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Answering from What You Know

A 35-minute Kindergarten lesson on answering a question from memory or from a given source, and saying which it was.

Answering from What You Know is a free 35-minute Kindergarten English lesson plan for Common Core standard W.K.8 — remember something you did, or look in a given book, to answer a question. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the meaning, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.

Grade:
Kindergarten
Length:
35 minutes
Standard:
W.K.8

Kindergarten · Writing

W.K.8

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Objective

Students will be able to answer a question and say whether the answer came from memory or from a book.

Students are successful when they can

  • Answers "What did you eat for breakfast?" and says "I remembered."
  • Answers "How many legs does a spider have?" from the book and says "I looked it up."
  • Puts each answer card in the right box and explains why.

What you need

  • Two labeled boxes or columns: I REMEMBERED (picture of a head) and I LOOKED IT UP (picture of a book)
  • One information book about minibeasts
  • Blank answer cards
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — how do you know?

5 min
  1. Ask: "What color is your front door?" A child answers. Ask: "How do you know?" Fish for "I see it every day," "I remember it."
  2. Ask: "How many legs does a spider have?" Take guesses: six, eight, lots. Ask: "How could we be sure?" Fish for "look in a book."
  3. Say: "There are two ways to know something. Today we sort them."

Teach — two ways of knowing

11 min
  1. Show the two boxes. Tap your head: "Sometimes we know because we remember it — it happened to us or we saw it." Tap the book: "Sometimes we find out from a book."
  2. Ask: "What did we do at recess?" Answer from memory: "We played on the slide." Write it on a card and put it in I REMEMBERED.
  3. Ask: "How many legs does a spider have?" Open the book to the spider page and read: "Spiders have eight legs." Count them on the picture. Write "eight legs" and put it in I LOOKED IT UP.
  4. Compare with the warm-up guesses: "Some of you said six. The book helped us get it right."
  5. Ask: "Could someone know the spider answer from memory?" Yes, if they learned it before. Say: "But today we checked the book, so it goes here. The question is: how did YOU find out?"
“How do you know? Did you remember it, or did you look it up?”

Guided practice — sort six questions

9 min
  1. Read six questions one at a time. Pairs answer each and point to the box it belongs in.
  2. Use: "What is your name?" (remembered), "What do butterflies drink?" (look it up: nectar), "What did you have for lunch?" (remembered), "Where do snails like to live?" (look it up: damp places), "What is your favorite game?" (remembered), "How many legs does an ant have?" (look it up: six).
  3. For each "look it up" question, read the book page aloud so pairs hear the answer come from the source.
  4. Ask: "Could the book tell us your favorite game?" Fish for "no, only I know that."
“Answer it, then tell your partner: did you remember, or did you look it up?”

Independent practice

8 min
  1. On the printable, children answer a question from memory by drawing and writing ("Draw what you did on the weekend"), or answer questions from a short fact text.
  2. Read every question and the fact text aloud. Ask them to circle the head or the book next to each answer.

Close

2 min
  1. Ask: "Tell me one thing you remembered today, and one thing you looked up."

What goes wrong, and why

Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.

Says the spider answer came from memory, straight after the book was read.

Why: Once a fact has been heard it feels as if they always knew it; children rarely track where knowledge came from.

Fix: Ask: "Did you know it before we opened the book? What did you guess in the warm-up?" Show the guess cards.

Guesses a fact instead of checking: "Ants have four legs."

Why: Guessing is quicker, and at home a guess is often accepted as an answer.

Fix: Say: "Let us check the book." Count the legs in the picture together, and praise checking over guessing.

Cannot answer "What did you have for lunch?" because "it is not in the book."

Why: After lessons on using books, the child thinks every proper answer has to come from one.

Fix: Say: "Some answers are in your head. Only you know what you had for lunch. The book cannot tell us that."

If they are not there yet

  • Use two questions only, one of each kind.
  • Use the head and book pictures on the boxes and on cards to hold up.
  • Read the book page with the child and point to the answer.

If they finish early

  • Write a question of each kind for a partner to sort.
  • Find the same answer in two books and say if they agree.
  • Explain why the spider question needs a book but the lunch question does not.

Exit ticket

How many legs does a spider have? How do you know?

What to look for: "Eight" with "I looked it up" or "the book said." "I remembered" can be true; ask if they knew before today. A wrong guess means the child is not checking a source. "It is not in the book" for a personal question means sorting needs practice.

Printable practice for W.K.8

Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.

Questions about Answering from What You Know

How long does the Answering from What You Know lesson take?

35 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 11 min, guided practice 9 min, independent practice 8 min, close 2 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.

Which standard does Answering from What You Know teach?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.8 — W.K.8, Writing for Kindergarten: “With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.” In plain terms, remember something you did, or look in a given book, to answer a question.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

Two labeled boxes or columns: I REMEMBERED (picture of a head) and I LOOKED IT UP (picture of a book), one information book about minibeasts, blank answer cards and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.

What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?

Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: says the spider answer came from memory, straight after the book was read; guesses a fact instead of checking: "Ants have four legs." and cannot answer "What did you have for lunch?" because "it is not in the book.". The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.

How do I know whether the lesson worked?

The exit ticket asks: “How many legs does a spider have? How do you know?.” "Eight" with "I looked it up" or "the book said." "I remembered" can be true; ask if they knew before today. A wrong guess means the child is not checking a source. "It is not in the book" for a personal question means sorting needs practice. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.

Is there a worksheet to go with Answering from What You Know?

Yes — 1 printable W.K.8 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.

Is Answering from What You Know free to use?

Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on October 8, 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-10-08. Aligned to W.K.8 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.