Going from kindergarten to 1st grade can be a huge transition for both you and your child.
It’s a stage where you shift to more extensive learning, discuss new topics, and refine their learning foundation to help them in the next several years.
By now, your child should be familiar with the alphabet, know how to write the letters in uppercase and lowercase, write their complete name, and recognize sight words.
They should also be able to do basic addition and subtraction, count up to 30, and identify basic geometric shapes.
This year, your child will achieve new milestones, and the lessons they’ll be learning will build on the fundamentals that they’ve learned in kindergarten.
But at this age, children tend to become upset or not enjoy school if they feel like they’re not doing so well.
So, make sure to always prepare exciting lessons for them, paired with fun games and activities that’ll supplement the topics that they’re learning.
The good thing is first graders are generally open to sharing their feelings.
So, if they’re having a hard time with the lessons, simply talk to them, be sure to listen, and give them plenty of encouragement to help them out.
First grade is mostly focused on reading and writing, continuing what they’ve already learned in kindergarten to further develop their literacy.
They’ll also carry on with more math lessons as well as discuss science, social studies, and other subjects.
When homeschooling your child, you’ll need to consider dozens of factors such as homeschooling styles, how your kid responds to teaching methods, how structured your lessons will be, and so many more.
But although there’s no ultimate step-by-step guide to homeschooling your first-grader, it helps to have a plan or a system.
So, here’s a free 1st grade homeschool curriculum schedule that you can follow every weekday for the entire year.
1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum Schedule
In our weekly 1st grade homeschool schedule above, you’ll notice three subjects highlighted in green:
- Math
- Language Arts
- Science
We call them the core subjects because every 1st grade homeschool curriculum mostly focuses on those three.
If you’re a busy parent, you only have to worry about teaching the core subjects and you should be fine.
But if you can spare most of the day to teach your child, then you can spend time on the secondary subjects as well, which are highlighted in blue:
- Art and Music
- Social Studies
- Physical Education
Circle Time can be considered a warm-up session early in the day, which you can use to sing songs, read stories, or recite poems.
Homeschool Hours Per Day in 1st Grade
According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s recommendations for distance learning, the number of hours you should homeschool your 1st-graders is 45 minutes to 90 minutes per day.
The recommended length of sustained attention is 5-10 minutes.
That’s why each core subject mentioned above is taught for 30 minutes each, summing up to 90 minutes for all three.
So, just the core subjects are enough to comply with the ISBE’s recommendations.
You can add in extra-curricular activities for the secondary subjects, but try to make them informal and don’t require much tedious study.
Your state might have remote learning recommendations of their own, though, so make sure to check.
But if there’s none, you can limit daily formal studies to 45-90 minutes.
A Quick Disclaimer…
The weekly schedule, learning objectives, and subjects on this page are only our recommendations and shouldn’t be construed as official advice.
Typically, a 1st grade homeschool curriculum focuses on math, language arts, and science, and many homeschooling parents add other subjects such as social studies, art, music, and P.E.
But mandated subjects, as well as other homeschool regulations, are different per state, so make sure to familiarize yourself with them before planning or buying a curriculum.
Depending on how long your child can keep focus, you can also segment lessons into 15 to 20-minute increments.
You can also homeschool 4 days a week, every other day, or 2-days-on 1-day-off, and maybe even limit the number of times you formally study a subject.
Your child is unique and has their own way of learning, so don’t hesitate to try out different things and see what works best.
To help you with that, here’s an empty weekly schedule you can print out, so you can customize how you want your homeschooling routine to look like.
Download Our Daily Planner
And here’s a daily planner you can use to map out specific activities you’ll be doing throughout the day.
To use this planner, simply write down what you want to learn in the Objectives box, the exercises you’ll be doing in the Activities box, and everything you need to prepare in the Materials box.
What Your Kids Will Learn in 1st Grade
Before starting first grade, your child is expected to know the basics of math, reading, and writing.
As they continue to develop those skills in Grade 1, they’ll also expand their knowledge in science, social studies, and maybe even history, geography, art, and music.
Throughout the year, they’ll accomplish many things, some of which include:
- Working by themselves for short periods of time
- Mastering all consonants and vowels as well as the phonics concepts around letter combinations
- Comprehending and summarizing simple picture stories after reading out loud
- Becoming familiar with basic grammar concepts such as capitalization and punctuation
- Counting up to 100
- Performing simple addition and subtraction
- Being able to tell time and calendar dates
- Being able to make scientific observations
- Becoming familiar with their country’s symbols and a few important people in history
Specific learning milestones for each subject - math, language arts, science, art and music, social studies, and P.E. - are enumerated in the sections below.
First grade is an exciting year filled with new achievements.
But keep in mind that even when you can expect your child to accomplish the objectives listed above, they’re just that - expectations.
Each child is different. Some might do well on certain aspects and some might have a hard time on others.
The important thing is that you’re patient, you cooperate with your child, and just keep learning together.
So, here are the learning objectives for each Grade 1 subject as well as free resources you can use to help them achieve those objectives.
1st Grade Curriculum Core Subjects
1st Grade Math Curriculum:
It’s time to up your child’s counting game by teaching them how to count beyond 20.
They’ll also continue to develop their addition and subtraction skills, master how to read time, count and handle money, be familiar with different kinds of measurements, and work with more complicated shapes and patterns.
First grade is a year to build a more solid foundation for your child’s fluency in math, which would give them the tools to learn more advanced lessons in the future.
A good mathematics base will help them improve their logical thinking, problem-solving skills, number sense, and abstract and quantitative reasoning.
So, to help make teaching math to your child easier, here are the learning milestones a first-grader is expected to accomplish for the subject:
Math Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
Counting
- Count, read, and write whole numbers up to 100, maybe even beyond that
- Count and group objects in 5s and 10s up to 100
- Count and group objects in 2s and 5s up to 50
- Count forward and backward from a random number less than 100
- Identify the number that comes before and after a random number less than 100
- Know what odd and even numbers are
- Create a number line and represent 0 to 100 on it
- Identify the first, second, third, etc. in an ordered set of 10 items
- Understand the function of zero as a placeholder and that adding and subtracting zero from a number would just leave it as it is
- Identify the place value of a digit in whole numbers to 100
- Identify the value of digits up to the hundreds place
Number Sense & Algebraic Thinking
- Estimate numbers (using about, between, close to, and near) to the nearest 10s when describing numbers in real-world situations
- Understand that ½, ⅓, and ¼ are fractions and that they’re parts of a whole or a set
- Know that when you combine fractions, such as ½ and ½, they form a whole
- Understand the concepts of more than, less than, and equal to, and use their respective symbols (>, <, =)
- Perform one-digit and two-digit addition and subtraction
- Relate addition and subtraction with counting and reverse counting; that is, counting from 1 to 2 is the same as 1 + 1 and counting from 3 to 2 is the same as 3 - 1
- Mentally add and subtract 10 in 2-digit numbers; for example, 79 + 10 = 89
- Understand the commutative and associative properties of addition - that moving around the numbers, no matter how many of them, doesn’t change the sum
- Solve simple math word problems by relating terms such as compare, decrease, increase, find the difference, put together, and take away to their respective mathematical symbols in addition, subtraction, and comparisons
- Solve addition and subtraction problems with an unknown number represented by geometric shapes
- Describe the relationship of numbers in fact families; for instance, in a fact family containing the numbers 5, 10, and 15, the relationships that can be gathered are 5 + 10 = 15 and 15 - 10 = 5
Geometry & Patterns
- Identify and sort two-dimensional shapes, including all polygons such as rhombi, trapezoids, pentagons, octagons, and others
- Recognize solid shapes such as cones, cylinders, and spheres
- Identify two and three-dimensional shapes from various perspectives
- Match congruent shapes even when they’ve been flipped or turned
- Differentiate symmetrical shapes from asymmetrical ones and point out where the line of symmetry is
- Classify and compare plane and solid shapes based on sides, angles, edges, faces, and vertices
- Combine and decompose 2-dimensional shapes to form other 2 or 3-dimensional shapes; for example, 2 triangles can form a square, 4 triangles and a square can form a pyramid, and a circle can be halved into 2 semicircles
- Locate, move, and describe the position of objects using directional words like right, left, top, bottom, middle, outside, inside, up, down, above, on, or behind.
- Sort objects based on one attribute, two attributes, or more
- Create, describe, and extend patterns of objects based on different factors such as size, color, shape, and others
- Identify the errors as well as the missing terms in growing and repeating patterns
Measurements & Temperature
- Identify the different types of tools to measure temperature and the length, weight, and volume of objects
- Use nonstandard units (pencil, shoe, arm, etc.) to measure the length, weight, and volume of objects and compare them with that of other objects
- Use a tape measure or ruler to measure the length of objects in inches, feet, centimeters, and millimeters, compare them with other objects, and then sort them by length
- Use a weighing scale to measure the weight of objects in ounces, pounds, grams, and kilograms, compare them with other objects, and then sort them by weight
- Use different containers and compare their capacities in cups, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters, and liters, and then sort them by capacity
- Read a Fahrenheit thermometer and recite the temperature to the nearest 10 degrees and compare the temperatures of different objects
- Relate the temperature to the weather outside, if it’s hot, cold, or average
Time & Date
- Name the basic parts of a clock and a calendar
- Tell time in the nearest hour and half-hour using an analog clog
- Read a calendar and recite dates complete with the month, day, and year, as well as the day of the week
- Use a calendar to describe the seasons
- Relate the duration of events in the nearest hour and half-hour, if they’re shorter or longer compared to each other
- Solve word problems involving elapsed time to the nearest hour or half-hour
Money
- Identify each type of coin and their respective values
- Recognize the ¢ and $ signs
- Combine coins and add their values
- Create different coin combinations that amount to the same value
- Combine money up to a specific amount using the fewest coins
- Solve simple addition and subtraction problems using dimes, pennies, and nickels up to 50¢
- Use money in transactions
Math Worksheets and Resources
Here are 14 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- Khan Academy - 1st Grade Math
- Education.com - Over 1,800 1st Grade Worksheets, Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans
- We Are Teachers - 16 Fun and Free First Grade Math Games and Activities
- K5 Learning - First Grade Math Worksheets
- Math Playground - 1st Grade Math Games
- Worksheet Fun - First Grade Math Worksheets
- Homeschool Math - Free Math Worksheets for Grade 1
- Big Learners - First Grade Free Math Worksheets
- Great Schools - 160+ 1st Grade Math Worksheets
- Dad’s Worksheets - 1st Grade Math Worksheets
- Math Salamanders - First Grade Math Worksheets
- KidZone - Math Worksheets: Grade Level One
- Math Games - Grade 1: Practice with Math Games
- Splash Learn - Math Games for 1st Grade Kids Online
Math Tips for Parents
Math is a tricky subject to teach because it usually requires a lot of concentration and effort, so sometimes kids might find it boring or have a hard time following along with the concepts.
This might lead them to lose confidence and interest in the subject if they can’t keep up.
So, you must be patient and keep the activities engaging.
When teaching them math, use fun games and math manipulatives such as blocks, Cuisenaire rods, and snap cubes. Making the lessons enjoyable will help instill a love for learning in them.
You can also post number charts or mats in common places in the house such as their bedroom or the dining table, so they can be reminded of the topics they’ve learned whenever they look at the charts.
And constantly practice with them.
Whenever you’re outside doing things, you can talk about numbers or shapes with your child.
When you’re grocery shopping, you can talk about how much money you’ll need to buy cereal, milk, or fruits.
When you’re cooking or baking, you can use different cups, spoons, and bowls to measure the ingredients.
Or when you’re waiting in line, you can ask them to count in 5s or 10s and identify the 2 and 3-dimensional shapes that they can see in their environment such as stop signs being hexagons, balls being spheres, or traffic lights being a combination of a rectangle and three circles.
You can even schedule events, vacations, or field trips with them and have them mark the date on the calendar. Repeatedly ask them what they did “today”, “yesterday”, and what they’ll be doing “tomorrow” or “next week.”
1st Grade Language Arts Curriculum:
Language arts is the study of literature and language, more particularly composition, grammar, spelling, writing, and even public speaking.
In kindergarten, your child should have learned to read and write their names, maybe even yours, and to read and write most, if not all, of the letters of the alphabet.
This year, you’ll be helping your child build on the knowledge they already have to be able to recognize sounds of different combinations, increase their vocabulary, read and write more words, and improve their reading comprehension.
Reading and writing is a crucial subject at this age because it’s an academic foundation that they’ll need to be successful down the road.
Reading breeds learning, and writing is important for taking notes and summarizing what they’ve learned on paper.
So, the earlier they master those two skills, the faster they’ll be able to learn new things.
Language Arts Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
Reading & Print Concepts
- Recite the alphabet, recognize all the letters, and know the sounds they make
- Read and spell digraphs (two letters that represent one sound); examples of these letter combinations are ai, ue, ch, th, wh, and wr
- Understand the difference of short and long vowel sounds and that adding “e” at the end of the word can change the sound of a vowel within the word from short to long; for example, fat to fate
- Read familiar words with different endings such as hat becoming hats, run becoming running, or pat becoming patted
- Break down longer words into syllables for easier reading
- Start to read words that are spelled irregularly
- Know how sentences begin and end; that is, they begin with the first letter of the first word capitalized and end with an ending punctuation
- Know that paragraphs are made of sentences and that they have a beginning, middle, and end
- Be familiar with the parts of a book such as the cover, title, headings, table of contents, and glossary as well as what an author and illustrator are
- Fluently and independently read simple poems, stories, and explanatory text at an appropriate speed
Handwriting & Spelling
- Legibly write uppercase and lowercase letters
- Spell high-frequency and common one-syllable words correctly and spell longer words phonetically
- Write from top to bottom and left to right with proper spacing between words
Grammar & Vocabulary
- Use capital letters for names, other proper nouns, and beginnings of sentences
- Identify the different types of sentences (declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory) and use the proper ending punctuation for them - period, question mark, and exclamation point
- Know the different parts of speech - noun, adjective, verb
- Distinguish between proper and possessive nouns
- Identify compound words
- Sort words based on certain attributes such as action words, types of animals, colors, types of food, and others
- Understand that some words can have similar meanings but differ in intensity; for example, large vs huge and good vs great
Reading Comprehension
- Distinguish between fiction and non-fiction texts
- Use context clues to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word
- Identify words and phrases that relate to emotions and the senses
- Retell a story’s beginning, middle, and ending and be able to answer questions about what they’ve just read
- Compare experiences and features of characters, events that happened in a book, and different texts that talk about the same topic or story theme
- Share their opinions about the text they’ve read
Composition
- Write with a little bit of structure (introduction, supporting details, conclusion) even when mostly using invented spelling
- Write short narratives using descriptive words and simple sentences arranged in chronological order
- Write their opinion on a text they’ve just read
- Write simple informational pieces about any topic
- Use digital tools to practice writing and publishing their work
- Share, explain, and answer questions about their written work
Language Arts Worksheets and Resources
Here are 17 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- Time4Learning - 1st Grade Spelling Word List
- Great Schools - 1st Grade Dolch Sight Words
- Home Reading Helper - First Grade Reading Skills
- Great Schools - 90+ 1st Grade Reading Worksheets
- Education.com - Over 2,000 1st Grade Reading & Writing Resources
- K12 Reader - 1st Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- K5 Learning - First Grade Reading Comprehension Worksheets
- Super Teacher Worksheets - 1st Grade Reading Comprehension
- PBS Kids - Reading Games
- Student Treasures - Free Writing Worksheets for First-Grade Students
- Wilbooks - First Grade Fiction
- 123 Homeschool 4 Me - 1st Grade Reading List Suggestions
- English Worksheets Land - Grade 1 Language Arts Worksheets
- Big Learners - First Grade Free English Language Arts Worksheets
- Great Schools - 50 1st Grade Writing Worksheets
- Turtle Diary - 1st Grade Language Arts Worksheets
- Easy Teacher Worksheets - English Language Arts Worksheets: 1st Grade Writing
Language Arts Tips for Parents
The best way you can help improve your child’s literacy is to constantly read to or with them, and you can also have them read to you.
Make it a routine to read 15-20 minutes every day.
Always talk about reading - ask them what they’ve read, what they thought about it, or if they liked the characters.
It’d also be good if you had a cozy reading corner at home, so your child could have a designated area for reading that’d help them get in the mood.
When it comes to writing, your child at this stage will probably use a lot of invented spelling and that’s okay.
You don’t have to immediately correct them.
This is an expected step toward your child’s journey to literacy, and not correcting them right away will allow them to focus on communication - which is the whole point of them learning to write.
While you’re reading and learning new words, you can also keep a personal dictionary for your child to write in whenever they encounter new words and learn their definitions.
Have them write a short phrase or sentence about the word or even draw a picture.
1st Grade Science Curriculum:
Science is all about exploring and investigating the answers to life’s questions, and it’s a great subject for kids because of their innate curiosity.
It’s one of the most fun and exciting subjects parents love to teach.
It’ll encourage your first grader to use their senses for observations as well as their deductive and investigative skills to seek answers.
At this stage, your child will be learning the fundamentals of life science, earth science, and physical science, and at the same time improve their analytical, organizational, and observational skills.
As they get used to approaching things scientifically, connecting everything that they’re learning to real-life situations will become a habit.
Science Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
Data Gathering and Interpretation
- Ask questions, make a hypothesis, observe with their senses, take note of observations, and then draw conclusions
- Be familiar with different scientific tools and their functions; for example, rulers are used for measuring and microscopes are used for observation
- Be able to record and organize data using tally tables, bar graphs, and pictographs
- Interpret the data they recorded by comparing them with each other
- Use data to make predictions and sense the probability of events, whether they’re likely, certain, possible, or impossible to happen
- Share and explain their findings from any scientific inquiry
Life Science
- Distinguish between living and nonliving things
- Identify the different parts of plants and their functions
- Classify different animals based on their habitats
- Understand how beetles, butterflies, and moths change from larvae to pupae to adult, and how some insects mate and lay eggs
- Compare how the structures of various insects differ from each other
- Know the difference between complete and incomplete metamorphosis
- Be familiar with what lies under the ocean such as coral reefs, sea animals, and underwater plants
- Compare the life cycles of plants and animals
- Show sensitivity for all creatures that live in the environment
- Have an idea of the systems that make the human body function such as circulatory, digestive, muscular, nervous, and skeletal
Earth Science
- Know that air has properties and that it can interact with different objects (such as kites, pinwheels, and parachutes); for example, compressing air can make things move
- Use an atmospheric thermometer, an anemometer, and a wind vane to describe weather conditions
- Take note of daily weather conditions using words or pictures and look for patterns
- Understand the relationship of weather patterns and seasons and that these are brought about by the Earth’s position and movement in space
- Monitor, record, and be familiar with how the moon changes over the course of a month
- Know why there are ocean waves and currents
- Understand the water cycle
- Recognize how practicing the three Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle can help the environment
- Use a telescope to observe the night sky
Physical Science
- Differentiate the states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas - and understand that the state of an object can transform from one state to another
- Describe what happens when different states of matter are mixed together
- Understand that everyday objects are made up of materials such as plastic, metal, wood, or fabric and be able to sort objects based on composition
- Recognize why some materials are more appropriate for use in construction compared to other materials
- Understand that light is a form of energy which can be natural or man-made and that because of it, we’re able to see each other and everything else around us
- Understand that sound is another form of energy, a kind of energy that’s heard, and be able to describe its characteristics, how it’s generated, and why sounds are different
- Be familiar with how batteries work
- Be familiar with different shapes and sizes of magnets and the characteristics of the materials they attract
- Know the 6 types of simple machines - inclined plane, lever, pulley, screw, wedge, and wheel and axle - and that they’re used to make work easier
Science Worksheets and Resources
Here are 12 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- Education.com - 500 First Grade Science Resources
- Great Schools - 88 1st Grade Science Worksheets
- Science4Us - Science Projects in First Grade
- Ecosystem for Kids - 1st Grade Science Worksheets PDF
- K5 Learning - Grade 1 Science Worksheets
- JumpStart - 1st Grade Science Worksheets
- Turtle Diary - First Grade Science Worksheets
- Little Worksheets - 1st Grade Science Worksheets
- We Are Teachers - 25 First Grade Science Projects to Pique Everyone’s Interest
- Science Buddies - First Grade Science Projects
- The Edvocate - 10 of the Best First Grade Science Projects and Experiments
- The STEM Laboratory - First Grade STEM Activities
Science Tips for Parents
At this age, your child is going to have a lot of questions. Use that as an opportunity to research the answers together.
You can even make it fun by creating a collage or scrapbook where you can paste your findings.
To make everything engaging, incorporate lots of hands-on experiments, educational field trips, and maybe even interviews with local experts.
And don’t be afraid to use technology. It’s very helpful for also improving your child’s motor skills and computer literacy - a skill that’s very important nowadays.
Because it’s science and your child is delving into unknown territory and trying out new things, remember to always be safe and wear safety equipment.
1st Grade Curriculum Secondary Subjects
1st Grade Art and Music Curriculum:
Many homeschooling families add art and music to their children’s schedule, so you can do it too, especially if your child’s starting to embrace their more artsy and musical side.
In first-grade art, your child will become more familiar with the basic elements of art such as color, form, line, shape, and texture, and then mix and match these elements to compose their works of art.
In first-grade music, your child will develop their singing voice as well as their rhythm. They might even learn to play an instrument.
And while they’re learning new songs and being exposed to different types of music, they’ll even learn about the cultural and scientific foundations of music.
Plus, music can also improve your child’s reading ability, particularly when you’re learning new songs or reading a music sheet.
Not only that, getting good at both music and art will increase your child’s self-confidence and reasoning abilities.
Art and Music Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
Art
- Use art tools in more than one way; for example, using a paintbrush for different types of strokes
- Combine primary colors to create secondary colors
- Make colors lighter or darker
- Recognize different types of texture
- Differentiate negative vs positive shapes, shade vs tint, and 2-dimensional vs 3-dimensional artwork
- Recognize similarities in subjects and motifs between different works of art
- Describe how works of art make them feel and that sometimes it can be positive or negative
Music
- Memorize songs with easy words and melodies such as folk songs and nursery rhymes
- Sing expressively with correct pitch, dynamics, and tempo
- Sing and move at the same time
- Dance by clapping, stomping, swaying, hopping, or marching to a particular beat
- Recognize music vocabulary such as beat, echo, harmony, melody, tempo, and dynamics
- Understand the connection of math (counting) and tempo
- Play a simple tune or beat using a drum or xylophone or maybe even read musical notation
- Understand that music can communicate emotions
Art and Music Worksheets and Resources
Here are 5 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- We Are Teachers - 40 Amazing 1st Grade Art Projects to Bring Back Creativity and Play
- Education.com - 60 First Grade Fine Arts Resources
- Deep Space Sparkle - First Grade Art Lessons
- Kinder Art - Kinder, Gr. 1 & 2 Art Lessons
- Help Teaching - First Grade Music Questions
Art and Music Tips for Parents
You can nurture your child's creativity by filling their environment with musical instruments and tools to make art.
Let them be free to experiment and encourage them to share their works of art or musical talent with you and praise them for doing a good job.
If they’re interested, you can also take them to musicals, recitals, museums, and art exhibits, or have them learn something from a local artist or musician.
1st Grade Social Studies Curriculum:
In first grade social studies, your child will explore more about the world beyond your home and neighborhood.
If they haven’t been exposed to maps yet, your first grader can start exploring maps, globes, and find out more about their state, their country, and other countries, as well as US history and civics.
Social Studies Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
Civics
- Understand why society has rules and leaders
- Follow safety rules at home and in the neighborhood such as not playing with fire or knowing when to cross the street
- Know common American symbols like the American flag, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Bald Eagle, and the Statue of Liberty
- Be familiar with flag etiquette and the Pledge of Allegiance
- Identify national holidays and their significance - Constitution Day, Fourth of July, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, and Thanksgiving
- Know who the current president and their state’s governor are
Culture
- Identify their family’s traditions as well as the traditions within their society
- Understand that culture is a combination of different elements such as clothing, art, language, food, beliefs, and traditions
- Appreciate the differences in culture of different people
- Explain why two people or groups of people sometimes have conflict
- Share stories, songs, or art that are common in the neighborhood or local area
Economics
- Differentiate needs from wants
- Know their families needs and wants and that to procure those, they have to pay or work for it
- Explain the importance of saving money
- Understand that some goods are made locally and some elsewhere
- Describe the importance of establishments in the neighborhood such as schools, police stations, fire stations, the town hall, libraries, and others
- Recognize the different occupations people have in society
History
- Understand what past and present are and that events in the past can be used to make present choices
- Talk about their personal and family history and be able to create a timeline to illustrate the sequence of past events
- Understand how farming helped early people build civilizations
- Be familiar with how the Native Americans interacted with the Spanish and Pilgrims
- Compare how people lived in Colonial times versus today
- Know about people who supported the rights of others such as Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks
Geography
- Be familiar with the symbols and landmarks that can be found in their neighborhood
- Know how to use a compass
- Be familiar with the cardinal directions and point out these directions on a map and globe
- Point where the equator is and where the north and south poles are in a globe
- Identify their state and country in a map or globe, as well as the 7 continents and other physical features such as oceans, rivers, mountains, lakes, and deserts
- Draw a simple map of their neighborhood
- Recognize that different families live in certain ways depending on where they live
- Explain why families or people sometimes move from one place to another
Social Skills
- Display basic community etiquette such as cleaning up litter, listening attentively when talking to someone, and being respectful to others
- Engage in conversations to learn more about other people
- Communicate positive feelings and express negative feelings appropriately
- Understand that their personal choices can also affect their family, friends, and other people around them
- Work in a group and be cooperative
Social Studies Worksheets and Resources
Here are 8 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- Twinkl - First Grade Social Studies Resources
- Learning Games for Kids - 1st Grade Social Studies Worksheets
- Veganarto - 1st Grade Social Studies Worksheets
- Education.com - 400+ First Grade Social Studies Printable Worksheets, Online Games, Guided Lessons, and Lesson Plans
- Teachers Pay Teachers - Free 1st Grade Geography Worksheets
- Common Core Sheets - Geography Worksheets
- Nord Collective - First Grade Geography Worksheets
- Help Teaching - First Grade (Grade 1) Geography Questions
Social Studies Tips for Parents
Social Studies is best learned with lots of field trips, so make time to explore places outside of the house such as parks, libraries, museums, and zoos.
Regularly going out will help your child connect what they’ve learned at home to real life and fully understand the concepts they’ve learned on paper.
You can also find family-friendly events near you and other local activities. Attending them with your child will help enhance their learning and social skills.
For history and geography lessons, you can even consider going on a road trip and stop by historical landmarks to explore the stories and events behind them.
1st Grade Physical Education Curriculum
Homeschool P.E. doesn’t have to be too formal. Setting an amount of time to spend outdoors is usually enough.
So many kids are missing out on what the outdoors has to offer - greenery, wildlife, beautiful natural scenes.
But with the flexibility of homeschooling, you and your child have an all-access pass to nature.
Take advantage of this.
Outdoor time can help your child focus more, improve their mood, help them become more engaged, and reduce stress.
Being physically active outdoors will not only improve their fitness, but it’ll also allow them to meet more people, strengthen friendships, and explore more about the world.
Physical Education Learning Objectives
By the end of the year, your child should be able to:
- Display locomotor movement such as walking, running, and hopping and non-locomotor movement such as bending, twisting, and swaying
- Properly catch, throw (both underhand and overhand), dribble, hit, and kick a ball
- Display body management skills such as agility, balance, coordination, flexibility, and strength
- Have body, effort, and spatial awareness
- Vary the pace when jumproping and change direction quickly when walking or running
- Play on a team with cooperation and teamwork
- Know how to share, assist teammates, and take turns
- Understand the importance of exercise and diet to overall health and wellness
- Display safe practices when doing P.E. activities
Physical Education Worksheets and Resources
Here are 10 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:
- Teachers Pay Teachers - Free 1st Grade Physical Education Lesson Plans
- Twinkl - First Grade P.E. Resources
- We Are Teachers - Virtual P.E. Resources
- Share My Lesson - Elementary Physical Education Lesson Plan Templates
- Help Teaching - Fitness, Nutrition, and Health Worksheets
- TeacherVision - Physical Education Printables, Lessons, and References
- PHYSEDGAMES - Grade 1 P.E. Games
- Wired - 30 Classic Outdoor Games for Kids
- We Are Teachers - 40 Wet and Wild Outdoor Science Projects and Activities
- Outdoor Classroom Day - Ideas
Physical Education Tips for Parents
If you’re looking for structure, you can establish a fitness program that involves the entire family or volunteer to coach your neighborhood’s youth sports program whether it’s soccer, basketball, or baseball.
But if you don’t want anything too formal, you can simply plan some outdoor time into your schedule where you and your child can go for a walk, visit the park, or ride a bike.
As long as it’s fun and your child has the freedom to be physically active, how you run P.E. time is totally up to you.
1st Grade End-of-Year Checklist
First grade is filled with exciting milestones, so here’s a free checklist you can download to keep track of your child’s accomplishments.
Always remember that it’s okay if you won’t be able to tick all the boxes. It doesn’t necessarily mean that something’s wrong.
Learning is something you do constantly, and as long as you and your child keep asking questions, exploring the answers, and having fun while doing it, then you’re on the right track.
Whatever concept or skill your child hasn’t mastered yet, have faith that they’ll eventually get there.