What Do Children Learn in US 1st Grade?

[ilandrazdsw]

DS5 is in 1st in the Bahamas. He will be repeating gr 1 next year when we move to Indiana. I would really like to get a sense of what to expect (more or less)...partially to know if I should continue to "push" through some issues or back off that he will get it next year anyway.

TIA

 

[hereyago]

Hi
You all ready know which part of Indiana you would be moving to? If so, you could google the particular city's schools website and it perhaps could help you with their curriculum or possibly email the a school directly.

Up until a few years ago, I thought every school in the U.S> taught the exact same thing the same week, but I found out it is very different.

Good luck!

 

[livndisney]

This link might help-or atleast get you in contact with someone who can help.

http://dc.doe.in.gov/Standards/AcademicStandards/index.shtml

 

[ilandrazdsw]

thanks!

 

[pednurse]

We're in Indiana and DD is in the first grade. I can answer any specific questions you have. There are general requirements that all Indiana first graders have to meet, but there are also things that each school will do a little differently. DD has done addition/subtraction facts 0-10, reading, parts of speech, writing (capitalization, punctuation, what's the noun, verb, etc), money facts (worth of coins and how to find out how many of which coins you need to get certain amounts for buying/making change), health/science (plant growing cycles, butterfly growing cycles, etc as well as health habits/germs, etc). They also participate in art, gym, library, music. That's a brief overview of things I can recall off the top of my head. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

We're in Indiana and DD is in the first grade. I can answer any specific questions you have. There are general requirements that all Indiana first graders have to meet, but there are also things that each school will do a little differently. DD has done addition/subtraction facts 0-10, reading, parts of speech, writing (capitalization, punctuation, what's the noun, verb, etc), money facts (worth of coins and how to find out how many of which coins you need to get certain amounts for buying/making change), health/science (plant growing cycles, butterfly growing cycles, etc as well as health habits/germs, etc). They also participate in art, gym, library, music. That's a brief overview of things I can recall off the top of my head. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Thank you! I wish there was a 1.5 gr. DS is doing addition-subtraction 1-10, number sentences and word problems, catagorizing, greater/less than, #-100, even/odds. By the end of the year they will have learned (or covered) $, time, simple geometry, and double digit addition/subtraction. The reading levels in his class range from students who couldn't speak English mush less identify what a letter was or it's sound to 3rd gr with comprehension. Writing consists of full sentences (Capitals, lower case, when to use which, and punctuation). They are learning the rules of language/phonics (silent e, oa, ew, etc). Tomorrow they have a test on nouns, verbs, & adjetives. They also write paragraphs about generalized or specific topics.
Science is limited and is Social Studies with no textbooks or libraries and very limited resources for teachers to draw from.
I know he has to repeat, but am SO scared he is going to be be bored! This system just pushes too young too hard. We're darned if we do and darned if we don't...if we push him currently I think he is going to be ahead/bored in some areas and end up hating school due to issues with this school, but if I slack up he will get the idea that he really doesn't have to do school or if he throws "fits"/has problem he will be able to slack. What's a mom to do???

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Ahhh.... 1st grade! Those were the days....

I recall learning basic addition and subtraction (and timed tests), improving reading skills (earn your way to the chapter book club!), basic and fun history (we made Abe Lincoln hats for his birthday...), basic and fun science (we bit into peanut M&Ms to learn the layers of the earth - peanut core, chocolate mantle, candy crust), and learned punctuation, capitilization, how to form sentences, and furthered writing skills.

It's funny to note what I recall.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

No kidding...what ever happened to those days??? Learning shapes was just that, not Geometry. We got out of the classroom to go on field trips! At least one day a week desks were covered in glitter because the last hour was Art time, but we all had dad's old shirt to wear so we weren't covered. Reading groups were the blue birds, yellow sparrows, and red robbins...there were different levels and that was OK! Children were slow...parents didn't blame the teachers for this and they were not put right into/tested for special ed. Honor Rolls were not the end all be all because school was fun AND you still learned. D was a passing grade! State testing...huh, what was that???...O that booklet that they put infront of you one day that you got to make bubble patterns in while the teacher graded papers at her test (or read her own book)? And college was that place where cousin Bobby went to school...wait, he went to school again...right it's fun!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

We're in Indiana and DD is in the first grade. I can answer any specific questions you have. There are general requirements that all Indiana first graders have to meet, but there are also things that each school will do a little differently. DD has done addition/subtraction facts 0-10, reading, parts of speech, writing (capitalization, punctuation, what's the noun, verb, etc), money facts (worth of coins and how to find out how many of which coins you need to get certain amounts for buying/making change), health/science (plant growing cycles, butterfly growing cycles, etc as well as health habits/germs, etc). They also participate in art, gym, library, music. That's a brief overview of things I can recall off the top of my head. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

We aren't in Indiana but that all sounds like what my DD is doing in first grade. Also, they are doing weekly book logs (basically a sentence or 2 about a book they have read) and basic time telling (like hours, minutes seconds, whole hours). And they have a spelling test as well as "sight" words each week.

 

[shelly3girls]

Thank you! I wish there was a 1.5 gr.

Actually, you should look into the district where you are moving. Around here the bigger districts do have a transitional 1st grade. It is for kids who have passed 1st grade but could benefit from more before going to 2nd. Maybe that type of classroom would be better suited for your son. The children I know who have attended these type of classes are usually young for the grade so the extra year really helps.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

DS will be going to a Christian school, so it may be easier to "play" with his schedule if need be...like in 2nd for reading. The HS he will be going to has AP/CB classes in all the core subjects IF needed.

OH, for the mom's with kids in 1st...what kind of paper do they use to write on? Is it triple lined (the kind with the dashes in the middle) or regular notebook paper? This is DS' BIGGEST academic issue.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I live in Indy, and I used to teach 2nd grade. It sounds like he is doing first grade work. Does he have to repeat for his age?

Somebody already gave you the link to the standards, but because of ISTEP (our state test) every first grade class will be covering those. A lot of schools will do more, but all of them will cover the standards.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We must have been posting at the same time. My DD is in first grade now. They are still using the lined paper. My DS is in fourth grade, and he started using plain notebook paper in second for some things. I think fourth grade may be the first year he has used only notebook paper.

I taught in one of the township schools in Indpls and did not use regular notebook paper in second grade. We used the "second grade paper" from our district's warehouse.

 

[shelly3girls]

DS will be going to a Christian school, so it may be easier to "play" with his schedule if need be...like in 2nd for reading. The HS he will be going to has AP/CB classes in all the core subjects IF needed.

OH, for the mom's with kids in 1st...what kind of paper do they use to write on? Is it triple lined (the kind with the dashes in the middle) or regular notebook paper? This is DS' BIGGEST academic issue.

You could be looking at a completely different curriculum in Christian school. There is a big range in quality of private schools some are excellent and some are not. My DD attended Christian school through grade 1. You should try to find out what curriculum they use. By the time DD finished 1st grade in our school she was reading on a 5th grade level (although comprehension was not as high) which was in line with about 3/4 of her class, doing multi-digit multiplication (and truly understood the concept), writing page long essays, and spelling words more difficult than our public school 3rd grade.

We moved her to public school in 2nd grade for numerous reasons but mainly b/c we did not want her pushed so much and knew DD#2 could never handle the advanced curriculum. Just now in 4th grade is DD learning new math concepts. She is still ahead in reading. My point is that you may find the school your DS will attend is in line with his current school or they may be significantly ahead. In that case it might be a good thing if he repeats 1st grade. You will not know until you ask.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

We must have been posting at the same time. My DD is in first grade now. They are still using the lined paper. My DS is in fourth grade, and he started using plain notebook paper in second for some things. I think fourth grade may be the first year he has used only notebook paper.

I taught in one of the township schools in Indpls and did not use regular notebook paper in second grade. We used the "second grade paper" from our district's warehouse.

We'll be in NW IN. My friend has her DS in K at the same school, would have been/will be same class. I try to keep tabs on what he is working on (not how he is doing personally) to try to guestimate where the 1st graders will be when they enter next year. She is amazed by what my DS is doing/expected to do...and she used to teach 3rd in FL.

DS is in gr 1 at just 5 (July baby). The Bahamian system does not have a K in the government schools. He did have 2 years of a "Private" nursery school that in hindsight did more harm than good. I want to keep him in his age group. He'll be one of the younger ones (providing they have a Sept cut-off) even in the "right" grade. Graduating at 16...Yikes!!! DD will be in the same situation (July baby), but will start in the US system so no issues.

DS is writing on regular lined notebook paper!!! YEP!!! I'm sure you can imagine how that is going...or at least how it started. I think it gets confusing because the few workbooks they have are triple lined, but any notes or assignmnets are done on notebook paper...and not even loose leaf (well, homework is). And they are required to copy assignments and homework from the board!

DS is lucky he went to school with most skills of a K (compared to IN standards even), there were 3 students held back from last year and just learning to write and 6 that could maybe write letters if it was right on the paper or needed to be traced. Some of those students are doing very well, others will repeat next year, and 1 will be retained for a 3rd year.

 

[ilandrazdsw]

You could be looking at a completely different curriculum in Christian school. There is a big range in quality of private schools some are excellent and some are not. My DD attended Christian school through grade 1. You should try to find out what curriculum they use. By the time DD finished 1st grade in our school she was reading on a 5th grade level (although comprehension was not as high) which was in line with about 3/4 of her class, doing multi-digit multiplication (and truly understood the concept), writing page long essays, and spelling words more difficult than our public school 3rd grade.

We moved her to public school in 2nd grade for numerous reasons but mainly b/c we did not want her pushed so much and knew DD#2 could never handle the advanced curriculum. Just now in 4th grade is DD learning new math concepts. She is still ahead in reading. My point is that you may find the school your DS will attend is in line with his current school or they may be significantly ahead. In that case it might be a good thing if he repeats 1st grade. You will not know until you ask.

Wrote before the computer picked up your post:
We'll be in NW IN. My friend has her DS in K at the same school, would have been/will be same class. I try to keep tabs on what he is working on (not how he is doing personally) to try to guestimate where the 1st graders will be when they enter next year. She is amazed by what my DS is doing/expected to do...and she used to teach 3rd in FL.

I compared what I have been told to the IN benchmarks and they are pretty dead on...not advanced. We toured the school last June and saw a good bit of hands-on and participatory learning/teaching (but not that I thought...that in this grade?) which DS will love. Currently his class is more teacher+board+books=learning because we have limited resources to suppliment teaching. DS gets bored, looses focus, and fights anything that has a good amount of writing

I think repeating 1st will also give him the chance to acclimate with a new area, new friends, new routines (mommy's going back to work & daddy will not be gone for weeks at a time), and new culture. Knowing some of the academics may take a little pressure off.

Thanks you everyone for your input!!!

 

[pednurse]

Where in NW Indiana will you be? We are in Lafayette. The way my kids' school is set up (they are in public school), they group the kids for different things according to ability levels. So even though DD is in class with 17 other kids, sometimes she goes to a different classroom for reading, other kids come to her classroom for math, and she is in a pull-out program for additional challenge in some areas to keep her from getting bored (she reads at a 3rd/4th grade level and recently figured out how to do negative numbers in math on her own---eek!). I forgot to add before, they do spelling tests each week (pretest at the beginning of the week which determines their words for the test at the end of the week, so each child's list is different & based on their spelling ability level) plus reading groups based on ability as well. Depending on how the school you're going to does it (and most schools now around here seem to be trending towards the ability grouping within the grade levels) I would say that your son should do well with first, especially with getting used to the move, change in home situation, and change in culture. (As an aside, you'll all also be adjusting to a climate change come next winter!)

Oh, as far as paper.....DD uses the triple-lined paper (with the dots down the middle) so it's nice wide lines for writing on. They do keep daily journals that are regular paper, but they aren't for grading handwriting on....more for encouraging the "art" of creative/imaginative writing process, so if they go off the lines, it's no big deal.

Hope this info is helpful!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I would say that your son should do well with first, especially with getting used to the move, change in home situation, and change in culture. (As an aside, you'll all also be adjusting to a climate change come next winter!)

I agree with all this! I don't think I noticed how young he was in my first post. The cut-off is August 1. My DD is one of the oldest with an August birthday, and I love it. My DS 9 is on the younger side. He makes straight A's, but I can still see a difference maturity wise.

Welcome to the Hoosier state!

 

[ilandrazdsw]

Where in NW Indiana will you be?

Welcome to the Hoosier state!

Thank you so much! Hoosier...eek! Well, at least I not there is more than corn in IN...soy beans, the dunes, and Indiana Beach

We'll be in the Crown Point area and he will go to CPCS and then HS at Illiana CHS in Lansing, IL (unless they branch off into IN). Good to hear about the ease in options of classes...I'm sure it won't be a problem to do it there even if it isn't the norm.

PAPER...UGH!!! I was in DS' class this morning volunteering and I actually heard the teacher remind some students working in their phonics workbooks that this is where she gets the handwriting grade. The workbooks have the triple line spaces, but everything else is with NO lines or notebook. They were NEVER taught to properly write on either!

But grades??? Not progress reports and only a semester reportcard! YEP!!!

Can't wait to get back up north. DS says nearly on a daily basis that he hates it here.

I know I see to complain a lot...but I SOOO appreciate everyone's suggestions and experiences.