First Grade - ELA
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
Students read and speak sentences that contain subject-verb forms, for example in the song line "Our environment helps us live" and in prompts such as "The most important room in my house is the __" and "We use this room for __, __, and __." Students are also asked to read a paragraph aloud and to write or copy sentences (Activity 4 and The Most Important Room), which requires using verbs with their chosen nouns or pronouns.
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students read and repeat captioned sentences such as "A fish swims in the ocean," "A parrot flies in the rainforest," and "A walrus waddles in a polar habitat," which model singular nouns with third-person singular verbs. Students produce spoken or written sentences using frames in Activity 3 like "A __________ can't live in the ____________. A __________ lives in the ________________," practicing singular noun + verb forms. Students write movement phrases on pages labeled "swims in the," "flies in the," etc., giving opportunities to write subject-verb phrases that pair a singular subject with a verb form.
Lesson 10
Amazing Animals
Students read and hear sentences in the scenarios and informational text that use singular and plural nouns with verbs (e.g., "I am a little starfish... I see something coming," and "Some dogs shed their hair when the weather is warm and grow thicker hair in cold weather"). Students participate in read-alouds and dramatic role-play (Skills: "Listen critically to text read aloud" and "Present dramatic interpretations of stories"), which require producing sentences like "I am" (singular) and references to "animals" or "they" (plural). The Student Activity Pages contain many example sentences using singular and plural forms (e.g., "it will eventually grow back," "some lizards can change the color of their skin").
Final Project
Animal Research / My Environment
Students are prompted to write sentence frames such as "The ______" and "is found in ______" on the "Where In The World?" page, which can produce basic sentences like "The tiger is found in Asia." Students are asked to help label pictures and complete headings like "What _____ Eats and Drinks" and "______'s Habitat," which require inserting nouns and can lead to forming short descriptive sentences. Students are encouraged to explain each page of their book aloud and to sing or act out pages, providing opportunities to produce spoken sentences with subjects and verbs.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 7
Spring
Students read and fill in the poem line "Little _______ wants to play," which presents a singular noun with the verb form "wants." Students answer seed-activity questions such as "How many seeds are there?" and respond to prompts like "Only 4 of the seeds sprouted into plants," which use plural nouns with plural verb forms ("are," "sprouted"). Students answer observational questions in Activity 3 using constructions like "Does it move/fall off?" and explain whether "it" moves, practicing subject-verb use with singular pronouns.
Lesson 8
Summer
Students read sentences that show subject-verb agreement such as "Summer follows spring," which pairs a singular noun with a singular verb. Students read a plural-subject sentence: "June, July, and August are the months of summer," which pairs a plural subject with the plural verb "are." Students sing/read lines like "Winter's cold" and "Fall is cool," providing additional examples of singular subjects with matching verbs.
Final Project
Weather Games
Students are asked to make oral presentations and use new vocabulary in speech and writing (Skills). In Activity 3 students answer questions about the weather (e.g., "Is there any wind?"), producing short sentences about current conditions. In Activity 4 students prepare and speak a three-day weather forecast and are given a sample forecast that contains complete sentences (e.g., "The sky is a beautiful blue. There is no rain...").
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students are asked in Activity 5 to record one simple sentence about how each worker "helps the citizens of the community" and to say each sentence aloud, which prompts production of present-tense sentences about individual workers. Activity 1 asks students to name what each worker does and to describe how the job makes the community better, encouraging students to produce descriptive sentences (e.g., "The teacher _ar___"). The example paragraph and the "When I Grow Up" prompts require students to produce and attempt to read/write complete sentences about workers and actions.
Lesson 9
Caring for Our Communities
Students read a story that contains multiple sentences showing subject-verb patterns (e.g., "Katy lives in an apartment," "Each family lives in its own apartment," and "The flowers bring joy..."). Activity 7 asks students to practice handwriting and to write or copy sentences that contain words like care and citizen, which requires them to reproduce sentence-level grammar. Several question-and-answer activities and role-plays require students to speak or produce sentences about the story and community helpers.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 3
Size, Shape, and Color
Students encounter multiple sentences that model subject-verb agreement, for example: "A circle has no sides," "A square has four equal sides," "Size describes how large or small something is," and "Red and yellow make orange." These sentences show singular nouns with singular verbs and a compound/plural subject with a plural verb used in context.
Lesson 5
How Old?
Students read and hear sentences that pair singular nouns with singular verbs (e.g., "A person who is older is not always bigger than a younger person," "Her birthday marks the day that she was born, and every year on her birthday, she gets a year older"). Students also encounter plural subjects with plural verbs (e.g., "All living things get older"). Students read and reread questions and sentences on activity pages, exposing them to subject-verb forms in context.
Lesson 6
The Measure of Things
Students complete fill-in-the-blank sentences such as "The __________ is longer than the __________," "The longest item is the __________," and "The __________ is shorter than the __________," which require inserting singular nouns that pair with the verb phrase "is". Student activity pages prompt students to write or draw items (toothbrush, pencil, hairbrush, individual glasses) in sentences that use singular verb forms (e.g., "is longer," "is shorter," "is the shortest").
Lesson 9
Solids and Liquids
Students are instructed to write the provided definitions: "Solid -- a solid is something that keeps its size and shape" and "Liquid -- a liquid can be poured and takes the shape of the container it is in," which present singular nouns with matching verbs. The lesson facts include plural-subject sentences such as "Liquids take the shape of the container they occupy" and "Solids retain their shape regardless of the container they occupy," which show plural nouns with matching verbs. Students copy these sentences onto the activity page, producing both singular and plural subject-verb forms in their own writing.
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 3
Different Personalities
The lesson asks students to use new vocabulary in conversation and writing and to "use the word in a sentence" (Activity 4), which gives students opportunities to produce basic sentences. The text contains several sentence examples that show subject-verb number agreement (e.g., "Your personality makes you neat," "People have different personalities," "There are many different kinds of personalities"). The song and multiple descriptive activities prompt students to write or say sentences about people and characters, creating incidental exposure to singular and plural noun forms with verbs.
Lesson 6
Different Families
Students are asked to complete sentence frames on the "Families Around the World" pages (e.g., "My family is similar to a family from _______ because we both _______." and "My family is different from a family from _______ because we _______, but they _______."), which requires them to produce verbs that agree with pronouns like "we" and "they." The Skills list includes "Complete sentences" and "Attempt to write words and sentences," and the handwriting activity asks students to use the word "different" in a sentence, providing opportunities to write basic sentences. Several activities require students to write or dictate sentences about family members and actions (e.g., describing what family members do and responsibilities).
Lesson 8
Different Holidays and Traditions
Students are asked to write three sentences about their favorite holiday (Activity 3), providing practice in composing basic sentences. Activity 5 requires each holiday page to include "a sentence about the holiday" and offers sentence prompts such as "On __________ (holiday) we celebrate by _________________________________." and "_____________ (holiday) is important because ____________________________." These prompts include both plural-subject verb forms (we celebrate) and singular-subject verb forms (___ is important), so students will produce sentences that instantiate singular and plural subjects with corresponding verbs.
Lesson 11
Being Part of a Group
Students complete sentence frames such as "One group I belong to is ___." and "The group does ___." which model a singular noun with a singular verb. Students also complete the prompt "The members in the group are alike because ___," which models a plural noun with a plural verb. Students are asked to read or dictate and then read their completed paragraph, providing practice producing sentences with those forms.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
Students are prompted to write sentences such as "I live in America. Jung Wei lives in China," which models a singular third-person verb form (lives) and a first-person form (live). The book includes a sentence "One way that we are the same is that we both like to read books," which shows a plural subject (we) with the plural verb form (like). Students are encouraged to write and complete similar basic sentences across pages (Location, Food, Hobbies, Homes, Clothing, Transportation, Holidays), providing opportunities to produce subject–verb combinations.
3: Patterns
Unit 1: Identifying and Creating Visual Patterns
Final Project
Patterns Poster or Patterns Presentation
Students are asked to write and speak scripted sentences on the 'Script For Presentation' pages (for example: "The third pattern I will show is a ________________."), and they are prompted to record the words they will use and describe each pattern. Students also label poster sections with the type of pattern and write the materials used beside each type, producing short written phrases or sentences about patterns.
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 4
Sentence Patterns
Students identify nouns and verbs and label them (e.g., circle the noun and underline the verb). Students make and read aloud sentences using subject/verb combinations from provided word lists (nouns: girl, boy, mom, dad, dog, cat, plant; verbs: runs, walks, cooks, works, grows, rests, eats, drinks). Students complete sentence prompts (e.g., "The __________ __________ ...") and select or write verbs that make sense in context (Parts A–C of Completing a Sentence Pattern).
Unit 3: Patterns in Your World
Lesson 4
Daily Routines
Students are asked to dictate or write sentences about routines in Activity 2 (four steps) and Activity 4 (write or copy one sentence describing a routine), which requires forming basic sentences. The Activity 3 daily routine example includes the sentence-like phrase "School begins," showing a singular noun with a matching third-person singular verb. The student activity pages provide labeled actions (e.g., "get dressed," "eat breakfast") that require verb use in sentence context when students write about their routines.
Lesson 5
Calendar Patterns
Students encounter modeled sentences such as "Seven days make up a week," "There are 12 months that make up a year," and "Each day repeats itself in the same order every single week," which demonstrate plural and singular noun forms paired with matching verbs. Students are asked to say and write the days and months and to practice writing words like "day," "month," and "year," giving them exposure to noun forms in context.
Lesson 9
Counting Patterns
Students are asked to write or dictate a sentence about the clowns and to identify the subject (noun) and the verb (predicate). Activity 3 has students tell or record stories that begin with one clown and then add pairs of clowns, producing sentences that use singular (one clown) and plural (two clowns, etc.) noun phrases. The Handwriting section explicitly directs students to identify the subject and verb in their own sentences.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 10
Chemical Changes
Students read sentences that demonstrate subject-verb agreement, such as "Physical change is a change in size, shape, color, or state of matter" and "Chemical change occurs when a new substance is formed." Students encounter plural/verb combinations in sentences like "These bubbles are a new substance" and "Bubbles formed" during activities and explanations.
Unit 3: A First Look at History - Change Over Time
Lesson 1
People and Families Change
The lesson identifies the language skill "Use words that name and words that tell action (LA)" and asks students to write sentences about how they or their family have changed (Activity 3 and Activity 5). The Student Activity Page prompts students to fill in sentence stems (e.g., "My family used to look very different. In the past my family ________.") and to read their ideas aloud. Activities require students to produce sentences orally and in writing about past, present, and future family changes.
Lesson 3
Communities Change
Students read and/or say captioned sentences such as "A forest fire burns," "The buffalo herds come," and "People come in wagons and build farms" when they complete the timeline activities. Students read labels and match picture labels in Option 2, which exposes them to sentences with singular and plural subjects paired with different verb forms. Students write a sentence about The House on Maple Street in Activity 7, producing at least one example of noun+verb use in context.
Lesson 6
Predicting Future Change
Students are asked to write sentences in Activity 2 (record a sentence describing one positive change and one negative change) and Activity 4 (write or copy a sentence about a change). The Student Activity Pages prompt students to answer questions in lines (e.g., "How will this change your family?"), which requires composing basic sentences. These tasks provide opportunities for students to produce spoken or written sentences.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
Students read and complete sentences in Activity 5.3 (e.g., "The pig has a jug.", "The cat and the dog ran.", "The mop is in the tub.") and are asked to read each sentence aloud. In Activity 5.2 (Reader #3 — The Bug) students read sentences describing actions (hop, jog, nap) and answer comprehension questions about what the bug is able to do. Throughout the week students read and write simple sentences (tracing/writing words and reading word-family sentences) that demonstrate correct noun+verb combinations.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
Students read and point to sentences that include singular subjects with matching verbs (e.g., "He had a nap," "That was him in the bed," and "a fox is in the _____"). Students use Making Sentences cards that include singular pronouns and verbs (he, is, was, has, ran, hop, run) and place cards to complete sentences such as "he has on a _____" and "a fox is in the _____." Students read aloud sentences and are asked to read and produce words and verbs as they build sentences from the provided cards.
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
Students practice making nouns plural by adding s in Activity 3.1 (teacher models spelling cat → cats and students add s to words like pig, van, mug, pot). Students write plural nouns to match pictures in Activity 3.2 (pages titled "Writing More Than One With S" with answer key: dogs, pigs, etc.). Students encounter and write sentences that show subject-verb number agreement in Activity 5.3 (dictation sentences include "The hens are in the pot." and "A tub was on the dock."). Word Chains and other pages include plural forms (e.g., cabs, cubs, dogs) that students read and spell.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
Students read, reconstruct, and write sentences that include singular and plural subjects with corresponding verbs (e.g., "We sat on the log.", "The man ran with his pet.", "The cats are on the path."). Students also complete sentence dictation and forming-sentences activities in which they read and place words to make complete sentences containing varied subjects and verb forms. Several dictated and student-read sentences (e.g., "We are with them.") provide examples of subject + verb combinations in context.
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
Students read and write full sentences that include subject-verb pairs, for example in the dictated sentences "The moth is on the dish." and "I chat with a fox in a hut." Students encounter plural subject forms in the reader title and examples (e.g., the book title They Get Wet and the modeled sentence "They are my favorite team"). Students also read and speak sentences aloud when answering comprehension questions about the reader.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
Students read and write full dictated sentences in Activity 5.2 that include both singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (e.g., "The fox has a snack in the shack." and "They swim by the dock."). Students are asked to read the sentences aloud after writing them, so they practice hearing and reproducing subject-verb forms in context. The reader activity (Meg and Dan and the Sled) and sentence dictation provide multiple examples of singular and plural noun phrases in sentences.
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students write and read whole sentences that show correct noun–verb forms during Sentence Dictation (e.g., "The kids have a black cat.", "The ducks fly in the sky.", "He has a sack of blocks."). In Making Sentences, students select word cards (including nouns like kids, ducks and verbs like have, fly, has) to complete and create sentences, and then read their sentences aloud. Word-building and sentence activities require students to produce and read sentences that pair plural nouns with plural verbs and singular subjects with singular verbs.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students read, write, and dictate sentences that contain singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (for example: "The kids shop at the mall.", "Meg has less cash than Jill.", "They pick a dress and a doll."). Students write the sentence "The bugs buzz." and read sentences using plural subjects with plural verb forms. Students also listen to and read sentences contrasting present and past verb forms ("Yesterday, we were..." vs "Today, we are...").
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Students practice plural formation with an explicit "add s" rule and sort/glue words (cats, pigs, balls, etc.) into a plural category. Students read and write sentences that include singular and plural subjects (e.g., "The ring is on her hand." and "The cats sang a long song."). Students make sentences using word cards that include both singular and plural nouns (e.g., frogs, skunks) during the Making Sentences activity.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
In Activity 5.2 students write three dictated sentences: "The shrimp swim in the tank.", "He can strum on the strings.", and "There are ants in the shrub.". Students are asked to write the sentences and then read them, attending to how sentences begin and end. The dictated sentences explicitly show plural subjects with plural verbs (shrimp swim; there are ants) and a singular subject with a verb phrase (He can strum).
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
Students are prompted to add s to some words to show more than one when creating words in the Alphabet Soup activity, practicing plural formation. Students write dictated sentences that include singular subjects ('An elk slept on the bed', 'Each kid can swim') and a plural subject with its verb ('The rafts drift on the pond'). Students sort and build words that include plural nouns (e.g., rafts, crafts, lifts) during word-building and word-sort activities.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
Students read and write full sentences during Sentence Dictation (e.g., "When do you use a golf club?", "Which part is best?", "What can we do in the yard?"), exposing them to verbs that match singular and plural subjects. Students practice the sight word "do" and use it orally and in written questions during sight word activities. Students read and repeat sentences and questions aloud, which gives incidental exposure to subject-verb forms (e.g., you do, we do, part is).
Lesson 17
Semester Review
Students review "Adding s to show more than one" in the list of topics to assess. Activities require students to use singular markers (Activity 2.2: "a" and "an") and to write dictated sentences that include plural subjects and verbs (Activity 3.2: "The dogs slept in the yard." and "They drink milk in a glass.").
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students practice adding -s to form plurals (e.g., teacher writes "bat" and asks the student to add s to make "bats"; student adds s to "game" to make "games"). Students compare singular and third-person singular verb forms with explicit examples: they read "I like the red shirt." and "She likes the red shirt." and are asked to add an s to "like" and read the new form. Students write and read dictated sentences that show plural subjects with base verbs (e.g., "The kids bike on the path.").
Lesson 3
Hard and Soft c and g
Students write and read dictated sentences that contain matching singular/plural nouns and verbs (e.g., "The red gem is huge." and "Many mice are in the cage."). The skills list asks students to "recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence," and the dictation activity asks students to pay attention to how sentences begin and end, which has them process complete sentence structures.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
Students read and write sentences that include singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (e.g., the dictation sentences "The train is on the track." and the fill-in-the-blank sentence "The dogs ______ in the yard." where the correct choice is "stay"). Students also read and say sentences such as "The kids work with clay." and "We may get to hike at the lake," which present plural and first-person plural subjects with appropriate verb forms. Several activities require students to read sentences aloud and to select or write the correct verb form from a word bank.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
Students make and read sentences in the Making Sentences activity, using starters such as "They eat ____ and ____" and "The girls _____ them," which require pairing subjects and verbs. Students write dictated sentences that show subject-verb forms (e.g., "We eat a lot." and "The cake is sweet."). The Alphabet Soup activity prompts students to add -s to some words to show more than one, and the reader questions include plural constructions (e.g., "are the birds eating?").
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
Students write and complete full sentences in the Fill in the Blanks activity (e.g., "Turn right to get home.", "The light was not on.", "We might go swim in the lake.") where subjects and verbs are correctly paired. Students copy and write dictated sentences that include both singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (e.g., "The kite is high." and "We could eat pie."). Students read and use pronouns such as "we" and sight words like "we" during sight-word grouping, exposing them to plural subject usage in context.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
Students write dictated sentences that include noun-verb agreement, for example writing "The goat eats toast," which shows a singular noun with a third-person singular verb. Students answer comprehension questions that use plural subjects and matching verbs ("How many boats are in the race?" uses plural noun with the verb "are"). Students read and reread weekly message and story sentences that contain different subject forms ("you go fast," "The boat that wins the race"), exposing them to varying subject-verb forms in context.
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students read and write multiple sentences that display correct singular/plural noun–verb forms, for example in the Fill in the Blanks activity where they read "The girls make art with glue" and "Is it true that dogs dream?", and in the dictated sentences "The goat can chew." and "Who has a clue?". Students also complete reading and dictation tasks that require them to write these sentences and to read sentences aloud (e.g., reader #9 and sentence dictation). The skills list and activities ask students to pay attention to sentence features and to read/write sentences, providing repeated exposure to subject + verb structures.
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
Students write and read model sentences that show singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (e.g., "The colts bolt."; "The snakes molt."; "The child is kind."). Students read and produce sentences from the Fill in the Blanks and Reader activities that include plural subjects with plural verbs ("The teams race for gold."; "The birds molt two times."). The spelling test and sight-word sentence examples include sentences with third-person singular forms ("Bobby has the most stickers.") and plural subjects used with appropriate verb forms.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students make sentences using provided word cards that include singular and plural nouns (e.g., boy, toys) in Activity 4.1 and are given sentence starters such as "The _____ swim by the ____" and "The girls _____ and _____" which require filling in verbs that agree with plural subjects. In Day 5 Sentence Dictation students write and read sentences that show plural-subject verb agreement ("The boys play with the toy.").
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
Students write and read dictated sentences that use plural subjects with matching verbs (e.g., "The kids draw." and "They haul rocks."). The lesson includes paired example sentences showing plural subject with present and past verbs ("They make a cake today." / "They made a cake yesterday."). Activities also prompt students to add s to words to show more than one, giving practice forming plural nouns.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
Students write dictated sentences that contain singular and plural subjects with matching verbs (Activity 5.3 includes "They wrap many gifts." and "The knife is sharp."). Students read and repeat sentences aloud in several activities (e.g., Activity 3.3 sentences: "No, I do not know how to ski." and "I can write the right letters in many words."), exposing them to subject–verb forms in context. Students also read and sort words and write sentences, which requires reading sentences that contain correct verb forms.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
Students are asked to master "Adding s to show more than one," and Activity 1.2 explicitly asks students to find which words "include s to show more than one of something" (plants, gems, rings). In Activity 2.2 students write sentences about pictures and example sentences are provided that contain plural subjects with matching plural verbs (e.g., "The ducks are on the dock," "The clouds are in the sky"). Several word-sorting and reading tasks require students to read and recognize plural forms in context.