English Language Arts Standards for 4-Year-Olds
Course Preface
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Course Introduction

 

Core Standards of the Course

Strand 1: ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL LANGUAGE: SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Language development is crucial in the preschool years to establish foundational skills for all future academic and social success. Language skills include the ability to speak as well as listen.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.1
Speak in sentences of varying lengths to communicate wants, needs, experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.2
Use nouns, verbs, prepositions, pronouns, and adjectives when speaking with others.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.3
Begin to ask and answer complex questions (for example, who, what, where, when, why, how).

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.4
Describe attributes of familiar people, places, things, and events.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.5
Use and talk about new vocabulary through rich texts, projects, guided conversation, and play.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.6
Discuss how objects can be sorted into categories (for example, shapes, foods) based on commonalities and differences.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.7
Identify and name opposites (antonyms) (for example, happy/sad, up/down, big/little).

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.8
Engage in conversations with peers and adults by talking about activities, personal stories, pictures, topics, and text.

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.9
Follow agreed upon rules for conversation (for example, listening to others, staying on topic, and taking turns speaking).

Standard ELA 4 yr.1.10
Follow two-step directions to complete a task or routine (for example, "Please find your coat and wait for me at the door." "Time to wash your hands and find a seat at the table to get ready for a snack.").

Strand 2: READING
By exposing children to a wide variety of texts, and surrounding them with a print-rich environment, they begin to develop foundational reading skills. These skills are divided into five sub-strands: concepts of print, phonological awareness, word recognition, recall information, and comprehension.

Sub-strand: CONCEPTS OF PRINT
Foundational reading skills include learning how a book is properly held and manipulated, understanding print carries meaning, and that illustrations/photographs add meaning to stories.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.1
Correctly hold a book.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.2
Discuss that print conveys meaning and how the illustrations/ photographs relate to the text.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.3
Identify print in everyday life including numbers, alphabet letters, letters in their own name, and environmental print.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.4
With prompting and support, demonstrate that print is read from top to bottom, left to right, and from front to back.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.5
Demonstrate that spoken words are represented in written language (for example, point to written words while reciting a known nursery rhyme or reading a recipe together during a cooking activity).

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.6
With prompting and support, begin to recognize that letters are grouped to form words.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.7
With prompting and support, discuss the role of the author and illustrator/photographer in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

Sub-strand: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Phonological Awareness refers to a child's ability to recognize the many ways that sounds function within words. This includes rhyming, identifying parts of words such as syllables, segmenting individual sounds (also called phonemes), and exploring how audible sounds blend to make words. It is important to note that phonemic awareness practice is auditory and does not include text or written letters.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.8
Identify and discriminate between sounds (phonemes) in spoken language (for example, point to a picture that begins with the same sound as dog).

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.9
Recognize rhyming words in familiar songs/books (for example, provide rhyming words, show a thumbs up if the words rhyme or thumbs down if the words do not rhyme).

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.10
With prompting and support, count syllables as words are being spoken (for example, clap, stomp, jump, use hand signals).

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.11
With prompting and support, blend (put together), and segment (take apart) single-syllable words into individual phonemes auditorily (for example, segment: bat= /b/ /a/ /t/, blend: /b/ /a/ /t/ = bat).

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.12
Begin to recognize the beginning sounds of words and progress towards recognizing ending sounds of words.

Sub-strand: WORD RECOGNITION
Word recognition in preschool includes the knowledge that words are made up of letters and sounds.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.13
With prompting and support, recognize that written words are made up of letters and sounds.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.14
Identify the names and sounds of some upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet, including those in their own name.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.15
Begin to recognize some printed words that are seen frequently (for example, their own name, the names of classmates, labels in the classroom environment).

Sub-strand: RECALL INFORMATION
When students practice recalling names of objects that they are familiar with, they can begin to build a bridge to fluency.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.16
With prompting and support, rapidly recall the names of a series of objects or pictures (for example, dog, cat, horse, mouse, fish, monkey, lion).

Sub-strand: COMPREHENSION
Comprehension refers to the ability to derive meaning from written and spoken language.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.17
With prompting and support, listen attentively to and retell simple texts, including event sequence and characters, through conversation, art, movement, or drama.

Standard ELA 4 yr.2.18
With prompting and support, ask and answer questions and make connections about text, media, or information presented orally.

Strand 3: WRITING
Writing refers to how children represent spoken words with written language. The development of fine motor control in early childhood is essential for early writing skills. Fine motor skills develop at different rates for each child. Forming legible letters is an emerging expectation for 4-year-olds. Refer to Strand One: Fine Motor within the Physical Education Standards for more information

Standard ELA 4 yr.3.1
Represent ideas visually (for example, scribble with letter-like formations, simple drawings).

Standard ELA 4 yr.3.2
Represent spoken words with written language using letter-like marks and scribbles.

Standard ELA 4 yr.3.3
Print some letters of the alphabet, including those in their own name.

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http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Cristina  Barrera and see the Early Learning website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.