Reading is a major focus of the first grade. Students whose parents have routinely worked with them in their earlier years will have better skills as they enter first grade, but the main goal behind reading lessons in many first grade classrooms is to be able to read with fluidity and understand the content of the words. Being able to instantly recognize, or sight read, at least 100 common words is a goal in many first grade classrooms, and being able to find the main idea of the story read and then discuss it is also a requirement, according to the Teacher Vision website.
Spelling and grammar are still in the building stages in first grade, but the main idea is for students to move beyond the ability to write single words and correctly write their own names. The successful first grader will learn to write legibly and spell correctly, as well as write sentences in manuscript form. The student will learn basic grammar skills, including capitalization of the first letter of sentences and names, pluralizing nouns and using periods and question marks at the ends of sentences properly.
First graders are well beyond counting to ten in today's classrooms. Counting and math in first grade must be taken to a higher level in this school year. The students should be able to write numbers up to 100 and be able to count to 100. In the later parts of the year, the students should be able to master counting to 100 not only in single digits, but also by twos, fives and tens. Addition and subtraction is an emphasis as well, and students are expected to be able to add and subtract numbers up to 10.
A breakdown of year-by-year curriculum on the PBS website suggests that first graders should learn to seek and find answers on their own about the natural world around them. Common ideas taught in the first grade science classroom include weather studies, water, body parts, plants and animals.