First Grade
Core Virtues
For the 2026–2027 school year, first graders will continue building their understanding of virtues each month. These lessons help students develop empathy, responsibility, and self-discipline as they grow academically and socially.
August & September: Respect and Responsibility – Responsibility is doing your part for the groups that make us whole.
October: Self-Control and Self-Discipline – Self-control is stopping to think about my actions before I enact them. Self-discipline is giving the best of ourselves and saying “no” to our weaknesses.
November: Wonder – Wonder is to delight in beauty and mystery.
December: Charity – Charity is giving of heart, soul, and mind.
January: Courage – Courage is moving beyond fear.
February: Love of Country – Love of Country means being devoted to our nation—loving its ideals, honoring its heroes, respecting its past, and working hard for a just and noble future.
March: Faithfulness – Faithfulness is standing by those we love, those we serve, and what we believe.
April: Graciousness and Courtesy – Graciousness is acting kindly and making others feel special. Courtesy is showing respect through kindness and politeness.
May: Joy – Joy is the fullness of spirit that blooms from the loving heart.
June: Lives to Learn From – Learn from those who act well, think well, forge new paths, and seek a better world.
Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA)
In first grade, students continue building strong literacy foundations through Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), strengthening both their reading skills and their understanding of the world.
In the Skills strand, students deepen their phonics knowledge by learning consonant blends, digraphs, vowel patterns, and strategies for decoding one- and two-syllable words. They practice spelling, handwriting, grammar, and sentence construction while developing reading fluency and comprehension. Students regularly read decodable texts aligned with the spelling patterns they are learning, helping them build confidence and independence as readers and writers.
In the Knowledge strand, students engage with rich content that expands their vocabulary and understanding of the world. Topics include fables and folktales, astronomy, animals and habitats, the human body, early American civilizations, and important figures in history. Through listening, discussion, drawing, and writing, students develop comprehension skills while learning to ask questions, explain ideas, and connect new knowledge to what they already know.
Together, CKLA Skills and Knowledge strengthen students’ reading abilities while building the background knowledge and vocabulary needed for future academic success.
Eureka Math²
In first grade, students deepen their understanding of numbers and operations while continuing to build strong problem-solving skills. They develop addition and subtraction strategies, learn to explain their mathematical thinking, and solve a variety of real-world word problems.
Students explore place value, learning how numbers are made up of tens and ones and using this understanding to compare, add, and subtract numbers. They also measure and compare lengths, analyze and create two- and three-dimensional shapes, and explore fractions by identifying halves and fourths of shapes. Students collect and represent data using simple graphs and begin to see how math connects to everyday situations.