Curriculum Overview for First Grade

First Trimester

Unit 1: Me and My Place in the Community

 Introduction of reading strategies and word attack skills

Reviewing ABC order

Working with words: investigating where sounds are in words

Learning to form complete sentences in writing

Using the beginning steps of the writing process

Spelling words following common phonics rules

Counting in patterns

Calculating the value of money

Telling time

Solving addition and subtraction number stories

Exploring types of communities

Understanding of where we live in our world

Learning to be a good citizen at school and in our community

Understanding of maps, map keys, cardinal directions

Unit 2: Animal Classifications

 Learning to transfer word patterns to reading

Summarizing text

Utilizing reading strategies

Developing vocabulary through stories

Working with words and word patterns

Writing in journals with invented spellings and drawings

Working with diagrams and number patterns

Using a number line for skip counting

Learning the six animal classifications and characteristics of each

Diagramming a typical food chain

Learning about animal tracks, animal skeletons and endangered animals

Second Trimester

Unit 3: Cultural Understandings

 Applying reading strategies to help with comprehension

Making connections between text and self, other text or world

Exploring the elements of fiction books

Identifying parts of a story

Composing original text using parts of a story

Understanding and forming compound words

Measuring with standard units

Ordering and comparing numbers

Finding missing numbers in number sentences

Exploring the Japanese culture

Exploring the Mexican culture of Christmas

Learning about Hanukah and Kwanzza

Unit 4: Pizza Economics

 Applying reading strategies to help with comprehension

Reading in a smooth, flowing manner

Making connections with text

Using the writing process

Writing a story with topic sentence and supporting sentences

Using appropriate word resources

Recording information on graphs

Reading temperature on a thermometer

Understanding place value

Identifying needs of plant

Identifying source of pizza ingredients as plant or animal

Caring for plants and observing their growth, using scientific process

Understanding how products make it from producer to consumer

Investigating through a pizza restaurant how economic concepts work

 Third Trimester

Unit 5: Making it Go!

 Developing decoding strategies using phonics

Exploring the elements of non-fiction books

Identifying nouns and verbs in simple sentences

Understanding and forming contractions

Solving addition and subtraction problems

Using inches and centimeters to measure

Understanding standard and digital time

Exploring where energy comes from

Discovering force and motion

Identifying six simple machines

Learning about inventions past and present

Unit 6: Habitats: Animals & Their Surroundings

 Exploring different literary genres

Comparing fiction and non-fiction books

Identifying nouns, verbs and adjectives in simple sentences

Understanding beginning dictionary skills

Applying writing process to the final draft

Identifying 3-D shapes, symmetrical images and polygons

Making change for amounts less than $1

Exploring fractions

Learning about animal adaptations to their environments

Identifying characteristics of five habitats

          (arctic, rainforest, ocean, grasslands/savanna, desert)