Grade 1 English Language Arts
11 units matched to the Alberta Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Letters & Words”.
Organizing ideas
- Speaking and listening: children share experiences and information clearly, with suitable words, volume and speed.
- Reading: children show they know letter–sound relationships and recognize common words automatically.
- Understanding stories: children retell the main idea, characters and details of a story or poem.
- Writing: children combine ideas in a logical order to speak and write complete sentences.
- Conventions: sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period, question mark or exclamation mark.
- Creating: children organize ideas to make stories and poems or to record facts.
Units
Unit 1
Blend It
Blending sounds into words (s-u-n makes sun), counting the sounds in a word and hearing the last sound. These listening skills are the base of reading and spelling.
Learning outcome: Show understandings of letter-sound relationships and automatic recognition of words. · blending and segmenting sounds to read and spell words
Unit 2
Short Vowels
Hearing the short vowel in the middle of words like cat, bed, pig, dog and sun, and filling in the missing vowel to spell the word.
Learning outcome: Show understandings of letter-sound relationships and automatic recognition of words. · short vowel sounds and the letters that spell them
Unit 3
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
Learning outcome: Show understandings of letter-sound relationships and automatic recognition of words. · the sounds sh, ch and th and the letters that spell them
Unit 4
Word Families
Words that share an ending, like cat, hat and bat. Once children know one word in a family, they can read and spell many more by changing the first sound.
Learning outcome: Show understandings of letter-sound relationships and automatic recognition of words. · reading and spelling words that share a pattern
Unit 5
Sight Words
Common words like said, was, they and where that are tricky to sound out. Children practise finding, using and spelling them so they can read them at a glance.
Learning outcome: Show understandings of letter-sound relationships and automatic recognition of words. · reading and spelling common words
Unit 6
Describing Words
Opposites (hot and cold) and describing words that tell how something looks, feels, tastes or sounds, including finding the describing word in a sentence.
Learning outcome: Speak about experiences and information using appropriate vocabulary, volume, and speed. · describing words, opposites and vocabulary
Unit 7
Sentences
Starting sentences and names with a capital letter, ending with a period or question mark, telling whole sentences from parts, counting words and finding naming words.
Learning outcome: Begin sentences with a capital letter, and end them with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. · sentences, capital letters and end marks
Unit 8
Kinds of Sentences
Knowing a telling sentence from a question, a command and an exclamation, choosing the end mark, and seeing sentences with two ideas joined.
Learning outcome: Begin sentences with a capital letter, and end them with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. · telling, asking and exclamation sentences and their end marks
Unit 9
Build a Sentence
Putting words in the right order to make a sentence that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, joining two ideas, and putting a short story's events in order.
Learning outcome: Combine ideas in logical sequences to speak and write in complete sentences; Organize ideas to create stories and poems or to record factual information. · building complete sentences, joining ideas, and putting story events in order
Unit 10
Story Time
Reading short stories, then naming who is in them and where they happen, and putting the events in order. Reading the story aloud together and talking about it helps a lot!
Learning outcome: Retell the main idea, characters, and details in a story or poem. · who, where and what happens in a story
Unit 11
Think It Through
Reading a short story, finding the main idea and details, and using clues to work out what is not said.
Learning outcome: Retell the main idea, characters, and details in a story or poem. · finding the main idea and making simple inferences
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