1st Grade Curriculum Guide

Welcome to 1st Grade!

This curriculum guide offers an overview of your child's learning throughout the school year. Each grade-level curriculum is aligned with the Illinois Learning Standards and provides targeted learning experiences designed to support student growth. Our district is dedicated to continuously enhancing the curriculum to ensure growth and success in every classroom. Through our partnership, we can empower every student to become an engaged, confident, compassionate, and inspired citizen.

For more details about specific grade-level units and resources, please contact your child's teacher, principal, or the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

D70 Mission Statement: Empower student growth and achievement through equitable, challenging opportunities that promote excellence, innovation, critical thinking, and respect.

D70 Strategic Plan

Literacy

English/Language Arts

Comprehension: Comprehends literature and informational text by demonstrating and understanding of the main idea and key details, text evidence, theme, text structure, character traits and motivations, and point of view.

Foundational Skills: Decodes unfamiliar words, and reads grade level text with accuracy and fluency.

Speaking and Listening: Participates in collaborative discussions and effectively presents information.

Writing: Writes to communicate ideas and information effectively; focuses on a topic; adds details.

Grammar & Conventions: Prints upper and lower case letters, uses capitalization, punctuation, developmentally appropriate spelling and parts of speech when writing.

Mathematics

Numbers, Operations, and Algebraic Thinking

Add and subtract numbers
Use addition and subtraction strategies to solve word problems
Understand and use place value to add and subtract
Count and write numbers

Geometry

Identify and describe 2 and 3-dimensional shapes

Measurement and Data

Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks
Measure, order and compare objects by length
Organize, represent and interpret data with up to three categories

Science

Physical Science

Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate
Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated
Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing object made with different materials in the path of a beam of light
Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problems of communicating over a distance

Life Science

Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs
Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive
Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents

Earth and Space Science

Use observations of the sun, moon, and starts to describe patterns that can be predicted
Make observations at different times of the year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year

Engineering Design

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through development of a new or improved object or tool
Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem
Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs

Social Studies

Inquiry Skills

Create questions to guide inquiry work, with support
Explore information from different resources to help answer questions
Find information from more than one place, with support
Develop an understanding of the differences between facts and opinions
Ask and answer questions about different ideas
Use different methods to come to conclusions and take action in their classrooms

Civics

Explain how all people, not just official leaders, are important in a community
Identify and explain how rules work in different settings, including inside and outside of school

Geography

Create and interpret maps and other visual representations to navigate a familiar place

Economics and Financial Literacy

Explain and give examples of choices that need to be made, when people have to give something up
Describe the skills and knowledge needed to create certain goods or services
Explain how people earn income for the work that they do

History

Create a chronological sequence of events
Describe people and groups that have made an impact on history and caused change
Compare the perspectives of people from the past to people now

Specials - Art, Music, PE, Learning Center

Art

Knowledge of Concepts: Identify the elements of art; identify media & tools; relate art to history, society & everyday life
Application of Learning: Demonstrate knowledge of concepts through pictorial representation and classroom discussion

Music

Knowledge of Concepts: Understand music notation, music vocabulary and qualities of expression
Application of Learning: Demonstrate rhythm, melody, and vocal development

Social, Emotional Learning

Self-Awareness:

Students will learn to recognize their ability to pay attention, manage directions, and encourage themselves to persist through challenges.

Self-Management:

Students will practice strategies to stay calm, manage frustration, and keep trying despite mistakes or difficulties.

Social Awareness:

Students will develop the ability to recognize others' emotions using contextual clues and consider reasons behind different feelings.

Relationship Skills:

Students will explore how kind acts support others, practice offering help and companionship, and demonstrate ways to show care.

Responsible Decision-Making:

Students will learn to identify and state problems respectfully, recognize accidents, make amends, and suggest solutions to resolve conflicts.