Grade 1 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 1 english language arts in the New Brunswick Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Interactions: Expression. Express feelings and opinions and give simple descriptions of experiences.
- Interactions: Exchanges. Begin to ask and respond to questions.
- Interactions: Reception. Receive the ideas and opinions of others.
- Reading: Concepts of Print. Identify concepts of print.
- Reading: Phonological Awareness. Demonstrate an awareness of sounds in spoken language.
- Reading: Phonics. Apply letter-sound knowledge to decode words and connected text.
- Reading: Fluency. Read familiar words in developmentally appropriate text passages with accuracy and expression.
- Reading: Vocabulary. Use a range of vocabulary when communicating.
- Reading: Reading Comprehension. Construct meaning from oral stories, read-alouds, and text.
- Reading: Text Analysis. Select and engage with a variety of text forms for specific uses.
- Representations: Print Mechanics. Print or represent letters, words, and sentences using a writing utensil or assistive technology.
- Representations: Spelling. Apply basic spelling conventions when creating written works.
- Representations: Sentence Structure. Compose complete thoughts and sentences.
- Representations: Composition. Organize ideas and create written or media texts.
- Representations: Text Analysis. Begin to seek information to support ideas and construct meaning.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases.
- Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?”
- Point out letters on signs, cereal boxes and the street.
- Ask your child to tell you a story about their drawing, and write down a sentence or two.
What each unit covers
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.
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.
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.
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
What the report card levels look like at home
- Working below
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Excelling
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the New Brunswick report card guide.
Common questions
Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases. Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?” Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The New Brunswick Curriculum Grade 1 english language arts units include word families, blend it, short vowels, sh, ch, th, sight words, describing words.
Free printable Grade 1 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.