First Grade
First Grade Scope & Sequence
The First Grade Scope & Sequence shows what teachers plan to teach each quarter of the school year. The scope and sequence lists the academic expectations for each academic subject. Click on the document to expand and see all of the subjects. In addition, access more information below to learn about specific skills you can expect first graders to learn during the school year.
23-24 First Grade Scope and Sequence Final.docx.pdfEnglish Language Arts
In grade one, your child will build important reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Students will continue to learn the letters and sounds that make up words. They will think, talk, and write about what they read in stories, articles, and other sources of information. In their writing, students will work on putting together clear sentences on a range of topics using a growing vocabulary.
Activities in First Grade ELA
Activities in these areas will include:
• Reading stories and showing they understand the lesson or moral of the story
• Asking and answering questions about a story, including characters, settings, and major events
• Comparing and contrasting the experiences of different characters
• Identifying the reasons an author gives to support a point
• Explaining differences between texts that tell stories and texts that provide information
• Learning and using new words
• Participating in class discussions by listening, responding to what others are saying, and asking questions
• Describing people, places, things, and events, expressing feelings and ideas clearly
• Learning basic rules of spoken and written English
• Working with others to gather facts and information on a topic
• Writing to describe an event, provide information on a topic, or share an opinion
Excerpt provided by the Council of the Great City Schools at https://www.cgcs.org/Page/244Curricular Materials in English Language Arts
Words Their Way™ is a curricular approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The program is implemented as a supplemental curriculum in the district and aims to provide a practical way to study words with students. The purpose of word study (which involves examining, manipulating, comparing, and categorizing words) is to reveal logic and consistencies within written language and to help students achieve mastery in recognizing, spelling, and defining specific words.
Wonders, a comprehensive literacy curriculum, is designed to meet the challenges of today’s classroom and reach all learners. A wealth of research-based print and digital resources provide unmatched support for building strong literacy foundations, accessing complex fiction and nonfiction texts, writing to sources, and building social emotional learning skills. Whether in the core classroom, an English language learner, or benefiting from intervention support, Wonders provides students equity of access to rich texts and rigorous instruction.
Math
In grade one, students will work with whole numbers and place value— including grouping numbers into tens and ones as they learn to add and subtract up through 20. Students will also use charts, tables, and diagrams to solve problems.
Activities in First Grade Math
Activities in these areas will include:
• Quickly and accurately adding numbers together that total up to 10 or less and subtracting from numbers up through 10
• Understanding the rules of addition and subtraction (for example, 5+2=2+5)
• Solving word problems that involve adding or subtracting numbers up through 20
• Understanding what the different digits mean in two-digit numbers (place value)
• Comparing two-digit numbers using the symbols > (more than), = (equal to) , and < (less than)
• Understanding the meaning of the equal sign (=) and determining if statements involving addition and subtraction are true or false (for example, which of the following statements are true? 3+3=6, 4+1=5+2)
• Adding one- and two-digit numbers together
• Measuring the lengths of objects using a shorter object as a unit of length
• Putting objects in order from longest to shortest or shortest to longest
• Organizing objects into categories and comparing the number of objects in different categories
• Dividing circles and rectangles into halves and quarters
Excerpt provided by the Council of the Great City Schools at https://www.cgcs.org/Page/244Curricular Materials in Math
Students will experience activities that ensure a progression of knowledge in McGraw-Hill My Math curriculum materials throughout kindergarten to fifth grade. This framework is a foundation for rigorous standards, resulting in a program that provides the conceptual understanding, key areas of focus, and connection to prior concepts and skills for each grade.
Science
In first grade, students will begin to grasp basic patterns and structure concepts that will support them while making predictions. They will start to study different types of waves like sound and vibration, and how to manipulate them. They will start gaining deeper understandings of behavior patterns in all kinds of organisms, including how a baby cries when they are hungry, as well as how some animals can mimic nature to hide from predators. They will also dive deeper into weather patterns and begin to understand different ideas like how much sunlight we get in different seasons.
Social Science: Living, Learning & Working Together
In first grade, students focus on learning how all people play an important role in the community.
Activities in First Grade in Social Science
Students will learn:
how rules function in multiple settings like inside and outside of school
create and read maps for navigation of familiar places
understanding how making choices can cause us to have to give up something else
develop knowledge and skills to produce certain goods and services
explain how people work in exchange for income, create chronological sequence of events
describe certain people who have shaped significant parts of history
compare perspectives of people in the past to people in the present
Physical Education & Health
The goal of physical education is to develop physically literate individuals who have the knowledge, skills and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity.
Activities in First Grade in PE & Health
To pursue a lifetime of healthful physical activity, a physically literate individual:
• Has learned the skills necessary to participate in a variety of physical activities.
• Knows the implications and the benefits of involvement in various types of physical activities.
• Participates regularly in physical activity.
• Is physically fit.
• Values physical activity and its contributions to a healthful lifestyle
Adapted from Moving into the future: National standards for physical education (2nd ed.), National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2004. Reston, VA: Author.Physical Development and Health standards are embedded into the following K-2nd grade band of expectations:
Acquire movement and motor skills and understand concepts necessary to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity.
Achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical fitness based upon continual self-assessment.
Develop skills necessary to become a successful member of a team by working with others during physical activity.
Demonstrate Personal Responsibility During Group Physical Activities.
Understand principles of health promotion and the prevention and treatment of illness and injury.
Understand human body systems and factors that influence growth and development.
Promote and enhance health and well-being through the use of effective communication and decision-making skills.