Foundational Skills Units 9-10

  • Orally blend two-syllable words 

  • Read stories in the decodable Reader

  • Answer story questions during discussions and in writing

  • Read and spell words with long vowels and separated digraphs (cvce)


  • Knowledge Domains 9-12 (Columbus and the Pilgrims; Colonial Towns and Townspeople; Taking Care of the Earth)

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Orally describe details from informational text

  • Use a graphic organizer to summarize text, organize and retell information, including a timeline

  • Ask and answer questions using what, where

  • Identify and understand information on a timeline

  • Write short phrases and sentences and draw pictures based on details in the text

  • Sequence events based on information in the text

Last Updated:

September, 2023