First grade: What your child should know
Keep tabs on your first-grader's development with this handy checklist.
No two kids are alike, especially when it comes to hitting developmental benchmarks. But it helps to have a rough idea of which academic and social skills your child should acquire at his or her grade level. Learn more about the first-grade classroom in these subject areas: reading, writing, language arts, math, science, technology, social studies, art, music, and physical education.
By the end of the year, you can expect your child to:
- Work independently at her desk
- Listen to longer sets of directions
- Read directions off the board, although some children may still have difficulty with this
- Complete homework and bring it back the next day
- Sit in a chair for a longer period of time
- Be able to see things from another person's point of view so you can reason with your child and teach her empathy
- Relate experiences in greater detail and in a logical way
- Problem-solve disagreements
- Crave affection from parents and teachers
- Have some minor difficulties with friendships and working out problems with peers
- Distinguish left from right
- Be able to plan ahead
- Write words with letter-combination patterns such as those with a silent e
- Read and write high-frequency words such as where and every
- Write complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation
- Read aloud first-grade books with accuracy and understanding
- Count change
- Tell time to the hour and half-hour
- Quickly answer addition and subtraction facts for sums up to 20
- Complete two-digit addition and subtraction problems without regrouping
