Grade 1 English Language Arts
16 units matched to the Prince Edward Island Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Letters & Words”.
Learning focus
- Speaking and Listening. Students will speak and listen to explore, extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Speaking and Listening. Students will be able to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Speaking and Listening. Students will interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
- Reading & Viewing. Students will be expected to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Reading & Viewing. Students will be expected to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Reading & Viewing. Students will be expected to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Reading & Viewing. Students will be expected to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their knowledge of language, form, and genre.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to use writing and other forms of representation to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their imaginations.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Writing and Other Ways of Representing. Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and media products to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
Units
Unit 1
True, Pretend and Opinions
Practises telling what could be true from what is make-believe, noticing that people see the same thing differently, seeing people like us in books, and giving an opinion with a reason.
Curriculum outcome: 1.3; 6.2; 7.2 · telling what is real from make-believe, and giving an opinion with a reason
Unit 2
Sentences
Starting sentences and names with a capital letter, ending with a period or question mark, telling whole sentences from parts, counting words and finding naming words.
Curriculum outcome: 4.2; 10.2 · starting sentences with capitals, using end marks and telling whole sentences from parts
Unit 3
Reading Smart
Practises thinking before and while reading: using what you already know, predicting what happens next, making connections to your own life, using headings and pictures, telling kinds of texts apart and learning topic words.
Curriculum outcome: 4.4; 4.6; 7.1 · predicting, using text features and telling kinds of texts apart
Unit 4
Blend It
Blending sounds into words (s-u-n makes sun), counting the sounds in a word and hearing the last sound. These listening skills are the base of reading and spelling.
Curriculum outcome: 4.5; 10.2 · blending sounds into words and counting the sounds in a word
Unit 5
Short Vowels
Hearing the short vowel in the middle of words like cat, bed, pig, dog and sun, and filling in the missing vowel to spell the word.
Curriculum outcome: 4.5; 10.2 · hearing and spelling the short vowel in the middle of a word
Unit 6
Word Families
Words that share an ending, like cat, hat and bat. Once children know one word in a family, they can read and spell many more by changing the first sound.
Curriculum outcome: 4.5; 10.2 · reading and spelling words that share an ending, such as cat, hat and bat
Unit 7
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
Curriculum outcome: 4.5; 10.2 · letter pairs that make one sound at the start and end of words
Unit 8
Sight Words
Common words like said, was, they and where that are tricky to sound out. Children practise finding, using and spelling them so they can read them at a glance.
Curriculum outcome: 4.5; 10.2 · finding, using and spelling common sight words
Unit 9
Story Time
Reading short stories, then naming who is in them and where they happen, and putting the events in order. Reading the story aloud together and talking about it helps a lot!
Curriculum outcome: 4.6 · naming who and where in a story and putting events in order
Unit 10
Think It Through
Reading a short story, finding the main idea and details, and using clues to work out what is not said.
Curriculum outcome: 4.6 · finding the main idea and details and using clues to work out what is not said
Unit 11
Sound Play
Hearing rhymes, sound words (like buzz and splash) and repeated beginning sounds, and noticing how they make texts fun to read.
Curriculum outcome: 8.3 · rhymes, sound words and repeated beginning sounds that make texts fun
Unit 12
Describing Words
Opposites (hot and cold) and describing words that tell how something looks, feels, tastes or sounds, including finding the describing word in a sentence.
Curriculum outcome: 8.3 · opposites and describing words for how things look, feel, taste and sound
Unit 13
Plan and Write
Practises planning writing by drawing and talking, putting ideas in order, grouping ideas that belong together, showing feelings in writing, improving after feedback, and knowing different kinds of writing.
Curriculum outcome: 8.2; 9.1; 10.1 · planning writing by drawing and talking, putting ideas in order and making writing clearer
Unit 14
Build a Sentence
Putting words in the right order to make a sentence that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, joining two ideas, and putting a short story's events in order.
Curriculum outcome: 10.2 · putting words in order to build sentences and joining two ideas
Unit 15
Kinds of Sentences
Knowing a telling sentence from a question, a command and an exclamation, choosing the end mark, and seeing sentences with two ideas joined.
Curriculum outcome: 10.2 · telling sentences, questions, commands and exclamations, and their end marks
Unit 16
More Than One
Plurals: adding -s to a naming word means more than one (one cat, two cats). Stretch questions add -es to words like box and fox.
Curriculum outcome: 10.2 · adding -s and -es to make words mean more than one
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