Welcome to First Grade!
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Purpose of the Guide
Students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools follow the state of North Carolina’s expectations for what every student will know and be able to do by the end of their current grade level. This guide is designed to help you support your child by understanding those expectations, provide everyday activities to reinforce their learning at home and partner with their teachers throughout the school year.
This guide includes…Key Skills for Reading and Math
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- Understand the most important things your child should know and be able to do by the end of the school year.
Questions to Ask Your Child
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- Engage in conversations with your child using these suggested reading and math questions.
Topics to Discuss with the Teacher
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- Find sample questions and topics you might want to talk about with the teacher related to reading and math skills.
Learning Activities
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- Explore some easy ways you can support your child’s learning important reading and math concepts and skills.
Words to Know
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- Learn some important words and acronyms used at school to “speak the same language”.
Helpful Resources to Practice Skills at Home
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- Click the link to access a collection of reading and math resources aligned to your child’s grade level.
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Resource Guides
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Quarter 1
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Identifying Syllables
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Identify and spell words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern
Activities to try:
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Say students name slowly while emphasizing the different syllables.
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Clap their hands for each syllable in their name.
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Small drums can be used to break words apart. If you don’t have an actual drum, use an upside-down bucket with a stick, a wood block with a stick, or use two cups with sticks.
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Give them a CVC word such as "cat". Then have students identify each sound in the word.
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Ask students to write the sounds that they heard.
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Have students find a word that rhymes with CVC words
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Quarter 2
Quarter 2
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Blend and separate sounds in single-syllable words.
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After reading, retell a story and talk about the characters, setting, and the problem in the story.
What does it look like?
Activities to Try:
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Sound Walk with Segmentation: Name people, places, and things as you walk around your environment. . As you name an item, continue by saying each sound in the name of the object or person's name. Then state how many sounds you heard (e.g., I see a bike. /B/ /i/ /k/ has 3 phonemes or sounds). Have the child name items they see and practice counting the sounds together.
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What Needs to Change?: Ask the child what sound needs to be replaced to change one word to another (e.g., What sound needs to change to make the word "cat" into "hat"?). Practice changing sounds in the beginning, middle, and end of words. Watch .
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Make New Words with Deletion: Say a word to the child. The child will repeat the word. Next, ask the child to say the word without one of the sounds (e.g., Now say the word slip without the /s/. Lip.) The remaining sounds may not be a real word. Watch .
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What Needs to Change?: Ask the child what sound needs to be replaced to change one word to another (e.g., What sound needs to change to make the word "cat" into "hat"?). Practice changing sounds in the beginning, middle, and end of words. Watch .
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Act out a story silently to retell it in a creative way. Have the child guess which story you are acting out. Take turns acting out and guessing.
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Ask your child questions about what they are reading: Who are the characters in this story? Where does this story take place? What happens first? What happens last?
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Make connections while reading to or with the child. Connect the story or information to the child's life experiences. Connect the book to other books the child has read. Connect the book to big ideas and lessons.
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Quarter 3
Quarter 3
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Read consonant blends such as bl, sl, tr
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Write and talk with others to tell a story with three or more events.
What does it look like?
Activities to Try:
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Read independently and use their knowledge of sound-spelling patterns to sound out words that are not sight words
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Write individual letters or letter patterns () on paper. Cut or tear the individual letters or letter patterns apart and place in a bag. Have the child pull one piece of paper out of the bag and say the sound. Play together by taking turns pulling a piece of paper and saying the sound represented by the letters.
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Student will write a letter,birthday card, get well card, thinking of you card, or thank you note to family members or friends.
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Student can express his/her opinions about a topic or book through drawing, dictating, or writing. Ask your student to provide clear reasons to support the opinions expressed.
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During a family event, take a photograph. After the family event, ask your child to write a brief summary to go along with the photograph.
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Quarter 4
Quarter 4
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1.Reading familiar words automatically
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Read first grade level texts with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression.
What does it look like?
Activities to Try:
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Read independently and use their knowledge of sound-spelling patterns to sound out words that are not sight words
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Prefixes and Suffixes: While reading with the child, pause when you come to a word that has a prefix and/or suffix. Take time to discuss the word by breaking down the word's meaning based on the prefix and/or suffix.
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Spin and Read: This activity allows children to practice reading words with the follow spelling patterns: ew, ue.
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Echo Reading: First, model fluency by reading a sentence, paragraph, or page to the child. Next, the child will reread the same sentence, paragraph, or page. You may notice the child's reading sounding more and more fluent. Continue taking turns.
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Read and Record: Create your own audiobooks with the child. You can buddy read, choral read, or have the child read independently. Have the child listen to the recording. You can also share the recording with family and friends.
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Fast Phrases: Stack cards with printed phrases face down. Record how many phrases are read correctly with a goal to increase speed and accuracy.
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Model Reading Fluency: Use the following tips for Reading With Expression:
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Read expressively: talk the way the story's characters would talk; make sound effects and funny faces; and vary the pitch of your voice throughout the story to make it more interesting.
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Expressively reread when you notice words like “shouted”, “cried” or “laughed”.
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Expressively reread when you notice the punctuation such as ! and ?.
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Enjoy the time reading together! Do not rush.
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Quarter 1
- Fluently Add and Subtract within 10
- Online game:
- Add and Subtract within 20 with word problems
- Four new Word problem types
- Printable:
- Students also use the addition symbol (+) to represent “add to” and “put together” situations. .
- Students also use the subtraction symbol (-) to represent “take from” and “separate” situations. .
- “Compare” problems are introduced in first grade. In a , two quantities are compared to find “How many more” or “How many less.” One reason “compare” problems are more advanced than the other two major problem types is that in “compare” problems, one of the quantities (the difference) is not present in the situation physically.
- Take a survey with 3 categories, organize the data, and interpret by answering questions about the data
- Fluently Add and Subtract within 10
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Quarter 2
- Become skillful problem solvers and persevere through difficult problem types
- Activity: Reading stories that show addition and subtraction is a great way to enhance learning. As you read aloud with your child, have him/her solve or write problems about the story/characters.
- Animals on Board by Stuart J. Murphy
- Jack the Builder by Stuart J. Murphy
- Ready, Set, Hop! by Stuart J. Murphy
- Safari Park by Stuart J. Murphy
- Activity: Reading stories that show addition and subtraction is a great way to enhance learning. As you read aloud with your child, have him/her solve or write problems about the story/characters.
- Count forward from a given number within the known sequence instead of starting at 1 (count to 150)
- Understand a two digit number is made up of tens and ones
- Online Game:
- Students practice strategies such as:
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- Counting on or back,
- Doubles ( 2 + 2, 4 + 4)
- near doubles (2 + 3, 4 + 5)
- Making ten (5 + 5, 3 + 7, 4 + 6)
- Relationship of addition and subtraction
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- Online Tool:
- Online game: to create a two digit number and then build it with or bundle popsicle sticks or linking cubes into tens and ones
- When practicing adding and subtracting use any material found at home:
- Cereal, Toy cars, Crackers, or Legos
- Count to 150 Starting at Any Number
- Online Game:
- Online Tool:
- Online game:
- Online game: to create a two digit number and then build it with or bundle popsicle sticks or linking cubes into tens and ones
- Become skillful problem solvers and persevere through difficult problem types
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Quarter 3
- Decompose a number by place value
- Compare, add and subtract two digit numbers
- Decompose a number by place Value:
- Printable activity:
- Printable activity:
- Students continue their work with tens and ones through .
- Students use the
- Students
- Students also use a
- Activity: Compare two digit numbers
- two-digit numbers and use the greater than (>), less than (<), and equal to (=) symbols.
- Printable Game:
- Online Tool:
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Quarter 4
- Order 3 objects by length-shortest to longest or longest to shortest
- Measure lengths with nonstandard units-measure a pencil with paper clips
- Tell time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks
- Build and describe rectangles, squares, trapezoids, hexagons, circle, cubes, rectangular prisms, cones, spheres, and cylinders
- Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal parts.