First Grade Curriculum
Trimester 1

Areas of Focus: Number and Operation

• Developing strategies for comparing two quantities
• Developing strategies for organizing collections of objects so that they are easy to count and combine.
• Representing solutions to mathematics problems with pictures, numbers, and words.
• Categorizing data in ways that communicate clearly to others.
• Making sense of survey results and presenting them to others.

Resources

Mathematical Thinking in Grade One Introduction

Building Number Sense The Number System

The Problem Solver Problem Solving

How Deep Is the Water? Problem Solving

Materials

• Math manipulatives (i.e. interlocking cubes, pattern blocks, geoblocks, counters, number cards (similar to playing cards)
• Paper, pencil, crayons, and markers

Concepts and Content in the First Grade Classroom

During the first trimester, your first grade students will be introduced to some of the mathematical materials and processes they will be using this year as they explore counting, comparing, and combining.  Students will use mathematical tools and materials as they count, combine numbers, play mathematical games, solve problems, and represent the results of surveys they take.  They will also be engaged in critical mathematical processes such as sharing and explaining their strategies; using pictures, numbers, and words to show their work; and working with peers.

Students will discover ways that numbers can be made from other numbers; that is 12 can be made from 6 and 6, from 10 and 2, or from 6,4, and 2.  Being able to take numbers apart and put them back together flexibly is the basis for developing good number sense and an understanding of the operations.

Students will learn about numbers in a lot of ways.  Students will also use their growing number sense to develop strategies for solving story problems, finding their own way to solve the problems and record their thinking.

HELP AT HOME
Parents can help their children

• Children work out number problems by using real objects.  At home, try to provide a collection of small objects for counting, such as beans, buttons, or pennies.  These will help your child work out solutions to problems.
   
• Your child will bring home some number games.  Play the games frequently with your child.  Find a safe place to store the number cards and game directions, perhaps in an empty folder or manila envelope.
   
• When working on problems at home, your child may use pictures, numbers, words, or a combination of these to keep track of the work.  All are important ways of showing mathematical thinking.  Let your child find his or her own ways to solve problems and record the work.
   
• Encourage your child to ask questions, solve problems, and to explain his/her thinking.
   
• Before story time, find specific page numbers in the book.  Look for books that involve numbers.

Trimester 2

Areas of Focus:

Number and Operation

• Developing strategies for solving combining and separating story problem

Geometry

• Observing, describing, visualizing, and comparing 2-D and 3-D shapes and their characteristics
• Constructing and representing 2-D and 3-D shapes.

Resources

Quilt Squares and Block Towns 2-D and 3-D Geometry

The Problem Solver 1 Problem Solving

How Deep is the Water? Problem Solving

Materials

• Pattern Blocks
• Geometric models
• Paper, pencils, crayons, and markers

 Concepts and Content

Geometry in the First Grade Classroom

When students first learn to identify shapes, they usually depend on an overall picture of what different shapes look like.  A square is a square because it has a “squarish” look.  Students can identify something as a square before they can say exactly why it is a square.  They ay not yet be able to articulate that a square has four side, that the four sides are equal, and that the shape has a particular kind of angle, but they have an overall sense of what looks square.

 As students used 2-D and 3-D shapes during this semester, they engage in different activities that require them to begin to take a closer look at shapes. What make a square a square? What makes a cube a cube?  How are squares different from triangles?  How are cubes different from triangular prisms?

During this trimester, all students will learn more about the geometric shapes, their relationships, and their properties.

Help at Home
Parents can help their children.

• Create combining and separating story problems for your child to solve.  For example, “I made 6 hamburgers for dinner and 4 were eaten.  How many left? Encourage your child to express his/her answers in pictures, numbers, and /or words
• Look for patterns or designs made from different shapes.  Can you find floor patterns or wallpaper patterns made from squares,     rectangles, triangles, circles, hexagons, and other shapes?

• Take walks with your child to look at the shapes of building in your neighborhood.  On longer trips, talk about the shapes in the buildings you see.

• Look at boxes you have at home.  What shapes are they?  How many sides do they have?

• Find books about shapes in the children’s section of your public library.  Read them with your child.

• If you enjoy drawing, spend some time with your child drawing shapes you see around your home.

Trimester 3

AREAS OF FOCUS: Number and Operation

Number Sense

• Mastery of basic addition and subtraction facts
• Creating story problems
  • Combining situations
  • Separating situations
• Problem Solving
  • Utilizing appropriate problem solving strategies

RESOURCES

Number Games and Story Problems  - Number Sense

The Problem Solver – Problem Solving

How Deep Is the Water? – Problem Solving

Mastering Basic Addition and Subtraction Facts – Addition and Subtraction

MATERIALS

• Cubes
• Hundred chart
• Number cards (similar to playing cards)
• Counters
• Pattern blocks
• Calculators
• Crayons and markers
• Paper

 CONCEPTS AND CONTENT

Number Sense in the First Grade Classroom 

Students will deepen their understanding of number in several ways by:

• Finding combinations of 10,20, and other numbers
• Counting and combining different kids of collections

 Students will use their growing understanding of number to solve a variety of addition and subtraction story problems.  They will:

• Learn to recognize and interpret addition and subtraction situations
• Choose and carry out strategies for solving problems
• Record their solution strategies clearly.

Students will solve problems by:

• Modeling with objects or pictures
• Counting
• Using what they know about numbers and number relationships.

All of these approaches are encouraged.

HELP AT HOME
Parents can help their children.

·         Your child will bring home some of the math games we are playing with number cards, dot cards, coins and counters.  Take time to learn and play these games with your child.

·         Look for opportunities to count large groups of objects.  You might ask your child to count a handful of pennies, or marbles, or acorns.  If several people take handfuls, your child can count each handful and compare them to find which is larger.

·         Look for addition and subtraction situations at home (numbers under 25 are about right for many first graders). For example:

o        If we have 4 apples, 8 bananas, and 7 plums in a fruit bowl, how many pieces of fruit do we have?

o        If you have 20 cents, and you spend 15 cents, how much do you have left?

o        Roll two dice and add the numbers show.  Do this 20 times. Keep track of the results.  What number comes up the most?

o        Roll two dice and subtract the numbers shown.  Do this 20 times.  Record the results.