Elementary Standards and Resources

A Note to First Grade Parents

First grade marks an important milestone for young children as they develop the ability to understand what letters and numbers really mean. When they're ready, they'll be able to "crack the code" and read words.

First grade is traditionally thought of as the level where children learn to read. Not all children become fluent readers by the end of the first grade, but most take their first solid steps toward fluid reading. Their reading material varies from simple rhymes, to classroom news, to patterned stories and beginner non-fiction books. First graders love true stories of long ago, even though their sense of time isn't well developed.

First-grade teachers help children listen for sounds in words, write the sounds they hear, and discover parts of written language, like the -at in cat that they can then use to figure out the words hat, mat, and sat.

Writing, like reading, takes a variety of forms in the first-grade classroom. Children "invent" their spellings as they work out their understandings of written language. Writing activities include journal writing, writing creative stories, or documenting their work in other subject areas. Teachers frequently ask children to sound out the words they write to introduce the sounds that letters make.

First graders begin to grasp more abstract mathematical concepts. Children are introduced to time, money, and the meaning of numbers greater than those they can count. Because first graders still learn best by working with physical objects, teachers give children materials to use during math lessons such as number cubes, pattern blocks, and color rods.

A first grader's brain is just beginning to grasp a few concepts at the same time, and then to make connections between those concepts. You can see this in a first grader's writing. Children use "invented spelling" by writing in ways that make sense to them. They use what they know about sound and spelling relationships to get their ideas onto the page. They haven't mastered all the letter sounds or spelling rules that they need to be fluent writers, but they're willing to use what they know to work out the puzzle of written language.

Click on the links below in order to see the specific skills your child will learn this year:

Resources:

Parents: Kindergarten - First - Second - Third - Fourth - Fifth

Students: Kindergarten - First - Second - Third - Fourth - Fifth

Content collected and organized by Sheryl Sanders