Kindergarten · English Language Arts · Parent guide
Short answer. RI.K.3 means your child can describe how two things in a nonfiction book go together, like rain and puddles. What schools expect and how to practice.
Quick answer
This standard asks your kindergartener, with help, to describe how two people, events, ideas, or facts in a nonfiction book are connected. Think cause and effect, sequence, or simple relationships: the caterpillar eats a lot AND THEN becomes a butterfly, rain falls SO puddles form, the dentist uses the mirror TO see back teeth. They don't need the words "cause and effect," just the ability to say how two things in the book go together.
Why parents see this skill
Connecting facts is the difference between collecting information and understanding it. This is the starting point for scientific thinking (what makes what happen?) and for the history, science, and how-to texts where everything hinges on relationships between events.
For reference
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.Official Common Core source
See it, then try it
You do not need a lesson plan. Look for these signs in ordinary play, reading, and conversation, then choose one short activity.
After a nonfiction read, start a sentence from the book and let your child finish it with "because." You say "Polar bears have thick fur..." and they say "...because the Arctic is freezing!" Trade roles after a few rounds. It's the whole standard in one word.
On two index cards or torn paper scraps, have your child draw two connected steps from a book, like seed then flower, or egg then chick. Mix the cards up and ask them to order and explain them: "First the egg, then the chick hatches out." Concrete, quick, done.
While cooking, narrate a connection and ask for the why: "I put the butter in the hot pan. What's going to happen?" Then link it back: "Just like the ice in your weather book." Real-world cause and effect makes the book version make sense.
Choose what helps today
Start with the domain guide for context, use the learning library when a concept needs explaining, or print a page when your child is ready to practice.
See every RI.K skill in order and how the codes fit together.
Open resourceFilter free pages by literacy, phonics, handwriting, and comprehension skills.
Open resourceShort, repeatable reading activities for common early words.
Open resourceSimple reading and vocabulary ideas for home and classroom routines.
Open resourceThis sounds advanced for a 5 year old. What does it honestly look like in kindergarten?
Humbler than the official wording suggests. A kindergartener meeting this standard says things like "the snow melted because the sun came out" about a book you read together, usually after you ask a nudging question. "With prompting and support" is written into the standard; the adult sets it up, the child makes the link.
How can I tell if my child is making the connection or just repeating the book's sentence?
Change the wording. Ask the question a different way than the book put it, or ask about a similar connection in real life: "What would happen to OUR snowman if the sun came out?" A child who transfers the idea to new words or a new example owns the connection, not just the sentence.
Keep the sequence
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