Skill Development Chart

In the first grade we look to engage the child in a rich variety of experiences and observe his progress. Some children will develop high level skills, reading and computing fluidly and easily. Some will stumble along. Some will still be largely asleep. All of these are fine in the first grade. Children move through this metamorphosis in development and awakening at their own pace, usually within the first grade year. What we are looking for is some progress in all areas. And we are looking for signs of learning problems in need of remediation. These may or may not be signaled by academic progress. Many a healthy first grader will sleep through most of the year, bathing in the new world but not yet taking hold. Somewhere in the next year he awakens with gusto and strength and steps forward In full bloom, full of enthusiasm, with or beyond the peers who awakened earlier. Signs of learning problems will mostly be evident in movement, form drawing and the capacity to take in and engage with the material presented. A strong and open learning process is the central focus for first grade.

Academic or skill learning is one tool or window to help us spot learning difficulties early. In and of itself it does not give us an answer but may remind us to pay better attention to the other areas where learning problems will show. Following is a list of basic minimums. If a child is not connecting to these principles at all, remedial screening should happen. He may well just be a late bloomer, but it deserves investigation and attention now while movement remediation can have a profound effect if there is a problem.

Language Arts:

We are looking to see progress with sight words, letter/sound recognition and word families, context cues, recall and sequencing, and handwriting.

At Minimum: children should have a handle on at least twenty key words and about the same number of common words. This is a straight memory skill and all children should be able to accomplish it.

Recognition of the letters in the alphabet and their basic sounds (not all vowel sounds, Just central ones) is also a memory skill and should be firm by year's end.

Recognition of word families and the sense that combinations of sounds/letters make words should be begun.

They should be able to use context to help them identify words. Difficulty here will be particularly obvious when working with familiar stories.

They should be able to recognize and contribute to proper sequencing in recall. Major and repeated difficulties here are grounds to get a screening.


Mathematics:

At Minimum: children should show a real sense of number recognition, as in one-to-one correspondences and being able to count beginning at any number up to 20.

They should know odd and even and less than and greater than.

They should be able to recognize written numbers to 20 and verbally count to 100 . They should know these out of order in terms of quantity, i.e. 4 is less than 5 and more than 3.

They should be able to recite number facts for addition and subtraction to 10 In a verse form.

They should be able to do simple computation word problems with manipulatives in all four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and should be able to "read" these same problems when presented to them on the board.

They should recognize and be able to name a circle, a square and a triangle.

Science:

The central "skill" we want to see in the sciences in first grade is the ability to open to and appreciate nature. More conceptual and analytic skills are developed later on the base of the exploration and hands-on experience undertaken in the first grade.

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