1st Grade Skill Expectations

The items below are first grade expectations for the state of Michigan.  All of these skills will be taught and assessed throughout the school year...I will let you know if your child needs help in any of the areas.

Reading/Language Arts
The learner will...
  • Use long and short vowels
  • Identify parts of a book
  • Note details in a story
  • Choose the best title
  • Alphabetize to the first letter
  • Identify before/after
  • Listen and follow directions
  • Compare and contrast stories
  • Identify rhyming words/sounds
  • Identify story elements
  • Comprehend reading material at grade level
  • Express ideas orally
  • Demonstrate good listening behavior
  • Identify and read basic sight words and vocabulary words
  • Demonstrate mastery of letters
  • Use sound/symbol relationships
  • Retell, dramatize or dictate a story
  • Demonstrate an awareness of classroom reference materials
  • Explain the difference between fiction and non-fiction stories

Writing Skills
We will assist our learners in...
  • Printing first and last name
  • Printing daily work legibly
  • Using descriptive language
  • Expressing thoughts in written form
  • Understanding plurals
  • Beginning to write complete sentences
  • Beginning to use appropriate punctuation
  • Recognizing action and describing words
  • Developing characters
  • Recognizing story patterns
Mathematics
We will assist our learners in...
  • Classifying numbers: greater/lesser, even/odd
  • Solving Number stories
  • Reproducing repeating patterns
  • Identifying money: penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, dollar
  • Adding and subtracting facts to ten
  • Rote counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, 10's
  • Identifying and writing numbers to 100
  • Telling time to the hour and half hour
  • Understanding place value of ones, tens, and hundreds
  • Estimating and measuring inches and centimeters
  • Beginning to use simple fractions
  • Identify days of the week, months of the year, number words and color words
  • Comparing, sorting and classifying geometric shapes
  • Making and reading a simple graph
  • Organizing data using tally marks
Social Studies
The learner will...
  • Describe the qualities of good citizenship in the home, school and community
  • Interpret and use simple maps
  • Demonstrate the concepts of goods and services, producers and consumers, wants and needs
  • Distinguish between past, present and future
  • Explore diverse cultures
Science
The learner will...
  • Classify groups of living and nonliving things
  • Show awareness of the five senses
  • Investigate weather patterns
  • Explore the earth's surface; land and water
  • Begin to use the scientific method
  • Identify the parts of a plant and an insect
  • Develop an awareness of the water cycle
  • Use scientific knowledge to ask questions and make observations
Curriculum Connections
We believe children learn best as they experience the world around them.  Your first grade student will have the opportunity to attend the following field trips...
  • The MSU Butterfly Gardens
  • Fleming School