first grade

[Angie L]

I have a question for anyone who has had a child in first grade or teaches first grade. What are the children expected to know before the school year even starts. Some of the things the principal told us just seem a little much. I have a niece that is in first grade this year and she didn't know this stuff before school and I also know a lot of the kids in my sons class don't know this stuff either but they are going to move up. I am just curious on what other peoples children had to know before first grade. Thanks for any information

[PamE]

I asked our principal the same thing before we put our oldest in 1st grade (she was homeschooled for kindergarten and part of first grade before we put her in). I was concerned that dd would not be behind but the principal said it was so hard to give a scope and sequence of what they should know before hand because the kids coming in were in all ranges. Some kids didn't know their alphabet from Kinder and some kids already knew how to read. I think ideally the kids should know their alphabet and basic phonics sounds down pat. Counting and simple addition and subtraction (or at least the concept of it). I look at what my ds' kinder class did this year and it really doesn't seem like they've covered much more than that! They did units on animals and other things, but as far as concrete information.... that's it. I think a lot of K is social work and getting into the routine and day to day mechanics of "school" life.

This is just our area, I realize the differences can be vast!

[AnnW]

Hi! My daugther is just finishing first grade. Frm kindergarten she needed to be able to count to 100, know her abc's, recognize all her numbers to 100, add to 10's, have a pretty good amount of site words.

What other things are you wanting to know?

[Angie L]

The principal told me that they have to be able to read from day one in first grade. My son can figure out some words and can read all his color words and number words up to 20. They are to know the alphabet and be able to count to 50 by 1's, 100 by 2's, 5's, 10's and 20's.
I will admit that he does mess up his alphabet. He usually misses about 4 of them which are usually the ones that you can look at and if you turn them around they look like another letter. He is having trouble with the counting concept too. He can make if to 40 with no problem counting by ones. He gets confused with trying to count by 2,5,10, and 20. Thanks for all the information.

[AnnW]

Angie...have you asked if they have a Reading Recovery program? If so, insist that he be put in it.
How does your son feel about all this? Is he frustrated by school? Does he feel like he is having a hard time keeping up? My dd was having trouble with reading and it really frustrated her and caused her to act out in class..now that she is caught up, her confidence has just soared and she is behaving much better in class.

[Angie L]

My son doesn't seem to be frustrated by school at all. He loves it. Since he started his medicine he is doing pretty well. He tries to sound out different words in books. I asked the school if their was any type of program they could put him in and they said as long as he is still in kindergarten there is nothing they will do. He gets upset everytime we talk about him having to repeat kindergarten. I am so afraid he will not like school anymore if this actually happens. Thank you guys for everything. I will let you know what we find out.

[kat]

I was talking with a friend of mine after church last night about this very thing. She teaches 1st grade at a different school than I do. She feels that the kids she gets from kdg. are not ready for 1st grade. I told her that I felt that I prepared my kids well for 1st. My kids know the alphabet (recognition, sounds, abc order), they are very good at decoding simple words and can read hundreds of them. They've read 16 little readers (and all of them can read, even the two in spec. educ.). About half of them are reading extra books that I've collected over the years. They can write short stories about pictures that they have drawn. They count to 100 by 1's, 5's, 10's. They reocgnize and can write their numbers to 20. They recognize coins and are learning money value. They can do simple addition and subtraction. They've been socialized and work within time limits. They've learned alot in my book, but hey kindergarten is also supposed to be fun! I really don't see how I can teach them any more. I really think that the problem is that 1st grade has too much on their plates. They are responsible for teaching too much. 2nd grade, by contrast, is a pretty easy year with much review and fewer new skills introduced. i told my freind that I don't think Kdg. needs to teach more - 1st should be required to teach less and 2nd pick up some of the skills 1st now teaches. Right now, I teach things I learned in the 1st semester of 1st grade as a child. i think I'm getting the most out of my kids and I don't think I can ask more of them.

[kathleen]

Just to add my thoughts: My son is in Kindergarten and seems to be finishing it (their last day is June 5) on the level Kat talked about (knows the alphabet, can decode/read simple words, reads simple little readers, count to 100 by 1's, recognizes and writes numbers to 20, recognizes coins and is learning money value, can do simple addition and subtraction, works within time limits, etc.) with some exceptions (the only writing is mainly with the class when they follow teacher's guidance and the class writes sentences together, such as "My dog is brown."; he doesn't understand the concept of counting by 2's, 5's, or 10's)

I have talked to his teacher, and other friends/relatives who are teachers or teaching assistants who said he is very much on track and doing well. So Kat's guidelines sound pretty good to me.

To Kat: How do you get children to understand the concept of counting by 2's, 5's, 10's? It seems like one of those things that is so simple to a person as an adult, something there is not a concious memory of learning -- but something you have always known how to do.

[kat]

To Kat: How do you get children to understand the concept of counting by 2's, 5's, 10's? It seems like one of those things that is so simple to a person as an adult, something there is not a concious memory of learning -- but something you have always known how to do.

Kathleen, my kids don't really have a good concrete understanding of the different ways to count. We are laying the foundation for future understanding. They are basically counting by rote, though we have demonstrated on the number line and the 100's chart what we call "skip counting". We then use that skill to count the value of pennies, nickels, dimes. We also use it to count large numbers of items in the guessing jar. We put 10 items in a cup. Then we count the cups by 10's. The understanding will develope more next year as they use that kind of counting as they work more with money, time in 5 minute intervals, equal groups of objects, etc.

[PamE]

Can you please come teach at our school? :) I sincerely wish our standards were the same as those you have at your school. Those are the things I will be working with dd and ds on this summer. Hopefully it will give them a good head start.

[Angie L]

That sounds about right on what kids should know. My son does most of it here. I think if he had a teacher that would work with him he would of been just fine. I just feel his teacher has written him off. I am working with him all summer and hopefully they will decide he is ready for first and not have to stay with the same teacher again.

[Angie L]

His teacher informed up on friday that he gets to go to first grade after all. I am going to work with him this summer still so I am sure he knows everything he is supposes to. We got a list from the first grade teachers on what they need to know before they start at the beginning of the school year so I will work on all that over the summer. Thank you very much to listening to me over the last few months

[PamE]

I'm so glad it all worked out! :)

[kat]

Angie, so glad to hear he gets to go on. From what you had told us it sounded like he should be able to. They don't all start out on the same level and will never all be on the same level. My kids were ready, but I still had a couple who made mistakes probably like you ds. If you keep working with him this summer, I know he'll do fine. If he stayed in kdg. most likely he'd been bored.

[KarlaB]

So glad things worked out!! :yippee: It must feel great! Thanks for updating us! :)

[Ryleigh]

glad to hear things are working out for you and ds. grade one is a big step but with your help he'll do ok. Do you have programs in your area that will tutor over the summer months? My nephew was in a program last year with 2 or 3 other children his age to work on simple math skills. Letter and sound recoginition and other skills req. for Gr.1. He did really well. He was even ahead of some of his classmates when the new year started.