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The First Grade Tracker explains some essential skills your child should learn during first grade in language arts and mathematics. Use the Grade Tracker to track your child's progress and find Resources to help your child succeed academically. Click here for tips on using the Grade Tracker. We also offer Grade Trackers for second and third grades.
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Build reading skills.
Learn the different sounds some letters make.
Recognize that each vowel has both a long and short sound.
Memorize the sounds of common letter combinations.
Work with letter sounds by blending, segmenting and changing the letters in words.
Recognize frequently used words.
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- The letter "c" makes a soft sound in "cereal" but makes a hard sound in "cat."
- The "g" makes a soft sound in "gym," but makes a hard sound in "get."
- The "o" in "cop" is a short vowel sound, while the "o" in "code" is a long vowel sound.
- The "i" in "bit" is short; the "i" in "bite" is long.
- The "a" in mad is short; the "a" in "made" is long.
- Learn common consonant blends such as "th," "ch," "sh" and "ck" to read words like "that," "chat," "wish" and "clock."
- Say the sound of each letter in a word like "map," then blend them together to read the entire word.
- Take apart or segment words into individual sounds so that "map" becomes "m-a-p."
- Change the beginning or end of words to make words that rhyme. For example, changing the first letter of "map" makes words like "cap," "tap," "gap" and "lap."
- Some high frequency words are:
a, of, that, and, the, I, so, with, are, o, for, said, have, as, was, you, in and at.
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Improve vocabulary skills.
Use surrounding words to figure out the meaning of an unknown word.
Look for common prefixes and suffixes for clues to unknown words.
Use pictures, graphs or chapter headings to figure out meaning.
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- Example: "There was no one at the park to play with. The boy looked lonely." From the context, how would you figure out the meaning of "lonely" if you did not know this word?
- Examples of common prefixes and suffixes are "pre-," "un-," "-ing" and "ful." In the example above, knowing what "lone" means helps you understand what "lonely" means.
- In the example above, a picture of a boy sitting by himself at the park helps the reader understand the meaning of "lonely."
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Develop strategies to increase reading comprehension.
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- Reread portions of stories to understand their meaning.
- Search for clues such as key words, pictures or headings.
- Recall details such as "the dog's name was Fred" or "the house is in Virginia."
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Read a story and interact with it by sequencing, discussing different parts and making connections.
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- Identify the story's beginning, middle and end.
- Discuss the characters, setting and plot.
- Compare similarities and differences betweem one story and another, or relate a personal experience to a story.
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Build grammar, punctuation, and spelling skills.
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- Use complete sentences.
- Capitalize the first letter in a sentence, the pronoun "I," days of week and months of year.
- Include proper punctuation at the end of sentences, using periods, question marks or exclamation points.
- Spell words such as "you," "cat," "book" and "play" correctly.
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Improve penmanship.
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- Practice printing all numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters legibly.
- Use proper spacing between words and sentences.
- Correctly sequence words from left to right across the page.
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Begin to read, write and describe whole numbers up to 100.
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- See the number 98 and be able to read it.
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Identify place values (tens, hundreds, etc.) of digits in a number up to 100.
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- In the number 100, 1 = hundreds, 0 = tens and 0 = ones
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Compare and order numbers up to 100 using the <, > and = signs.
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Demonstrate a basic understanding of the meaning of addition and subtraction as concepts.
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- Example: Mike has three cookies. He gives two to his friend José. How many does he have left?
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Write and solve "number sentences" using addition and subtraction with numbers up to two digits.
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Estimate and measure length, capacity and weight using appropriate instruments for measuring.
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- Use a ruler to measure different-size pieces of paper, a measuring cup to measure water and a scale to weigh pieces of fruit.
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Understand that time and temperature can be measured.
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- Tell time to the nearest half-hour using an analog or a digital clock.
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Develop money sense by identifying and knowing the value of different kinds of coins.
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- Identify the number of pennies equal to a nickel, a dime and a quarter.
- Understand how different combinations of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters can add up to $1.
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Begin to work with fractions.
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- Understand the concept of fractions and use symbols of one-half (1/2) and one-quarter (1/4) to represent parts of a whole.
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Learn the basic concepts of geometry. Identify common geometric shapes.
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- What is a circle? A triangle? A square? A rectangle?
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Predict the results of putting shapes together and pulling them apart.
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- Putting two triangles together might form a rectangle.
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Use number patterns to "skip" by 2's, 5's and 10's.
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- Count by 2's (2, 4, 6, 8…)
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Recognize and extend a wide variety of patterns in numbers, objects and shapes.
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- Fill in the blanks: 5, 10, 15, ____
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Organize, represent and display data by category on a simple graph or chart.
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- Count the number of M&Ms of different colors in a bag and represent them on a simple bar graph.
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Interpret data presented in a picture or object graph.
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- Look at the graph of M&Ms (see previous example) and tell how many M&Ms there are in each color.
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Resources |
How to Use the Grade Tracker | Second Grade | Third Grade
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