April 2026 Learning Goals 

Here’s an overview of our learning goals for April:

We have an exciting month in grade one! We are participating in the Egg to Chick program through Agriculture in the Classroom.  On April 20th, our eggs will be delivered to our classrooms. We will be caring for our eggs and learning about their life cycle. We will ‘candle’ the eggs to watch their development inside their eggs (we can see them moving and even see their eyes through their shells)! After two weeks, our chicks will hatch in their incubators. When they’re ready, we’ll move them to a pen in our classroom where we can observe and interact with them for one week before they are picked up on May 15th! This will be a very fun and educational learning experience! 

Reading: We will continue to work on developing reading fluency by focusing on accuracy, pace and expression. 

Writing: This month, we will be wrapping up our non-fiction writing unit. The children will be choosing their own topic and writing to teach about their topic. Next, we will explore opinion writing and review writing. Students will learn to express their opinion and back it up with 3 or more reasons. We’ll also learn to agree or disagree in polite and thoughtful ways. 

Math: We started subtraction this month and will continue to work on subtraction over the next month. We’ll explore a variety of strategies for subtraction with answers between 0-20 including: 

• Subtracting zero

• Subtracting all

• Subtracting with: pictures, number lines, 10 frames

• Using part-part-whole

• Using doubles to subtract 

Once we’ve solidified our understanding of subtraction, we will begin mixed operations. We’ll explore fact families using both addition and subtraction, mixed operations, and story problems. 

Health: We are beginning our new Kids in the Know personal safety education program. An information packet will be sent home in your child’s homework folder outlining this program. Lessons will include the following topics: 

• Feelings

• Safe grown-ups to go to for help

• Boundaries - how to be safe

• Keep Secrets and Speak Secrets (this lessons includes naming body parts)

• The Buddy System

• Trust Your Instincts 

• What to do When Lost 

Fundations Unit  10 & 11:

• In Unit 10, we will work on closed syllables that have five sounds. These are words that usually have a blend (two consonants each with their own sound) at the beginning of the word and a blend at the end of the word. The word "slump" is an example. The sl is a blend and the mp is a blend. We will be adding the suffixes s, ed, and ing to these five sound words as well. We will also continue working on vowel teams using the Vowel Teams poster: oa, oe, ow, ou, oo, ue, ew, au, and aw. Vowel teams are introduced for reference when students are reading throughout the day. 

• In Unit 11, students will learn about a new syllable type, vowel-consonant-e. This is a concept that they have been introduced to (we often call it “magic e”), and they will now get three weeks to practice it and extend their learning in Fundations. With “vowel-consonant-e”, the “e” at the end of the word is silent, but it changes the sound of the vowel in the word to the long vowel sound. For example: If we add an “e” to the word “hop”, it becomes “hope”. Students will learn the keywords and practice the long vowel sounds for each vowel.

Sight words:

March 30-April 2nd: grow, toe, boat, goes 

April 7th - 9th: played, looked, shouted, cried

April 13th-17th: because, friend, other, another

April 20th-24th: none, nothing, blew, soon

April 27-May 1st: I’m, can’t, don’t, didn’t