What can we expect in 1st grade?

Question

I have a 6 y/o stepdaughter about to start 1st grade in TN. My mom was able to help me through her kindergarten since she had been a K teacher (she sent me alot of her old supplies). In k, our little girl had 44 sight words to learn, recognizing upper and lower case letters be sound( had to write the letter when the teacher gave the sound) and site, read simple sentences, read short books/stories (very short, her favorite was "biscuit wants to play"), simple math, counting,money, and estimation. She struggled through the first two marking periods (her dad was at work a ton, I was going to school 2.5 hrs away, and her uncle was letting her play instead of doing homework with her like he was supposed to since he was "the nanny"). I want to make sure she doesn't fall behind this year and getting it to the point that she doesn't struggle as much (she tells me she's stupid and cries when she doesn't know something...we have never told her she's stupid).

Answer 1

It is strange isn't it how much they need to know before even getting into Kindergarten.  I remember learning the abc's, the sounds of them and counting.  Now you have to learn that stuff BEFORE you get there.  

1st grade is not as hard as you expect it to be.  It really depends on the school district and what they expect.  Each school district has a different curiculum.  I would call up to the school and find out when the office is going to be opened.  Then go up there and get a list of sight words that she has to know and start on them.  That is the biggest thing know with school is reading.  If you have trouble reading then you will then have trouble with math, science and everything.  

I would stress the importance to her uncle, if he is going to be watching her again this school year, about her knowing her sight words.  Make a list of them that she needs to practice every day.  Even if it is just 3 or 4 of them.  That is something he should be able to accomplish.  

If you ever feel that she might be falling behind have her father write a letter to the school and have her tested.  Because of the No child left behind act, they have to have her tested for any learning issues by a certain amount of time, and provide an outline plan on getting her back to grade level...that is if there is any problems.

Good luck and enjoy what is left of the summer vacation!

Answer 2

My daughter just finished 1st grade.  There was alot of math. Alot of work counting with money (biggie!).  Learning shapes beyond circle and square.  Alot of reading (biggie!) and answering questions about what they read.  If your daughter is frustrated now, just wait until 1st grade.  My daughter struggled in the beginning with money, but her teacher said that's normal, and one day it just "clicked".

Answer 3

dude let her chill. shes just in the 1st grade. she doesnt have to know half the stuff ur teaching her. give the girl a break

Answer 4

Anything up to second grade is a joke. Trying to make the child learn eveyrthing perfectly, or to get ahead, puts unnecessary stress on her. You worry WAY too much.

Answer 5

In my son's case, first grade was very much like Kindergarten, but he went to a private kindergarten so maybe that's why.  My son did tons of graphing in first grade (last year).  It was mostly things like "John has 3 pets, Sally has 2 pets, Mark has 1 pet and Jason has 4 pets" - show as a graph.  Then there would be a gridded graph with numbers on the left, the kid's names across the bottom, and they'd fill in 3 squares for John, 2 for Sally, etc., and in the end they'd have a bar graph.

Check out all the links on this page to see what's expected at my county's schools:

http://www.carrollk12.org/instruction/in...

Hopefully yours will be similar (did you go to your county's board of education site and see if they have anything like this?)

Answer 6

My daughter also just finished 1st grade, and yes as someone else said, the main things they have been doing are, reading a short story, then answer questions, maths adding and subtraction up to 99, but with 3 lots of numbers i.e.  25   + 1 7 + 3  in a column and the graphs you were asking about  are normally with pictures and questions to answer, one the latest one my daughter has done is on travel   so the graph shows a picture of a car, air plane, bus, train, boat and have to answer with transport is used the most, which transport is used the least.  

Things like that also answering questions about family i.e. my fathers brother is my .......    my mothers father is my........ my uncles children are my ......  etc etc.

But please do not get too stressed about the situation, otherwise is will only stress her out more, and when she goes back to school she will have plenty of time to study and do homework normally in 1st grade they get homework everyday even if it's just a page. Let her enjoy the rest of her vacation otherwise by Christmas holidays she would have had enough of school, children also need time to chill....

Hope everything goes well in September...

Answer 7

first grade there just learning the simple stuff..

tell your stepdaughter she is not stupid at all for not knowing current things.. and make sure when she does know something tell her how well she did.

many young kids have a hard time in the reading level . just go to your step daughters school and ask if there are any special classes she can go into..

Answer 8

idk, my little sister likes school. my parents reward her when she does good in school they buy her video games and dolls, we used to reward her with food but it wasnt healthy