Kindergarten · English Language Arts · Parent guide
Short answer. W.K.8 means your kindergartener, with adult help, uses her own memories or a provided book to find and share the answer to a question.
Quick answer
W.K.8 asks your child, with adult guidance, to answer a question using either her own experience or a source an adult hands her. Two moves, really: recall ('What did we see at the aquarium? Draw and tell me.') and gather ('Here is a book about turtles. Let's find out what they eat.'). She is not searching for sources herself; the adult provides them. The skill is pulling relevant information out and using it to answer the actual question.
Why parents see this skill
Answering a question with evidence, from memory or from a page, is the base layer under reading comprehension, science journals, and eventually every 'use the text to support your answer' task in grade school. It also trains a subtle habit: the difference between what I think and what I found out.
For reference
With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.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.
The day after any outing, ask one specific question: 'What animal did we see first at the zoo?' She answers by drawing it and dictating a sentence, which you write beneath. Specific beats vague here; 'what did you see first' pulls up real recall in a way 'how was the zoo' never does.
Before a library trip, pick one question together, like 'where do penguins live?' Check out one penguin book, and at home go hunting for the answer inside it, letting her use the pictures. When you find it, she records the answer with a drawing plus a word or dictated line. Question first, source second: that order is the whole lesson.
Give her a question one family member can answer, like 'Dad, what was your first pet?' She interviews him, remembers or marks down the answer, and reports back to you with a drawing and a sentence. People count as sources too, and a kid interviewing her own dad takes the job hilariously seriously.
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 W.K skill in order and how the codes fit together.
Open resourceFilter free pages by literacy, phonics, handwriting, and comprehension skills.
Open resourceLow-pressure pencil-control and early writing practice.
Open resourceSimple reading and vocabulary ideas for home and classroom routines.
Open resourceMy son answers every question with a shrug and 'I don't know.' Is that a recall problem?
Usually it is a question problem, not a memory problem. Broad questions ('What did you do at school?') overwhelm 5 year olds. Shrink them: 'Who did you sit next to at lunch today?' Offering two choices helps too: 'Was the field trip animal a sheep or a goat?' Once the question gets small enough, most kids turn out to remember plenty.
Does looking things up on a tablet count for this standard?
It can, since the standard says 'provided sources' without limiting the format, and some classrooms use a video or a read-aloud website as the source. The key words are provided and supported: an adult picks the source and helps her pull the answer out. At this age a physical book has an edge, though, because she can flip, point, and return to the page herself.
Keep the sequence
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