Grade 1 English Language Arts: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 1 english language arts in the Alberta Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Speaking and listening: children share experiences and information clearly, with suitable words, volume and speed.
- Reading: children show they know letter–sound relationships and recognize common words automatically.
- Understanding stories: children retell the main idea, characters and details of a story or poem.
- Writing: children combine ideas in a logical order to speak and write complete sentences.
- Conventions: sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period, question mark or exclamation mark.
- Creating: children organize ideas to make stories and poems or to record facts.
Easy ways to practise english language arts at home
- Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases.
- Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?”
- Point out letters on signs, cereal boxes and the street.
- Ask your child to tell you a story about their drawing, and write down a sentence or two.
What each unit covers
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.
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.
Sh, Ch, Th
Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Think It Through
Reading a short story, finding the main idea and details, and using clues to work out what is not said.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Alberta report card guide.
Common questions
How can I help my Grade 1 child with english language arts?
Read aloud every day and let your child finish familiar phrases. Play with sounds: “What starts with /b/? What rhymes with cat?” Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
What does my child learn in Grade 1 english language arts in Alberta?
The Alberta Curriculum Grade 1 english language arts units include blend it, short vowels, sh, ch, th, word families, sight words, describing words.
Free printable Grade 1 english language arts practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.