Language

Kindergarten: Language	Planning: Term # Tracking: Ach. Level
Overall Expectations	1	2	3	4
A. communicate by talking and by listening and speaking to others for a variety of purposes and in a variety of contexts;
B. demonstrate understanding and critical awareness of a variety of written materials that are read by and with the teacher;
C. use reading strategies that are appropriate for beginning readers in order to make sense of a variety of written materials;
D. communicate in writing, using strategies that are appropriate for beginners;
E. demonstrate a beginning understanding and critical awareness of media texts.
Specific Expectations
Oral Communication
1. explore sounds, rhythms, and language structures with guidance and on their own (e.g., generate rhymes, including nonsense words; identify syllables through actions, such as clapping; manipulate sounds and words in shared, guided, and independent activities, such as singing songs or chants or participating in finger plays) [A]
2. listen and respond to others for a variety of purposes (e.g., to exchange ideas, express feelings, offer opinions) and in a variety of contexts (e.g., after read-alouds and shared reading or writing activities; while solving a class math problem; in imaginary or exploratory play; at the learning centres; while engaged in games and outdoor play; while making scientific observations of creatures outdoors) [A] Student Talk: Initially (when taking on the role of parent at the house centre) “The baby is crying.” Eventually “Don’t cry, I’ll change your diaper for you.” “I’m making a house. What are you making? I think you should paint yours blue.”
3. follow one- and two-step directions in different contexts (e.g., in classroom routines; music, drama, and dance activities; outdoor play; learning centres; large-group activities) [A]
4. use language in various contexts to connect new experiences with what they already know (e.g., contribute ideas orally during shared or interactive writing; contribute to conversations at learning centres; respond to teacher prompts) [A] Student Talk: “I made a sandcastle like this at the beach.” “I built a snowman with my brother like the one in the story.”
5. use language to talk about their thinking, to reflect, and to solve problems [A] Teacher Prompts: “I wonder how you knew that.” “How did you figure that out?” “What were you thinking about?”
6. use specialized vocabulary for a variety of purposes (e.g., terms for things they are building or equipment they are using) [A] Student Talk: At the block centre: “We put a roof on our house.” At the water centre: “I poured the water in the funnel.” After listening to a book being read about farming and then creating a farm with blocks: “My silo doesn’t have any grain in it yet.”
7. ask questions for a variety of purposes (e.g., for direction, for assistance, for obtaining information, for clarification, for help in understanding something) and in different contexts (e.g., during discussions and conversations with peers and adults; before, during, and after read-aloud activities and shared reading; while making observations on a class walk; in small groups at learning centres) [A]
8. begin to use and interpret gestures, tone of voice, and other non-verbal means to communicate and respond (e.g., respond to non-verbal directions from the teacher; vary tone of voice when dramatizing; name feelings that are expressed in facial expressions in photos or illustrations; recognize when someone is upset) [A]
9. describe personal experiences, usingvocabulary and details appropriate tothe situation [A] Student Talk: Initially “We went out for supper.” “My dad and I went out for supper.” Eventually “Last night I went out for supper with my dad because Oma was busy.”
10. orally retell simple events and simple familiar stories in proper sequence [A] Student Talk: Initially “We cooked the apples.” Eventually “First we had to peel all of the apples. Then we cut them up and cooked them. Then we mashed them and ate the apple sauce.” Initially “Humpty Dumpty fell down and couldn’t get up.” Eventually “Humpty Dumpty was sitting on a wall and he fell down. The king and his men tried to help him but he was too broken and they couldn’t fix him. The end.”
11. demonstrate awareness that words can rhyme, can begin or end with the same sound, and are composed of phonemes that can be manipulated to create new words (e.g., identify or predict rhyming words; clap syllables in words; replace or delete the initial sounds in a word in songs, poems, chants, name games) [A,C]
Reading
12. demonstrate an interest in reading (e.g., expect to find meaning in pictures and text, choose to look at reading materials, respond to texts read by the teacher, reread familiar text, confidently make attempts at reading) [B, C]
13. identify personal preferences in reading materials (e.g., choose fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, posters, computerized interactive texts that they enjoy) in different contexts (e.g., teacher read-alouds, shared experiences in reading books, independent reading time) [B,C] Student Talk: “I like the bug books because I really like spiders.” “Read the book about Thomas again! It was funny.” “I’m making a maze. I read books with mazes all the time.”
14. respond to a variety of materials read aloud to them (e.g., participate in oral discussions after reading; ask questions to clarify understanding; dramatize familiar stories at the retelling or drama centre; paint, draw, or construct models of characters or settings) [B,C] Teacher Prompts: After reading a book about a forest: “How do you think the author feels about forests? How do you think the author wants us to feel about forests? Why do you think there are photographs instead of illustrations in the book?” After reading a book about a social issue relevant to the class: “Who is this book written for? What would this story be about from another point of view?”
15. use illustrations to support comprehension of texts that are read by and with the teacher (e.g., initially: use the information in the pictures in a storybook as they tell the story; eventually: use pictures to support predictions and to confirm the meaning of a word) [B, C]
16. use prior knowledge to make connections (e.g., to new experiences, to other books, to events in the world) to help them understand a diverse range of materials read by and with the teacher [B,C] Student Talk: “I live in an apartment,too.” “That’s just like the other bookwe read.” “My grandpa and I collectedrocks and we made an Inukshuk likethe one on the postcard.” “That bookis just like a movie I saw.”
17. make predictions regarding an unfamiliar text that is read by and with the teacher, using prior experience, knowledge of familiar texts, and general knowledge of the world around them (e.g., use the cover pictures and/or title to determine the topic and/or text form) [B,C] Teacher Prompts: “What do you thinkthis book might be about? How didyou figure that out?” “What kind ofbook do you think this is? What doesthe picture tell us about what mighthappen in the book? What clues didyou use to help you figure that out?”“What words do you think might be inthis book?” “What do you know aboutbirds that will help us read this book?”
18. retell stories in proper sequence that have been read by and with the teacher, using pictures in the book and/or props (e.g., use props such as finger puppets or flannel-board characters; use plastic models at the sand table to tell the story of the Gingerbread Man) [B,C]
19. retell information from non-fiction materials that have been read by and with the teacher in a variety of contexts (e.g., read-alouds, shared reading experiences), using pictures and/or props [B, C] Student Talk: Initially “First he was a caterpillar, then he was a butterfly.” Eventually “First the butterfly is an egg, then it turns into a caterpillar, the caterpillar spins a chrysalis, and then it’s a beautiful butterfly.”
20. demonstrate an awareness of basic book conventions and concepts of print when a text is read aloud or when they are beginning to read print (e.g., hold the book the right way up; start at the beginning of the book; turn the pages in the correct order; recognize that print uses letters, words, spaces between words, and sentences; understand that printed materials contain messages; follow the print with a pointer for the class as a story is read aloud during shared reading) [B,C]
21. demonstrate knowledge of most letters of the alphabet in different contexts (e.g., use a variety of capital and lower-case manipulative letters in letter play; identify letters by name on signs and labels at learning centres, in chart stories, in poems, in big books, on traffic signs; identify the sound that is represented by a letter; identify a word that begins with the letter) [B,C] Student Talk: “It’s a capital T.” “That’s m.” “That word starts like my name – Jasdeep.”
22. begin to use reading strategies to make sense of unfamiliar texts in print (e.g., use pictures; use knowledge of oral language structures, of a few high-frequency words, and/or of sound-symbol relationships; initially: tell a story using the pictures, recognize some familiar names or words; eventually: read patterned and simple texts2) [C] Teacher Prompts: “Let’s do a picture walk of the book.” “I noticed that you looked at the picture before you tried that word.” “If you think the word is jump, then what letter will we see when we lift the sticky note?”
Writing
23. demonstrate interest in writing (e.g., choose a variety of writing materials, such as adhesive notes, labels, envelopes, coloured paper, markers, crayons, pencils) and choose to write in a variety of contexts (e.g., draw or record ideas at learning centres) [D]
24. demonstrate an awareness that writing can convey ideas or messages (e.g., contribute ideas to modelled, shared, or interactive writing experiences; ask the teacher to write out new words for them; ask questions about the meaning of something in print) [D] Student Talk: “What does that say?” “What does it mean?”
25. write simple messages (e.g., a grocery list on unlined paper; a greeting card made on a computer; labels for a block or sand construction), using a combination of pictures, symbols, knowledge of the correspondence between letters and sounds (phonics), and familiar words (e.g., initially: use pictures and strings of random letters; eventually: use such familiar words as I, to, and my, and such spelling approximations as “I lv u mum” or “dnt tuch”) [D] Teacher Prompts: “Stretch the word and listen to the sounds.” “What sound do you hear at the beginning (middle, end) of that word?” “Whose name starts with that sound?”
26. begin to use classroom resources to support their writing (e.g., a classroom word wall that is made up of children’s names, words from simple patterned texts, and words used repeatedly in shared or interactive writing experiences; signs or charts in the classroom; picture dictionaries; alphabet cards; books) [B,D]
27. experiment with a variety of simple writing forms for different purposes and in a variety of contexts (e.g., write letters at the post office centre; make signs at the block centre; record their findings at the water centre or dramatic play centre; make a list of classmates’ names; make greeting cards at the visual arts centre; tell stories at the writing centre or painting centre) [D]
28. communicate ideas about personal experiences and/or familiar stories, and experiment with personal voice in their writing (e.g., make a drawing of a day at the park and retell their experiences orally to their classmates; make a story map of“The Three Little Pigs”and retell the story individually to the teacher during a writing conference) [D]
Understanding of Media Materials
29. begin to respond critically to animated works (e.g., cartoons in which animals talk, movies in which animals go to school) [E] Teacher Prompts: “Whom do you think the people who created this cartoon made it for?” “Who do you think likes to watch cartoons or animated works?” “What is it about this cartoon that makes you want to watch it?”
30. communicate their ideas verbally and non-verbally about a variety of media materials (e.g., describe their feelings in response to seeing a DVD or a video; dramatize messages from a safety video or poster; paint pictures in response to an advertisement or CD) [E] Teacher Prompt: “How was Yen’s thinking about the DVD/video different from yours?”
31. view and listen to a variety of media materials (e.g., videos, photographs, posters, menus, advertisements), and respond critically to them [E] Teacher Prompts: “Someone made this poster. Whom do you think he or she wanted to look at it? Why?” “Sometimes when you buy cereal, there are toys in the box. Why do you think the people who made the cereal put toys in there?”
Student Name:

Expectations: Copyright The Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2006.  Format: Copyright B.Phillips, 1998.