York Suburban School District
Curriculum Overview - Grade 1
Language Arts
The First Grade Language Arts Curriculum follows the Pennsylvania Standards of teaching children to read, write, speak and listen. These skills are integrated into the Balanced Literacy Framework including:
Shared and Guided Reading
- expose children to a wide range of literature - including nonfiction
- teach comprehension and reading skills and strategies
- teach children how to read independently with books that become increasingly harder
- teach children to read orally with fluency and expression
- teach children how to respond to literature in verbal or written form
Self-Selected Reading
- appropriate book selection and using reference materials
- comprehension and reading strategies
- conferencing and sharing
- responding to literature in verbal or written form
Word Work
- sound isolation and sound blending
- word wall
- poetry
- concepts of print and decoding
- making words
- spelling patterns
- robust vocabulary
Writing
- concepts of print
- writing process
- sound isolation and sound blending
- writing for different purposes emphasizing organization and focus
- mechanics of writing and penmanship
Math
York Suburban School District uses Everyday Mathematics as the core instructional program and follows the Pennsylvania Standards of teaching children to understand and apply mathematical concepts.
Throughout the first grade year students will work on the following concepts:
Numeration
- explore numbers, number systems and relationships with numbers (identify, count, compare, utilize, write and order of numbers)
Operation and Computations
- compute and estimate (adding, subtracting, multiplication and division)
Patterns, Functions and Algebra
- develop and experiment with introductory concepts of algebra and functions by sequencing and identifying, problem solving, and creating patterns
Geometry
- introducing geometry concepts by recognizing, identifying, exploring, and comparing
- apply concepts of symmetry
Measurement
- measure and estimate using standard (length, capacity, volume, weight, perimeter, area, time, temperature) and non-standard units (bears, yarn, cubes, etc.)
- money (recognize, identify, show amounts)
- use mathematical reasoning to verify predictions about quantity, size and shape of objects
Data Analysis and Probability
- use problem solving strategies to solve problems (identify necessary information)
- analyze statistics and data by reading and sharing information from class graphs and charts
- experiment with probability by predicting the likelihood of events
Science
York Suburban School District promotes the scientific process in the study and exploration of science units.
Throughout the year, first grade students will be engaged in the following topics:
- Scientific method-using scientific knowledge to ask questions and make observations
- Weather-investigating weather patterns and the water cycle
- Living/non-living-classifying groups of living/non-living things
- Plants and Insects-identifying plant and insect parts; awareness of their life cycles
- Land and Water-exploring the earth’s surface – land and water