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Overview of First Grade Curriculum:

Science: engages in activities to discover plant and animal needs; understands ways to group or classify objects according to color, texture, shape and weight; understands solid earth materials (rock, sand, soil); understands the actions of objects such as movement an measures movement over time; learns to follow safety rules; learns to observe, classify, measure, and predict.

Social Studies: Understands that individuals, families and groups are alike and different; understands and demonstrates qualities of good citizenship in school, home, and communities; identifies holidays and cultural traditions; understands the geography of homes, schools, and communities; explores basic economics (wants, needs, goods) and services (community helpers); compares and contrasts forms of communication (computer, television, newspapers, etc.).

Healthful Living: Demonstrates positive ways to express feelings and build relationships; exhibits self-discipline and respect for others; understands that food is the body's source of energy; describes a healthy breakfast; exhibits physical exercise or movement through games and sports; exhibits good personal hygiene; understands the effects of alcohol and smoking.

Reading: Letters and Sounds ~ Blends letter sounds of one syllable words; breaks apart sounds of words; counts syllables in a word; changes beginning, middle, and ending sounds to produce new words; uses familiar words to identify vowel sounds and record vowel patterns. Word recognition ~ Uses knowledge of sound-letter relationships to read unknown words including blends, digraphs, word families; reads first grade high frequency words in print and in stories; easily reads aloud and understands most stories that are appropriately leveled for first grade; uses reading strategies to self-correct errors. Comprehension and Response to Story ~ Reads and understands different types of stories appropriate for grade one; uses word strategies in the reading, understanding, and writing of stories; reads and understands simple written instructions; predicts and explains what will happen next in stories; answers how, why, and what if questions about stories; makes predictions, inferences, and draws conclusions from stories to answer what, when, where, and how questions; self-selects books and reads independently for 15 minutes daily to increase vocabulary, concepts, and reading stamina.

Writing: Writes correctly all upper and lower case letters; uses phonics and word families to spell correctly three- and four- letter words; uses phonetic spelling when writing independently; uses complete sentences with appropriate spacing to write simple text related to a topic; uses basic capitalization; uses basic punctuation; writes in variety of ways; creates independently an observational writing and a recount narrative; writes many high frequency words correctly; uses descriptive detail and elaboration.

Mathematics: Number and Operations ~ Reads, writes, and models numbers to 99; reads number words 0 to 99; counts and groups objects by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's; identifies coin combinations to 100; makes reasonable estimates to 100; shows sets divided into two, three, or four equal parts; models and solves addition and subtraction facts to 10; groups objects into tens and ones and records; uses strategies such as counting on and counting back to solve addition and subtraction; represents numbers in a variety of ways; creates and solves problems using addition and subtraction and equal parts. Measurement ~ Tells time to the nearest hour and half hour; solves problems using a clock and calendar; uses non-standard units to estimate and measure length, weight, and capacity; develops strategies to estimate size; compare and orders objects. Algebra ~ Sorts and classifies objects by 2 attributes; uses venn diagrams to show likenesses and differences; creates, continues, and records patterns; identifies pattern units and translates into other forms; solves problems by naming and correcting errors in patterns. Geometry ~ Identifies, builds, draws, and names parallelograms, squares, trapezoids, and hexagons; identifies, builds, and names cylinders, cones, and rectangular prisms; compares and contrasts geometric figures; solve problems using spatial visualization. Data Analysis and Probability ~ Collects, organizes, describes, and displays data using line plots and tallies; describes events as certain, impossible, more likely or less likely to occur.
Information from Making the Grade K-5, 2004-2005 published by Davidson County Schools,pages 8-12.

Focus Areas in Technology:
• Respecting computer work of others
• Using technology at home and school
• Gathering, organizing, and displaying data
• Using word processing
• Exploring multimedia
• Responsible care of resources
• Observing online resources
Taken from 2004 - North Carolina Computer/Technology Skills Standard Course of Study