Kindergarten Language Outcomes

Conceptual Understandings for Written Language: READING

-The sounds of spoken language can be represented visually.

-Written language works differently from spoken language.
-Consistent ways of recording words or ideas enable members of a language community to
communicate.
-People read to learn.
-The words we see and hear enable us to create pictures in our minds.

Learning Outcomes for Written Language: READING LITERATURE

By the end of Kindergarten, students are expected to:
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Recognize common types of texts (e.g. storybooks, poems).
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in
telling the story.
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which
they appear. (e.g. what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in
familiar stories
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
Select and re-read favorite texts for enjoyment.
Participate in shared reading, posing and responding to questions and joining in refrains.
Participate in guided reading situations, observing and applying reading behaviors and interacting
effectively with the group.
Make connections between personal experience and storybook characters.
Listen attentively and respond actively to read aloud situations. Make predictions, anticipate possible
outcomes.

Learning Outcomes for Written Language: READING INFORMATION

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
Ask and
answer questions about key details in a text.
With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key events of a text.
Identify the
main topic and retell key details of a text.
With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or
pieces of information in a text.
Describe the connection between two individuals, events,
ideas, or pieces of information in a text
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify meaning of words and phrases in a text.
Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
Know and use various text features to locate key facts or information in a text.
Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or
information in a text.
Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided
by words in a text.
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they
appear.
With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the
same topic.
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Learning Outcomes for Written Language: READING Foundational Skills

Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

o -Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page\
o -Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of
letters.
o -Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.
o -Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
o -Recognize and produce rhyming words.
o -Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
o -Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single syllable spoken words.
o -Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial, and final sounds (phonemes) in three phoneme
(consonant-vowel-consonant) words.
o -Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one syllable words to make new
words.

Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
o -Demonstrate basic knowledge of one to one letter sound correspondences by producing the
primary or many of the most frequent sound for each consonant.
o -Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the five major
vowels.
o -Read common high frequency words by sight (e.g. the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).
o Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.

Read emergent reader texts with purpose and understanding.

Conceptual Understandings for Written Language: WRITING

People write to communicate.
The sounds of spoken language can be represented visually (letters, symbols, characters).
Consistent ways of recording words or ideas enable members of a language community to
understand each others writing.
Written language works differently from spoken language.
Learning Outcomes for Written Language: WRITING
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell
the reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or
preference about the topic or book.
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in
which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked
events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what
happened.
With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add
details to strengthen writing as needed.
With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish
writing, including in collaboration with peers.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
Participate in shared research and writing projects.
With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information
from provided sources to answer a question.

Learning Outcomes for Written Language: LANGUAGE

Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.
o Print many upper and lower case letters.
o
o

-Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs.

-Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/.

o -Understand and use question words (interrogatives).

o -Use the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g. to, from, in, out, on, off)
o -Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing.
o -Capitalize the first work in a sentence and pronoun I.
o -Recognize and name end punctuation.
o -Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short vowel sounds (phonemes).
o -Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound letter relationships.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases based on
kindergarten reading and content.
o -Identify new meanings for familiar words and apply them accurately (e.g. knowing duck is a
bird and learning the verb to duck).
o -Use most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g. ed, s, un, pre) as a clue to the
meaning of an unknown word.
With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
o -Sort common objects into categories to gain a sense of the concepts categories represent.
o -Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to
their opposites.
o -Identify real life connections between words and their use.
o -Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action by acting
out meanings.
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding
to texts.
Conceptual Understandings for Oral Language: LISTENING AND SPEAKING
The sounds of language are a symbolic way of representing ideas and objects.
People communicate using different languages.
Everyone has the right to speak and be listened to
Learning Outcomes Oral Language: LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts
with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
o -Follow agreed upon rules for discussions.
o -Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media
by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not
understood.
Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not
understood.
Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide
additional detail.
Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
-Listen and respond in small or large groups for increasing periods of time.
-Listen to and enjoy stories read aloud; show understanding by responding in oral, written or visual
form.
- memorize or join in with poems, rhymes and songs.
-describe personal experiences
- use language to address their needs, feelings and opinions
- use oral language to communicate during classroom activities, conversations and imaginative play.
- May begin to communicate in more than one language
Conceptual Understandings for Visual Language: VIEWING AND PRESENTING
People use static and moving images to communicate ideas and information.
Visual texts can immediately gain our attention.
Viewing and talking about the images others have created helps us to understand and create our
own presentations


Learning Outcomes Visual Language: VIEWING AND PRESENTING
attend to visual information showing understanding through discussion, role play,
illustrations
talk about their own feelings in response to visual messages; show empathy for the way others might feel
relate to different contexts presented in visual texts according to their own experiences, for example, That
looks like my uncles farm.
locate familiar visual texts in magazines, advertising catalogues, and connect them with associated
Products
show their understanding that visual messages influence our behavior
connect visual information with their own experiences to construct their own meaning, for example, when
taking a trip
use body language in mime and role play to communicate ideas and feelings visually
realize that shapes, symbols and colors have meaning and include them in presentations
use a variety of implements to practice and develop handwriting and presentation skills
observe and discuss illustrations in picture books and simple reference books, commenting on the
information being conveyed
recognize ICT iconography and follow prompts to access programs or activate devices
through teacher modelling, become aware of terminology used to tell about visual effects, for example,
features, layout, border, frame
view different versions of the same story and discuss the effectiveness of the different ways of telling the
same story, for example, the picture book version and the film/movie version of a story
become aware of the use and organization of visual effects to create a particular impact, for example,
dominant images show what is important in a story
observe visual images and begin to appreciate, and be able to express, that they have been created to
achieve particular purposes.