1st grade English Language Arts
13 units matched to the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Kids see this subject as “Letters & Words”.
Focus areas
- Reading: phonics, reading with fluency, and retelling stories and facts
- Writing, speaking and listening: writing sentences and short pieces, and sharing ideas
- Language: building vocabulary and using grammar, spelling and punctuation
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.
Benchmark: 1.1.1.1 · blending and segmenting the sounds in spoken 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.
Benchmark: 1.1.1.2 · decoding words with short vowel sounds
Unit 3
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.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.2; 1.1.1.2 · reading and spelling words in common word families
Unit 4
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
Benchmark: 1.1.1.2 · reading words with the digraphs sh, ch and th
Unit 5
Sight Words
Common words like said, was, they and where that are tricky to sound out. Children practice finding, using and spelling them so they can read them at a glance.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.2; 1.1.1.3 · reading and spelling common high-frequency words
Unit 6
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.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.1; 1.1.1.0 · the first word, capital letters and end marks of a sentence
Unit 7
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!
Benchmark: 1.1.4.3; 1.1.4.1 · the characters, setting and key details of a story
Unit 8
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.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.3; 1.1.8.1 · using nouns, verbs and describing words, and how words give meaning
Unit 9
More Than One
Plurals: adding -s to a naming word means more than one (one cat, two cats). Stretch questions add -es to words like box and fox.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.3 · nouns that name more than one
Unit 10
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.
Benchmark: 1.2.1.1 · telling, asking and exclaiming sentences and their end marks
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.
Benchmark: 1.1.4.2; 1.1.4.4 · the central idea of a text and how its details connect
Unit 12
Messages All Around
Children look at everyday messages, like signs, ads, cards and videos, and practice asking who made them, why, and how they make us feel. This is the media literacy part of the standards.
Benchmark: 1.3.1.2; 1.1.5.3 · asking questions about what a message says and how its pictures add to it
Unit 13
Story or Facts?
Children practice telling books that tell stories from books that give information, and noticing what pictures add to the words.
Benchmark: 1.1.6.3; 1.1.5.3 · telling literary texts from informational texts, and what the pictures add
Ready to try Gradelings?
Curriculum-matched practice for Kindergarten to Grade 9 in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, and in Washington, Oregon, California, New York, Texas, Maine, Minnesota, Alaska, Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas, with kind hints, learning games and no ads. Subscribe now, or try everything free for 30 days with no card.