The larger the degrees of freedom, the closer the t-density is to the normal density. This reflects the fact that the standard deviation s approaches for large sample size n. You can visualize this in the given applet by moving the sliders.
This chapter of the "Concepts and Applications of Inferential Statistics" online textbook describes in detail the Kruskal-Wallis test, it's formulas, variables, and procedures using an example involving wine-tasters.