In Grade 1, multilingual learners in ELD/ESL classes grow as readers, writers, speakers, and listeners while also learning important ideas from science and social studies. ELD/ESL class does not replace their regular classroom learning—rather, it supports and strengthens their language development so they can participate fully in all subjects. Grade 1 unit topics include: Families and Traditions; Living and Non-Living Things; Needs and Wants; Life Cycles, and Animal Features and Adaptations.
Our Multilingual (ML) teachers implement an ESL curriculum using National Geographic Reach Higher resources to provide high-quality texts, visuals, and activities that spark curiosity and connect to students’ lives. All lessons are designed with the WIDA Standards Framework, which guides how students grow in social and academic English across listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Students will share family stories with classmates.
Students will describe a special family place with details and pictures.
Students will learn from books to discover what makes a family.
Students will explain what makes their family unique.
Students will use new words to talk and write about families.
What makes a family special?
How do families celebrate, help, and share with each other?
How can we tell stories about our families?
How do books and stories help us learn about families around the world?
What words can we use to describe our family and community?
Can you tell me about a special day our family had together?
What is one of your favorite family traditions or celebrations?
How would you describe a special place for our family? What makes it important?
What are some ways our family helps each other?
Can you think of a story, song, or book that reminds you of our family?
What words can you use to describe our family or community? (family, celebrate, holiday, community)
Suggested Activities:
Read Together in Any Language
Read a book in your home language or in English about families or traditions.
Ask: What is happening?; Who is in the story?; What makes this family special?
Share Family Stories
Tell your child a story from your childhood or about a family tradition.
Ask your child to retell the story back to you in their own words—in your home language or in English.
Sing and Talk About Traditions
Teach your child a song, rhyme, or saying that your family uses for birthdays, holidays, or daily routines.
Have your child explain what it means in any language, or draw a picture to show the meaning.
Students will explain the difference between living and nonliving things.
Students will describe what living things need to survive and grow.
Students will use observations, diagrams, and texts to identify characteristics of living things.
Students will share their own ideas clearly about what it means to be alive.
Students will use science words to talk and write about growth, change, and survival.
How can I explain what makes something living or nonliving?
How can I describe the needs of living things?
How can I use facts, pictures, and descriptions to understand the difference between living and nonliving?
How can I explain what it means for something to grow and change?
Why is it important to understand what living things need to thrive?
What makes something living?
Can you name some things in our home or outside that are living? What about nonliving?
What do living things need to stay alive?
How do living things grow and change over time?
What new science words did you learn to describe living and nonliving things?
Suggested Activities:
Read Together in Any Language
Read a book in your home language or in English about living and nonliving things.
Ask: What makes the things in the story living or nonliving?; What do living things need to grow and survive?
Living or Nonliving Hunt
Walk around your home, yard, or park.
Ask your child to sort objects into living and nonliving.
Have them explain their choices in your home language or English.
Compare and Contrast
Choose a living thing (like a pet or plant) and a nonliving thing (like a toy or rock).
Ask your child to describe how they are the same and different.
Use words like both, but, different, same.
Students will explain the difference between needs and wants.
Students will describe what goods and services are and why people need them.
Students will explore how communities work together to produce and share goods and services.
Students will identify main ideas and details in stories and informational texts about goods, services, and money.
Students will use social studies vocabulary to explain how people get what they need in daily life.
How can I explain the difference between needs and wants?
How can I describe what goods and services are?
How can I explain how communities work together to get what they need?
How can I share what I learn about the journey of goods from farms and factories to homes and markets?
Why are goods and services important in our community and in the world?
What are examples of things our family needs and things we want?
Can you explain the difference between goods and services?
What goods or services did we use today?
How do people work together to produce or share goods and services?
What new words did you learn about goods, services, or money?
Suggested Activities:
Read Together in Any Language
Read a book in your home language or in English about goods, services, or communities.
Ask: What examples of goods or services did you see?; How did people work together to get what they needed?
Needs and Wants Sort
Make a list of 6–8 items (like food, toys, clothes, electricity, books).
Ask your child to sort them into needs and wants.
Talk about why each item belongs in its category.
Pick a food your family eats (bread, rice, fruit).
Talk about where it comes from: farm → factory → store → home.
Have your child draw or explain the journey.
Community Connections
Discuss the jobs of people in your community (like mail carriers, cooks, mechanics).
Ask: How does this person’s work help people get what they need?