Whitehead Learning Group
Empowering students to thrive.

Academic Milestones

Curious on ways to help support your elementary school student academically and socially at home? We've curated a list of educational and social benchmarks by grade-level, including strategies to partner with your student during each year's transition.

1st Grade: Educational and Social Benchmarks

First Grade:

Math:

Numbers

  • Reading and writing larger numbers - Read and write numbers from 20 through 120.

  • Counting forward - Count forward between 1 and 120, starting at any number.

  • Understanding Place Value - Understand place value in one- and two-digit numbers. Understand that in two-digit numbers such as 79, the digit on the left is 7 tens and the digit on the right is 9 ones.

  • Understanding Category of Tens - Understand 10 as ten ones (1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1) or one ten. Understand 20 as twenty ones, or two tens, 30 as thirty ones, or three tens, etc. Understand numbers 11 to 19 as a ten and some ones.

  • Addition, subtraction, multiplication, & division

  • Counting and addition together

  • Understanding the equal sign - Understand the equal sign ( = ) means “is the same as.” Determine if addition and subtraction statements are true or false.

  • Organizing objects into categories - Organize objects into as many as three categories (by shape, color, size, etc.). Ask and answer questions about the number of objects in different categories. Represent the quantities of objects in as many as three categories, using drawings or charts.

  • Describing shapes - Describe what defines shapes (number of sides; corners, or angles) and what does not (color, size). Build and draw shapes based on descriptions of their characteristics (properties).

Reading and writing

  • Understanding and using new words

  • Identify sounds at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a spoken or a written three-letter one-syllable word: What sound is at the beginning of the word “mop”? What sound is at the end of the word “pet”? What sound is in the middle of the word “dig”? Be able to identify the letters that make those sounds.

  • Combine, or blend, the sounds of the first, middle, and ending letters of common three-letter, consonant-vowel-consonant, words to read and understand them – for example: combining or “blending” the sounds made by the letters c-a-t makes the word cat.

  • Read first-grade level text with purpose and understanding.

  • Write a real or imagined story putting events in order, including details and some sense of closure.

  • Practice expressing thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly and in complete sentences, using basic rules of spoken English.

  • Participating in conversations

  • Reading aloud and shared reading

Social and Emotional:

Focusing on social and emotional skills in kids ages 5-8 builds empathy, kindness and responsible decision making while enhancing their peer relationships. 

Rebekka Whitehead