Curriculum

Children will be able to use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. For example, they might read the sentence, "The cat sat on the mat and took a nap," and understand that the word "sat" means to rest because of the surrounding words.

Children will be able to identify real-life connections between words and their use. For example, they might note places at school that are colorful, linking the adjective "colorful" to specific locations like the art room or a bulletin board decorated with student artwork.

Children will be able to use determiners** (e.g., articles like "a" and "the," and demonstratives like "this" and "that") in their sentences. For example, they might say, "I see the dog" or "This is my favorite book."

Children will understand how to write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes). For example, they will write "b" for the /b/ sound in "bat" or "a" for the /a/ sound in "cat."

Children will be able to use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word. For example, when they see "unhappy," they can recognize that the prefix "un-" means "not," helping them understand that "unhappy" means "not happy."

Children will be able to distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action by acting out the meanings. For example, they might demonstrate the differences between "walk," "march," "strut," and "prance" through physical actions, helping them understand the subtle differences in how each verb describes moving.

Children will be able to use frequently occurring prepositions** (e.g., during, beyond, toward) in their speaking and writing. For example, they might say, "The cat is under the table" or "We will play beyond the park."

Children will understand how to spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships. For example, they might spell the word "fish" as "f-i-sh" based on their understanding of the sounds associated with each letter.

Children will be able to identify frequently occurring root words and their inflectional forms.** For example, they might recognize the root word "look" and identify its inflectional forms such as "looks," "looked," and "looking."

Children will be able to use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading, and being read to, and responding to texts. For example, after listening to a story about a farm, a child might use words such as "tractor," "harvest," and "barn" while playing with farm animal toys or drawing a farm scene.