The Little Mermaid

Ages 3–7 · 19 minutes · English, Stories

A Little Mermaid decides she wants to be a human. But a deal with the sea witch may wreck everything!

A Little Mermaid decides she wants to become a human, marry a prince, and live happily ever after. But a bad deal with a sea witch might wreck everything!

Part of

Fairy Tales and Fables

Standards alignment

Common Core State Standards

ELD-SI.K-3.Narrate — Multilingual learners will… • Share ideas about one's own and others' lived experiences and previous learning • Connect stories with images and representations to add meaning • Ask questions about what others have shared • Recount and restate ideas • Discuss how stories might end or next steps
RL.1.3 — Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
CCRA.R.4 — Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
CCRA.SL.1 — Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Alabama

ELA21.1.2 — Actively participate in shared reading experiences and collaborative discussions to build background knowledge and learn how oral reading should sound.
ELA21.1.22 — Ask and answer questions about key details in literary and informational texts.
ELA21.K.21b — Use new words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to text.
ELA21.K.28 — With prompting and support, use text clues to determine main ideas and make predictions about an ending in a literary text.

Alaska

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a literary text using key details from the text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story read or read aloud to describe its characters, events, setting, or problem-solution.

Arizona

K.RL.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
K.SL.2 — 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.
1.RL.1 — Ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, why, when, and how about key details in a text.
1.RL.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
K.RL.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Arkansas

K.RC.6.RF — Use background knowledge and details, including illustrations, charts, and graphs, to make predictions and inferences about what happens in a text.
1.RC.5.RF — Use background knowledge and details, including illustrations, charts, and graphs, to make predictions and inferences about what happens in a text.
K.RC.4.RF — Build general and academic vocabulary and background knowledge of age and grade-appropriate topics through discussion, reading, and writing.
K.RC.7.RF — Demonstrate comprehension of age and grade-appropriate texts by speaking or writing.
K.RC.11.RL — Explain how visual images support understanding of a text.

California

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.10.b — Confirm predictions about what will happen next in a text.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Colorado

RWC20-GR.K-S.2-GLE.1-EO.a.i — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RWC20-GR.1-S.1-GLE.1-EO.b — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
RWC20-GR.1-S.2-GLE.1-EO.c.i — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RWC20-GR.K-S.1-GLE.2-EO.h — Use new vocabulary that is directly taught through reading, speaking, and listening.
RWC20-GR.K-S.1-GLE.1 — Communicate using verbal and nonverbal language.

Connecticut

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Delaware

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.K.2 — 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.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Florida

ELA.K.R.1.1 — Describe the main character(s), setting, and important events in a story.
ELA.K.R.3.1 — Identify and explain descriptive words in text(s).
ELA.K.R.2.1 — Use titles, headings, and illustrations to predict and confirm the topic of texts.

Georgia

ELAGSEKSL2 — Confirm understanding of written texts read aloud or information presented orally or through media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
ELAGSEKRL1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
ELAGSEKRL7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story (how illustrations support the text).
ELAGSEKSL1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
ELAGSE1L6 — Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts. Include frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., I named my hamster Nibblet because she nibbles too much because she likes that).

Hawaii

K.RL.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
K.SL.2 — 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.
1.RL.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
K-12.R.R.4 — Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Idaho

K.RC.TE.3 — Ask and answer questions about key details in texts heard.
1.RC.TE.3 — Ask and answer questions about key details in texts heard or read.
K.ODC.OC.2 — With support, confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally by asking and answering questions.
K.RC.L.5b — Describe the connection between characters, settings, and major events in stories heard.

Illinois

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Indiana

K.CC.3 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. (E)
K.CC.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations about grade-appropriate topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. (E)
K.RC.3 — Identify important elements within a text (e.g., characters, settings, or events). (E)
K.RC.4 — With support, make predictions about what will happen in a text.
1.RC.5 — Identify the basic characteristics of familiar narrative text genres (e.g., fairy tales, nursery rhymes, storybooks).

Iowa

SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.K.1.b — Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Kansas

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.13 — Listen to high quality prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for Kindergarten.
RL.K.4 — Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
RL.K.7 — 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).
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Kentucky

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer explicit questions about key ideas and details, and make logical inferences to construct meaning from the text.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings and major events in a story in order to make meaning of the story development.
L.K.4 — Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.
RL.K.10 — With prompting and support, flexibly use a variety of comprehension strategies (i.e., questioning, monitoring, visualizing, inferencing, summarizing, using prior knowledge, determining importance) to make sense of grade-level appropriate, complex literary texts.
RL.K.7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

Louisiana

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RL.1.3 — Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Maine

SL.2.K.a — Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details to seek help if something is not understood.
Participate in collaborative conversations about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
R.7.K.a — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
SL.2.1.a — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
R.11.K.c — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between the text and what person, place, thing, or idea the illustration depicts.

Maryland

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.PK.4 — With modeling and support, answer questions about unknown words in stories and poems.
RL.PK.7 — With modeling and support, tell how the illustrations support the story
SL.PK 2 — Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details with modeling and support.

Massachusetts

L.PK.4 — Ask and answer questions about the meanings of new words and phrases introduced through books, activities, and play.
RL.PK.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a story or poem read aloud.
RL.PK.7 — With prompting and support, make predictions about what happens next in a picture book after examining and discussing the illustrations.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

Michigan

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Minnesota

0.1.4.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text, with prompting and support.
0.2.5.2 — Verbally or visually respond to a story, with support and guidance.
1.1.4.1 — Ask and answer questions including who, what and where to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text; retell key details.
0.1.5.3 — Recognize the connection between illustrations and text.

Mississippi

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Missouri

K.R.1.A.b — asking and responding to questions about texts read aloud
K.R.1.A.a — predicting what might happen next in a text based on the cover, title, and illustrations
K.R.1.D.a — engaging with text as developmentally appropriate

Montana

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Nebraska

LA.K.RP.6 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a literary text.
LA.1.RP.6 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a literary text.
LA.1.RP.2 — Identify the main character(s), setting, and important events, drawing on key details in a literary text.
LA.K.SL.1.e — Complete a task following one/two-step directions.

Nevada

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

New Hampshire

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

New Jersey

SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
NJSLSA.R.4 — Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

New Mexico

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RL.K.NM.1 — Identify the main topic, retell key details of a text, and make predictions.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

New York

KR3 — Identify characters, settings, major events in a story, or pieces of information in a text. (RI&RL)
KRF4 — Will engage with emergent level texts and read-alouds to demonstrate comprehension.
KSL1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.
1SL2 — Develop and answer questions about key details in diverse texts and formats.
PKR3 — Develop and answer questions about characters, major events, and pieces of information in a text. (RI&RL)

North Carolina

SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

North Dakota

1.R.3.b — Identify characters, setting, and plot in a literary text during or after a shared reading or other text-listening experience.
1.R.8a — Identify characters' feelings or traits in a story, poem,or nursery rhyme during or after a shared reading or other text-listening experience.
K.R.3.b — Tell about characters and setting in a literary text during or after a shared reading or other text-listening experience.
K.R.8a — Respond to or reenact characters' feelings in a story, poem,or nursery rhyme during or after a shared reading or other text-listening experience.

Ohio

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented in various media and other formats (e.g., orally).
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Oklahoma

K.8.R — Students will listen and respond to read-alouds, participate in shared reading, and interact independently with texts.
PK.8.R — Students will listen and respond to read-alouds, participate in shared reading, and interact independently with texts.
K.3.R.3 — Students will describe characters and setting in a story with prompting.

Oregon

K.RL.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
K.SL.2 — 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.
1.RL.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
K.SL.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Pennsylvania

CC.1.3.K.B — Answer questions about key details in a text.
CC.1.5.K.B — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
CC.1.3.K.G — Make connections between the illustrations and the text in a story (read or read aloud).
CC.1.3.PK.F — Answer questions about unfamiliar words read aloud from a story.

Rhode Island

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
RL.1.5 — Identify characteristics of common types of stories, including folktales and fairy tales.

South Carolina

ELA.K.AOR.1.1 — Identify and describe the main character(s), setting, and events that move the plot forward.
ELA.K.AOR.1.1.INIS — Indicator Insights: Characters can be described by appearance, feelings, and actions. Events that move the plot forward are what characters do or events that happen; events can include, but are not limited to, cause and effect and problem and solution relationships.

South Dakota

K.RL.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
1.RL.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
1.SL.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud, information presented orally, or through other media.
K.RL.4 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in stories, poems, nursery rhymes, or songs.

Tennessee

K.RL.KID.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
1.SL.CC.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
K.RL.CS.4 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in text.
K.RL.KID.3 — With prompting and support, orally identify characters, setting, and major events in a story.
K.RL.IKI.7 — With prompting and support, orally describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.

Texas

K.8A — demonstrate knowledge of distinguishing characteristics of well-known children's literature such as folktales, fables, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes;

Utah

P4.R.5 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions and make connections about a text. (RL & RI)
1.R.5 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. (RL & RI)
P3.SL.1 — With prompting and support, participate in conversations with peers and adults.
P4.SL.2 — Speak clearly and audibly in sentences of varying lengths to communicate wants, needs, experiences, thoughts, and emotions.

Vermont

CCRA.R.4 — Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
RL.1.3 — Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
RL.2.3 — Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
CCRA.SL.1 — Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Virginia

K.RL.1.A — With prompting and support, activate prior (experience) and background (content) knowledge and make connections to what is read.
K.RL.1.D — With prompting and support, generate predictions about story characters and events using the text.
K.RL.3.C — With prompting and support, monitor listening comprehension.
1.RL.1.D — Generate predictions about story characters and events using the text.

Washington

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Washington, D.C.

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
SL.K.2 — 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.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

West Virginia

ELA.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a literary text.
ELA.K.31 — 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.
ELA.K.30 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
ELA.1.13 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events in literary texts.

Wisconsin

ELA.K.R.1 — With prompting and support, develop and answer questions about a text. (RI&RL)
ELA.K.SL.2 — With guidance and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
ELA.K.L.3.a — Ask and answer questions about unknown words.
ELA.K.SL.1 — With guidance and support, participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
ELA.K.R.7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text. (RI&RL)

Wyoming

RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.1.7 — Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
SL.1.2 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
RL.1.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.