Getting ready for 1st grade

Want to prepare for the next school year?
Keep the learning going over the summer. Below are suggestions of skills families might explore together during the school break.

Physical Health and Wellness
With parent/caregiver support...)
Begins to correctly judge basic emotions in others and the cause of emotions (she's mad because someone took her book)
Uses positive self-talk to help regulate emotions
Plays well with others
Waits patiently for a turn
Sticks with a task even if it is hard or takes a long time
Has skills to move through space with confidence; is working on throwing, catching, dribbling with hands and feet, volleying, striking, jumping rope
Uses movements in games and activities; changes speed, height, direction, and type of movement (skips, slides, etc.)
Participates in safe and vigorous physical activity daily and understands that moving quickly increases heart rate and breathing
Follows directions alone and in a group; respects self and others during physical activity
Understands that physical activity is good for health, fun, challenge, self-expression, and/ or social interaction
Understands concepts that improve health (ex. handwashing)
Identifies a trusted adult from whom to get information about enhancing personal health and wellness
Uses goal-setting skills to improve health

English Language Arts
With parent/caregiver support...)
Reads common words (the, of, to) by sight and understands easy texts
Practices phonics (letter sounds, letter blends like st, parts of words, words)
Describes how pictures and text work together in books
Uses different resources (books, magazines, the Internet) to get information and write about a topic
Talks about new words and meanings; plays with words words that mean the same thing; words that mean the opposite
Uses words and phrases learned through conversations and books (read alone and read-to); responds to texts (read alone and read-to)
Asks and answers questions about details texts (books, magazines, online)
Speaks clearly; talks about thoughts and feelings
Understands how print works; knows upper and lower case letters; makes words; makes sentences; follows words left-to-right/pageby-page
For activity ideas to practice these skills, go to gpb.org/learn.

Getting Ready for 1st Grade

Page 2

Mathematics
With parent/caregiver support...
Counts in correct order saying number names
Counts number of objects
Compares two numbers to tell which is more, less, or if the amounts are equal
Explores addition as putting numbers together; explores subtraction as taking numbers apart or taking one quantity from another
Works with 11-19 objects to create groups of ten with leftovers (12 has 1 ten and 2 leftovers)
Finds 2- and 3-dimensional shapes in the world (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, cube, cone, cylinder and sphere)
Uses descriptive words such as heavy, long, etc, to describe objects; compares objects side by side
Sorts objects and counts the number of objects in sorted groups
Identifies and describes shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, cube, cone, cylinder and sphere)

Science
With parent/caregiver support...
Notices and describes changes in the sky (day, night)
Explores and sorts materials that make up the Earth (water, air, rocks, soil); explains reasons for sorting (texture, color, size, etc.)
Explores and sorts common objects (clay, cloth, plastic, wood, paper, metal, buttons) by color, size, weight, shape, texture
Makes predictions about whether objects will sink or float; tests predictions
Investigates how an object's physical characteristics will affect its motion when a force (a toss, drop, push or pull) is applied; describes how an object will move based on its physical characteristics
Explains the difference between living and non-living things; sorts and describes sorting of living vs nonliving things
Describes animals and plants; groups animals and plants based on physical characteristics; asks questions about how groups are the same and different

Social Studies
With parent/caregiver support...
Explains why rules are important and why rules should be followed
Names address including city, state, and country
Describes the passing of time with words like now/long ago, before/after, today/tomorrow/yesterday and past/present/future
Explains and talks about national holidays; respects that people celebrate holidays differently; explains symbols that are important to our country's history
Explains why people must make choices because they cannot have everything they want
These skills were identified by the Georgia Department of Education's division of curriculum and instruction based on the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). This list is not required, and students won't be expected to know all of the information part of a teacher's job is meeting all students where they are at the beginning of the school year.
For activity ideas to practice these skills at home, go to gpb.org/learn.