First Grade - ELA
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
Students are prompted to identify and describe their environment using the Facts and Definitions and introductory prompts (e.g., describe what is in your home and what makes it healthy). In Activity 2 students walk through rooms, label or fill in room names, explain what each room is used for, and circle items that contribute to a healthy environment. In Activity 3 students pick the most important room, complete sentences such as "We use this room for ____, ____, and ____" and "The ____ is the most important room because ____," and read their paragraph aloud.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
Students are read the informational book Me On the Map and are asked specific comprehension questions (What is the name of our country? state? town? address?) that require recalling details from the text. Students reread pages where the girl discusses maps of her room and home and explain that a map shows important places and is drawn as if looking down. Students practice describing the purpose of maps and are asked to describe the environment in which they live during the wrap-up.
Lesson 3
Guide to Animal Habitats
Students are asked to predict and state what the book is about (e.g., "What do you think this book is about?") and are given the explicit definition of habitat and examples (wetlands, grasslands, woodlands, deserts). During read-aloud students point out and count animals and plants in each habitat, which has them attend to and recall key details from the text. Students sequence the habitats in the order Crinkleroot visited them (Habitat Journey) and later choose a habitat and either draw or tell a story about what they would see and do there, using prompts that require describing details.
Lesson 4
Animals Live and Grow
Students are asked to summarize what animals and plants need (water, food, shelter, air, sunlight, soil) in the "Getting Started," "Day 2" prompts, and the "Wrapping Up" questions. The lesson lists the skill "Summarize the needs of living organisms" and asks students to answer specific comprehension questions after reading Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt (e.g., season, why wait to plant, why give plants water, how animals help plants). Activities require students to review their recorded observations from the book and match or list consumers and energy sources, and to describe shelter and plant parts, which prompts retelling of text details.
Lesson 5
Discovering Animal Habitats
The introduction asks the child to give examples of the animal habitats she explored in Crinkleroot's Guide to Animal Habitats, prompting recall from a named text. Activity 2 and the activity questions ask students to name which habitat contains specific animals (e.g., where we find fish, tigers, polar bears), which requires identifying the topic (habitats) and details about those habitats. Activity 3 asks students to draw a favorite habitat, discuss the animals found there, and label animals and their food and water sources, which elicits key supporting details about a habitat.
Lesson 6
Exploring Animal Habitats
Students draw and label the habitat they observe, recording plants, animals, insects, water, and rocks and answering guided questions (Where are the plants? What animals do you see? What are they doing?). Students compare their illustration/collage to earlier predictions and dictate or write a story about an animal (A Day in the ___: A ___'s Life), describing what the animal eats, where it gets water, and what it does. The lesson also asks to "locate more information about the animal in a book or online and share it with your child," which could lead students to read informational material about the animal.
Lesson 7
Tools in My Environment
The lesson's Facts and Definitions explicitly defines a tool and a ruler, and the Wrapping Up section asks the child to tell what a tool is and which tools they used, prompting a summary of main ideas. Activity 2 asks students to examine each tool and answer "What is the tool used for?" and "How does the tool work?", which requires students to state key details about each item. Activities 1 and 3 have students collect, sort, and describe tools, encouraging them to name and explain functions and attributes of objects.
Lesson 8
Animal Care
Students are asked to listen to or read The Salamander Room and answer specific comprehension questions (e.g., what kind of animal did the boy find, where did he find it, what kind of environment did the salamander need). The Skills list includes "Answer questions about a text," and Activities prompt students to describe what pets need and what would happen without a healthy environment. Wrapping-up and Life Application prompts ask students to explain environments for different animals, reinforcing details from the text.
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students read short captions and name the animal and habitat in each picture (Activity 1). Students explain how each animal moves and circle the body parts that help movement, and they practice saying sentences like "A zebra can't live in the ocean. A zebra lives in the savanna" (Activities 1 and 3). Students analyze pictures to decide which animals do not belong in a habitat and record reasons why each animal would not live there (Activity 2).
Lesson 10
Amazing Animals
Students read and analyze the "Amazing Changes" informational pages that describe how starfish, snakes, lizards, and sharks change to survive, and they are asked to select an animal to learn more about. Activity 2 prompts students to answer specific comprehension questions and role-play scenarios (e.g., what will happen to the starfish's arm; how can lizards hide), requiring them to retell key details. The skills list explicitly includes "Listen critically to text read aloud" and "Respond to critical questions about a text," and the Wrapping Up prompts students to tell about animals they learned.
Lesson 11
Amazing Me
Students are asked to think of a time they have changed because of something in their environment, have their ideas recorded, and then read those ideas aloud (Activity 3). Students share examples aloud during the Wrapping Up section and are prompted to review the central idea that the environment can change bodies and feelings. The Skills list includes "Read or attempt to read own story" and "Illustrate a story," which asks students to produce and read content related to the topic.
Final Project
Animal Research / My Environment
In Option 2 (Animal Research) students are prompted to name the animal on Page 1 ("The _____"), and complete pages about where it is found, what it eats and drinks, its habitat, and interesting facts, which require selecting and recording key informational details. In Option 1 (My Environment) students create a book titled "Me" and complete pages about what they eat and drink, their home environment, activities, and a change in themselves, which organizes details about a single topic (the student). The wrapping up step asks the child to "explain each page of his book" and to share the book, prompting students to orally retell the information they recorded.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 1
Reading the Skies
Activity 1 asks the child to look at the cover of Whatever the Weather and to answer "what she thinks the story is about," and the child is asked to read or listen to the story. The Skills list includes "Listen critically to text read aloud" and "Respond to text read aloud," and Activity 1 includes comprehension questions (e.g., What type of weather is best for playing outside? How does it make you feel?) that require recalling content from the story. Activities 2 and 3 ask the child to dictate sentences and tell or record a story about weather, giving practice in oral description and recounting related events.
Lesson 2
Types of Precipitation
Students are read Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today? and Whatever the Weather and are asked questions about habitats and the weather they see in the pictures (Activity 1). Students discuss and label the different types of precipitation described on selected pages and complete activity pages that require identifying rain, snow, and hail from pictures (Activity 2, Option 1 and 2). The wrap-up explicitly asks students to review the four types of precipitation and to explain why precipitation is important and where our water comes from, prompting them to state the main idea and supporting details.
Lesson 4
Simulating Weather
Students are asked to explain what happens in the sky to cause rain and to review that clouds form from warm damp air and dust/smoke, which asks them to recall and state key details about precipitation. Students explain observations from the bottle cloud experiment (what happens when squeezing and releasing the bottle) and name three things the wind can move, which requires retelling experimental and observational details. Students sing and follow the Weather Song and are asked to find and read specific weather words, supporting recall of details from the text and song.
Lesson 5
Fall
Students are asked to name the seasons and identify that September, October, and November are fall months, which requires recognizing the topic of "fall." In the "It's Fall" activity students describe the picture (what people are wearing, what plants look like, what people are doing) and then write sentences about the scene, practicing retelling observable details. The wrapping-up prompts ask students to explain what happens to the weather in the fall and to answer questions about a leaf-color graph, which requires summarizing and stating key details from the activities.
Lesson 6
Winter
Students are asked to find the pages that look like winter in the book Whatever the Weather and to describe what they see in the pictures, including similarities and differences with their own winter environment. The lesson prompts students to describe the outside environment in winter and to dictate a story about something they do in winter, then attempt to read that story aloud. The wrapping-up activity asks students to describe what a winter environment can be like and to review Earth's position relative to the Sun for winter.
Lesson 7
Spring
Students are asked after each poem to tell what the poem was about and to match the poem to an illustration, which asks them to identify the main idea of each short text. The Wrapping Up prompts ask students to review what the environment is like in spring and to say what a seed needs to become a plant, which asks them to recount key factual details. The Introduction also prompts students to describe spring weather and seasonal changes, encouraging them to state central ideas about the season.
Lesson 8
Summer
Students read and complete the short passage "A Summer Story" by choosing words to fill blanks and reading the completed story aloud; they also answer guided questions about the "Summer Fun" picture (describe the environment, what is happening, how the kids feel, and whether these activities could happen in winter). Students complete the "Changes in Weather" page by placing season names on a temperature continuum and answering direct factual sentences (e.g., "_____ is the warmest season"). The wrapping-up prompts ask students to review the order of the seasons and how the weather changes each season.
Final Project
Weather Games
Students are asked to look through and (if able) read Whatever the Weather and to reread pages 8–15 of Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today?, which prompts discussion about forecasting and weather instruments. Students use the Weather Forecast graphic organizer to answer specific questions about sky, precipitation, temperature, clothing, and activities and then prepare and present a three-day oral weather forecast to the family. At the end, students are asked what they learned about weather and to describe how the weather changes throughout the year and how it affects them.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 1
On the Town
Students are asked to listen to and discuss the book On the Town and answer direct comprehension questions such as "What is a community?" and "What places did Charlie visit in his community?," which prompt identification of the main topic and recall of key details. Activity 3 asks students to draw a new page showing a unique place Charlie could visit and to write or dictate a sentence about Charlie visiting that place, requiring them to restate details from the text and connect them to their own community. The wrapping-up prompts ("Ask your child what a healthy community provides…" and discussion of places and how they meet needs) further require students to summarize the main idea and supporting details about communities.
Lesson 2
My Community Environment
Students read Me on the Map and examine the town map, naming streets, buildings, and the river and discussing the purpose of each place (courthouse, police, fire station, library, museum, grocery store). Students trace routes between buildings and answer questions about which buildings are closer or farther, practicing retelling spatial details. Students make a community poster labeling places and write or dictate brief descriptions of how each place serves the community, and they select three books to describe the types of communities shown in illustrations.
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students read or are read books about community workers (Activity 6) and are asked to read lists and name what each worker does (Activity 1 and Option 2). Students observe a worker and then describe what they saw (Activity 3), and they record one simple sentence about how each worker helps the community (Activity 5). Students also create a chart of sightings and answer questions about which worker they saw most or least (Activity 2), which requires recalling and reporting observed details.
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
The Introduction asks the child to name important places in the community and explain how each place helps people, which prompts students to state central ideas about goods and services. Activity 1 requires students to read labels for buildings, goods, and services and to match buildings to the goods or services they provide, reinforcing key details. The Wrapping Up asks the child to describe some goods and services offered in the community and to explain why people have jobs and what they do with the money they make, prompting students to recount details orally.
Lesson 5
Resources
The lesson title and the Facts and Definitions explicitly state the topic (resources, natural vs. manmade), and the Questions to Explore focus student attention on that topic. Multiple activities ask students to explain how resources are used, where they are found, or to write a sentence about gathered items (Activity 3 and Wrapping Up). Sorting and labeling tasks require students to identify and describe examples (Natural vs. Manmade) and to mark items with N or M, which engages students in stating details about resource types.
Lesson 7
A Citizen with Character
Students practice retelling story events by dividing a page into beginning, middle, and end and illustrating and writing or dictating a sentence for each part (Activity 5). Students answer prediction and comprehension questions after reading "A Lesson in Honesty," describing what happened and why (Activity 4). Students record characters' actions and the resulting consequences, describing key events and outcomes (Activity 6).
Lesson 8
Rules and Laws
Students read and discuss the Facts and Definitions that state what rules and laws are and why they exist (e.g., rules and laws help keep people safe and happy). Students read the story "The House with No Rules" and answer explicit comprehension questions such as "What kinds of things happen in the house with no rules?" and "Would you stay in the house with no rules? Why or why not?" Students sort specific statements into "Rules" or "Laws" on the activity page and read and sequence home rules in Activity 1 by choosing and ordering the most important rules.
Lesson 9
Caring for Our Communities
The lesson includes a clear facts statement: "Good citizens care for their communities and try to make them better places to live," which gives students a central idea to state. The story "When One Person Cares" is followed by questions asking what happens at the beginning, middle, and end, and by specific detail questions (Where does Katy live? What does she do?), which prompt students to retell events and identify details. Activities ask students to name three things that make a community healthy and to discuss pictures showing good and bad community traits, which requires identifying supporting details about community qualities.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 3
Size, Shape, and Color
The Wrapping Up section asks the child to "describe what she learned about mixing colors" and to "name and describe the different shapes she examined," which prompts students to retell learned details. The Facts and Definitions page lists explicit factual statements about colors and shapes that students can refer to and recount. The Student Activity Page has students draw or write an example object for each shape, requiring them to identify and supply details about each shape in context.
Lesson 5
How Old?
Students are presented with an informational introduction and a Facts and Definitions section that defines age, birthdays, and that all living things get older. Students are asked to explain what it means to be a certain age, discuss tree rings as evidence of age, and put family pictures or cutouts in order from oldest to youngest. Students also read or are read short scripted questions on the activity pages and are prompted to connect numeric ages to pictured people and to record names and questions about the people.
Lesson 10
Earth Materials: Rocks, Soil, and Water
Students are asked at the end to "describe the three main materials found on Earth and some of their unique attributes," directly prompting identification of the main topic. Multiple reading questions require students to name solids and liquids, describe their roles, and describe habitats and characters from the texts, which asks for specific text details. In Activity 7 students create an "Earth Materials" book in which they list properties and examples of dirt, rocks, and water, requiring them to organize and retell key information from the texts and activities.
Lesson 11
Using Earth Materials
The lesson asks the child to "describe the three Earth materials she explored in the last lesson," which prompts naming the main topic (water, dirt/soil, rocks). The Skills section includes "Summarize the physical properties of Earth materials..." which asks students to state key characteristics. The activities require students to keep lists, logs, or photo collages and to "review the idea that all three are important for life on Earth," providing opportunities to state details about uses and properties.
Unit 2: Senses
Lesson 1
My Five Senses
Students locate the book title and are asked to predict what the story is about, prompting identification of the main topic (the five senses). After reading, students answer specific questions naming the five senses and the body parts used for each sense, which elicits key details from the text. Students organize and record details by sorting pictured or written items onto a Senses Web and by writing or dictating sentences about sensing experiences, reinforcing recall of details and examples from the text.
Lesson 2
Senses and Body Parts
Students listen to the read-aloud "Jackie's Day at the Pet Store" and, as Jackie uses a sense, pick up and glue the corresponding body part (Option 1), requiring them to identify sensory details mentioned in the text. In Option 2, students make up and orally tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end and pause to glue sense organs when Jackie uses a sense, practicing sequencing and recounting events. Activities 2 and 3 ask students to point to or match sense organs for given situations, reinforcing identification of sensory details and recall.
Lesson 4
Hearing and Seeing
Students listen to The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses being read aloud and answer specific comprehension questions (e.g., what happened when the bus driver flipped the green switch; whose nose/mouth the bus traveled into), which requires recalling story details. Students listen to two short descriptive stories with eyes closed and decide which place is being described, using details to infer setting. The lesson lists skills such as "Listen responsively to text read aloud" and has activities where students describe and record their observations after guided readings and listening tasks.
Lesson 5
Touch
The lesson provides explicit informational sentences such as "Texture is the way something feels" and "We use our sense of touch to identify texture," which students are asked to recall. Students complete a Touch It activity and a Touch Chart where they label objects with descriptive adjectives (e.g., warm, hard, wet) and mark key attributes for given items. Students are prompted to describe their Jell-O painting and to explain how blindfolded items feel, requiring them to state details about touch-related properties.
Lesson 6
Experimenting With Our Senses
Students taste several colored drinks and record descriptive observations on index cards, then compare and explain differences after a blindfolded taste test. Students make and label scratch 'n sniff cards, smell each card, and check their answers by matching scents to written names. Students tell and have recorded a story about a favorite flavor, read it aloud, and write a sentence about something they smelled or tasted.
Lesson 7
Using All of Our Senses
Students listen to pages 21–end of My Five Senses and are asked which senses the boy in the story used and how he used each sense. In Activity 3 students look through books and identify ways characters use their senses (e.g., Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See). The Nature Walk and follow-up question "If someone asked you what you found on your walk, what would you say?" ask students to report details of observations and write or dictate sentences about those observations.
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 2
Physical Characteristics
Students listen to Activity 2 (Different Friends) and are asked to retell the story in their own words and to state what happened at the beginning, middle, and end. Students cut apart and order event boxes from the story, practicing sequencing of key details. In Activity 3 students dictate and illustrate an original story with a beginning, middle, and end and discuss the characters' physical differences, reinforcing the story's main topic (differences/friendship).
Lesson 4
Interests and Hobbies
Students choose a hobby and dictate or write a few sentences describing that hobby to someone unfamiliar (Activity 1). In Activity 2 students go to the library, read books about an interest, and use prior and new knowledge to answer targeted prompts on the "My Interest" sheet (e.g., What most interests you? What is something you already knew?). In Activity 3 students read survey questions aloud and record answers while interviewing three people about their hobbies, then share those findings.
Lesson 5
Shapesville
Students are asked to look at the book cover, point to the title, guess what the story might be about, and answer the question "What doesn't matter in Shapesville?," which targets identifying the main topic. During reading, students identify the shape of each character, count sides and angles, and describe each shape's physical characteristics, personality, and interests. After reading, students answer explicit comprehension questions about how shapes look different and how their personalities and interests differ, prompting retelling of key details.
Lesson 6
Different Families
Students read selected pages of A Life Like Mine (pages 6-13, 18-23, 26-31 and selected child profiles) and are asked to name the basic needs shown (water, food, shelter, health) and draw an illustration for each need. Students locate pictures of families in the book, describe clothing, physical characteristics, activities, and interactions, and complete worksheets that require writing sentences comparing their family to a family from another country or filling a Venn diagram. The skills list also explicitly includes "Connect information in text to personal experience," supporting activities that require students to extract and use details from the text.
Lesson 7
Different Homes
Students are asked to read pages 26–35 of A Life Like Mine and identify and describe the different homes shown in the book. Students are prompted to explain why people have homes and to identify materials used to build homes, linking those details to natural resources and functions like shelter and family gathering. Students are asked to write a sentence about their home, describe whether they would enjoy living in another type of home, and locate similar homes and record country names — all tasks that require recalling and stating key details from the text.
Lesson 8
Different Holidays and Traditions
Students look at online pictures and descriptions of holidays and answer targeted questions such as "What are the people celebrating?" which asks them to identify the focus of a text or picture. Students describe types of activities, clothing, and foods for celebrations (Activity 2), which asks for key supporting details. Students create a Book of Holidays page with the name, month/date, and a sentence about each holiday (Activity 5) and write three sentences about a favorite holiday (Activity 3), which requires summarizing details about a holiday.
Lesson 9
Different Modes of Transportation
The introduction asks the child to give examples of ways people get from place to place and explicitly defines the way we get from one place to another as a mode of transportation. The lesson asks students to look through books/websites (including pages in A Life Like Mine) and identify examples of transportation in pictures. Activities require students to label and categorize modes of transportation (fill-in labels, writing full labels), choose appropriate modes for travel scenarios, and explain or talk about where they have gone using particular modes.
Lesson 10
Wants and Needs
Students are asked to read specific informational pages (pages 46-51, 56-61, 66-71) and discuss why children need education, play, and love, which asks them to identify reasons presented in text. Students complete webs and a "Wants and Needs Survey" to record and organize items people name, and then sort those items into wants and needs. Students also make lists of their own wants and needs and draw or label what a child needs on the "Meeting Needs" pages, which requires pulling details into categories.
Lesson 11
Being Part of a Group
Students are asked to read pages 98–113 of A Life Like Mine and discuss what identity, nationality, and religion mean, which engages them with an informational text. Students complete a prompted paragraph about a group (One group I belong to is..., The group does..., The members in the group are alike because..., One thing I like about the group is...) and then read it aloud. Students brainstorm community groups and discuss the purpose of each group and what members do, which practices extracting and expressing key ideas.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
Students are asked to locate a chosen country on a map and read about its food, clothing, activities, transportation, and environment from books or the Internet. Students complete structured pages for location, food, hobbies, homes, clothing, transportation, holidays, and similarities, writing sentences and drawing or adding pictures about each category. Students compile these filled-in pages into a book that reports factual details about a child from another country and how that child is similar to or different from themselves.
3: Patterns
Unit 1: Identifying and Creating Visual Patterns
Lesson 1
What Is a Pattern?
Students are asked to identify the title and author's name of the story Busy Bugs and to guess what the story is about, which prompts them to name the topic. Students follow along as the story is read and are asked to explain the patterns they see on specific pages (pages 6–11 and 12–25), which requires recalling details from the text and illustrations. Students also practice sequencing and describing patterns by writing three sentences that begin, "First, there is... Next there is... Then there is...," reinforcing retelling of ordered details.
Final Project
Patterns Poster or Patterns Presentation
The lesson introduction names the focus on "different types of patterns" and defines patterns as collections of repeated parts, giving an explicit topic for students to address. Students must label poster sections or fill a Script for Presentation that asks them to name and describe seven pattern types (color, shape, object, ABAB, ABC, AABB, number). Students are prompted to describe each pattern and demonstrate examples to an audience, and wrap-up questions ask what viewers learned about patterns.
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 1
Word Patterns
Students are asked to reread or read Bear Hugs and to copy or dictate the names of animals from the text and identify the habitats where each animal lives, which requires pulling key details from the text. The lesson asks students to discuss storybook structure (beginning, middle, end) and to act out or illustrate a nursery rhyme, which involves retelling elements of a text. Multiple activities ask students to record words or pairs from texts (e.g., rhyming words from nursery rhymes), showing practice with extracting details.
Lesson 3
Poetry Patterns
Students are asked what each poem is about (Activity 1), which prompts them to identify the topic of short texts. Students are directed to discuss, illustrate, or dramatize a story or poem (Skills) and to explain how to find rhyming words (Wrapping Up), which requires attending to content and elements of the poems. Students also reread poems and are asked to guess missing rhyming words (Activity 2), which requires comprehension of the lines they hear.
Lesson 5
Story Patterns
Students are asked to identify and describe what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of stories (Activity 1 questions and the repeated prompts). Students sequence events by cutting/gluing pictures into beginning/middle/end boxes and dictating or writing a sentence for each part (Activity 2 Option 1 and Option 2). Students plan and produce their own short stories by specifying beginning, middle, and end and then illustrating, acting out, or writing sentences to retell those events (Activity 3 and Handwriting).
Unit 3: Patterns in Your World
Lesson 1
Patterns in Nature
Students read pp. 1–11 of Pattern, where the first pages describe what a pattern is and the rest show common patterns in nature. The Facts and Definitions section states "Patterns can be found in nature" and that patterns are lines and shapes that repeat, giving an explicit main idea. Activity 1 asks students to identify and describe the pattern in each picture and to discuss which patterns they have or have not seen, prompting recall of text examples. The Wrapping Up asks students to share examples of patterns found in nature, reinforcing the central idea and examples from the reading.
Lesson 2
Patterns of Growth
Students draw the plant every few days and write a sentence to record its growth on the 'A Plant's Pattern of Growth' page, which requires them to describe observable changes over time. In Activity 4 students cut apart pictures of a plant, a person, and a dog and glue them in order from first to last stage, then illustrate stages for animals with unusual life cycles, which has them retell sequence details. The Wrapping Up prompt asks students to describe the growth pattern of a plant and a person, which focuses student explanation of the central idea (life cycles).
Lesson 3
Night and Day
Students are asked to explain how they know when it is nighttime and daytime and to describe what kinds of things happen during the day and at night. Students perform hands-on activities (spinning a globe, using a flashlight) and are prompted to describe when it is daytime where they live and when it is nighttime. Students draw a picture for "During the Day" and "At Night" and record or dictate a few sentences explaining those activities, and are asked to "explain the pattern of night and day."
Lesson 4
Daily Routines
Students are given a definition of a routine and asked to think about routines, which establishes a clear topic (routines/patterns). In Activity 1 students sequence pictured events of a morning routine by cutting and gluing images in order. In Activity 2 students break a routine into four steps and dictate or write a sentence about each step, and in Activity 3 students record timed activities for a typical day, noting key details and times.
Lesson 7
Patterns at Home
Students are read the Pattern book aloud and then complete a Pattern Scavenger Hunt in which they identify specific patterns from named pages and describe each pattern they find. Students complete activities that require them to name shapes, count sides and angles on a quilt page, and color shapes according to directions, reinforcing details from the cloth/pattern portions of the text. Students write or dictate a sentence on handwriting paper that describes a pattern found in their closet and participate in a wrap-up discussion about where patterns are found and how patterns make the world more interesting.
Lesson 8
Symmetrical Patterns
Students are asked to look closely at a picture of a butterfly's wings and describe the pattern, and to explain that the wings have a symmetrical pattern, which prompts identification of the central idea. Students fold letters and shapes, decide which are symmetrical, and draw lines of symmetry, providing concrete examples and details that support the main idea. Students are prompted at the end to describe what it means to have a symmetrical pattern and to give examples of symmetrical and non-symmetrical shapes, which requires recalling key details.
Lesson 9
Counting Patterns
Students listen to the "How Many Clowns?" story and fill in blanks by tracking how many clowns enter the car, recording the counts as they follow the narrative. Students place clown faces in the car and are prompted to act out the story and then tell their own story about the clowns, which practices sequencing and recalling events. The skills list explicitly includes "Listen to a story read aloud" and "Answer questions about a story read aloud," indicating practice with story-based comprehension.
Final Project
Patterns All Around Lapbook
Students title each mini-book (for example, "Pattern in Nature" and "Symmetrical Pattern"), which requires them to identify a main topic for each book. Students add and label content that functions as key details (for example, stages of growth under flaps, fabric patterns in the four corners, the four seasons on the wheel, and days of the week in the fan book). Students are prompted to explain what their lapbook teaches about patterns and to share it with others, which asks them to retell their book's information aloud.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 1
What Causes Change?
Students are asked to identify what changed between before-and-after pictures in Activity 1 and to match causing actions with resulting effects, which requires noting key details that show change. In Activity 3, students draw before-and-after pictures and complete sentences such as "Once I saw ____ change" and "____ changed because ____," which prompts them to state the topic of their example and key details about it. Activity 2 has students classify changes as fast or slow and record their reasoning, reinforcing identification and description of specific change details. The Skills section also lists that students will "read or attempt to read own dictated story," providing an opportunity to produce and orally retell a short informational account.
Lesson 2
What Changed?
Students read "Part 1: Things Change" and answer targeted comprehension questions (e.g., identify examples of physical changes, name chemical changes, and classify burning as chemical), which requires recalling key details from the informational text. Students examine the "How Did It Change?" activity page and determine how attributes changed in each illustrated sequence, practicing extraction of specific details. The wrapping-up prompt asks students to explain the different ways change can happen and give an example of each type, which asks students to state the central topic (ways things change) and support it with examples.
Lesson 3
Changing Position
Students are asked to look at the cover and state what is happening and what the book will be about, prompting identification of the main topic. The guided reading questions (e.g., How do we get objects to start moving? Can you give examples of a push or a pull?) require students to retell key details from the text. The "Using an Index" activity has students locate words like "gravity" and "inertia" in the book and copy the sentence(s) that contain those words, which has students retrieve and record specific details from the text. The wrapping-up prompt asks students to explain ways objects change position, encouraging them to summarize key information.
Lesson 4
Changes in the Environment
Students read or listen to "Part 2: Seasons Change" and are prompted to answer specific questions about changes on pages (e.g., water freezing/evaporating, pupa to butterfly, leaves growing). Students discuss and describe how weather and seasons change (naming types of weather, labeling and coloring seasonal tree pictures, and spinning the seasons wheel) and are asked to describe changes that take place in the natural environment. Students write or illustrate two sentences about a time weather caused them to change an activity and explain how changes can cause people to change what they are doing.
Lesson 6
Changes in the Sky
Students are asked in the Wrapping Up section to describe how objects in the sky change positions and to talk about Earth revolving around the Sun, the Moon revolving around the Earth, and Earth rotating. In Activity 1 students list adjectives/phrases describing the Sun and Moon and discuss why the Sun is important and that the Moon shines by reflecting the Sun. In Activity 2 students act out rotation and revolution and are asked to explain what those actions represent.
Lesson 7
Living Things Change
Students review specific pages of a text (pages 30-31 and 34-37) and are asked to think of other ways animals change, linking discussion to the reading. In Activity 2 students look at paired pictures and answer questions about what changed (size, number, shape, place), circle words that describe the change, and classify changes as fast or slow. In Activity 3 students create four before-and-after illustrations (or cutouts) showing changes, and in Activity 4 students write or copy a sentence that describes how something changes in size.
Lesson 8
Plants and Change
Students read specific pages of a nonfiction text (National Geographic Readers: Seed to Plant) and answer targeted comprehension questions about what plants are used for and how they compare to animals. Students use a table of contents to locate the section titled "What Do Plants Need?" and then read and recount the needs of plants. Students sequence and retell the life cycle by cutting and gluing pictures in order and by completing a foldable showing stages from seed to flower. Students list and label plant parts and describe what plants need to grow during the wrap-up activity.
Lesson 9
Heat Causes Change
Students review pages 14-15 and 18-19 in the book Changes Happen All Around You and are asked questions about burning and change, prompting identification of the central idea that heat causes change. In Activity 1 and the activity page, students draw, label, and order ice, water, and steam and explain why the states changed, retelling the observed details of the experiment. In Activity 2 students record measurements over time and answer guided questions (How did the candle change? What caused the candle to change?), which require them to recount key observational details. The Wrapping Up and Life Application sections ask students to explain how heat caused specific changes and to identify household examples, prompting summary of main concept and supporting details.
Lesson 10
Chemical Changes
Students are asked in Wrapping Up to describe the difference between a physical and a chemical change and to give an example of each, which prompts them to state the central idea (physical vs. chemical change) and provide supporting examples. In Activity 3 and the Student Activity Page, students categorize six paired scenarios as chemical or physical and are asked to explain how they made each decision, which requires recalling and stating key details that support the classification. The Facts and Definitions section presents concise statements about physical and chemical changes that students can use as the basis for identifying the topic and details.
Lesson 11
People Change the Environment
Students are asked to summarize ways humans protect the environment in the Skills section and to discuss reduce/reuse/recycle practices, which requires recalling key informational points. In Activity 3, students describe what is happening in each illustration and explain how it changes the environment, prompting them to state supporting details for each example. After watching the linked video, students sort items into recycle or trash bins, which requires using details from the video or discussion to make decisions about each item's recyclability.
Unit 2: Characters Change
Lesson 1
What's in a Name
Students answer direct comprehension questions (QUESTION #1–#4) about how Chrysanthemum felt, why she changed her mind, how words affect others, and how Mrs. Twinkle altered classmates' feelings. Students complete a "Characters Change" page where they list three characteristics of Chrysanthemum early in the story and three at the end and write short sentences explaining how she changed. Students interpret "Feeling Phrases" by identifying what each phrase communicates about Chrysanthemum's emotions and illustrating her facial expression.
Lesson 2
Why Worry?
Students watch a read-aloud and answer comprehension questions (Q1–Q3) that ask whether Wemberly needed to worry and why, requiring recall of story events (party, Halloween, school). Question #4 asks students what they can learn from Wemberly, prompting a statement of the story's lesson or main point. In the "Characters Change" activity students write how Wemberly was at the beginning and at the end and complete the prompt "Wemberly changed because...," which requires retelling key details about the character's development.
Lesson 3
Is It a Problem?
Students answer four explicit comprehension questions about the story that ask how the problem is shown, how it changes, how the boy addresses it, and what he learns. Students complete a Beginning, Middle, and End activity in which they identify and sequence key events from What Do You Do With a Problem? and two other stories. Students illustrate the problem at three points in the story and complete a Characters Change page to describe how the boy is different from beginning to end.
Lesson 4
Comparing Characters
Students are asked to dictate three- or four-sentence summaries for stories, with one sentence for the beginning, one for the middle, and one for the end, and an example summary of Chrysanthemum is provided. Student activity pages include labeled lines for "Wemberly Story Summary" and "What Do You Do With a Problem? Summary," prompting students to retell key events. Cause-and-effect and Venn-diagram activities require students to identify and record important events, outcomes, and similarities between characters, reinforcing attention to key details.
Lesson 5
The Raft
Students answer focused comprehension questions across three days that require them to retell key details (e.g., what the boy finds at the river, what animals he sees, what he paints on the raft, and how he feels at the end). Activity 7 asks students to identify story elements—characters, setting, and problem/solution—for multiple stories, and the matching activity asks students to link problems and solutions, which requires recalling central story details. Activity 8 and the wrapping-up discussion have students describe how the main character changed and what caused that change, prompting them to summarize important events.
Unit 3: A First Look at History - Change Over Time
Lesson 2
Understanding Time
Students read pages of an informational book (Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks) and are prompted to discuss that change takes place over time. Students answer targeted comprehension questions about where events belong in time (e.g., Were you born in the past, present, or future?) and identify units of time by ordering cut-apart terms from shortest to longest. Students complete a three-box worksheet ("Yesterday I," "Today I," "Tomorrow I will") in which they write or draw events from different time periods.
Lesson 3
Communities Change
Students answer explicit comprehension questions such as "Where did the story happen?," "Who are the characters?," and "How did the environment change in the story?," which prompt identification of the story's central idea and details. Students put events from the story in chronological order using the Maple Street timeline (cutting, numbering, and pasting events) to retell key events. Students identify communities over time (Native Americans, pioneers, townspeople), circle animals from the story, pick out artifacts, and write a sentence about The House on Maple Street, all of which require recalling and reporting key details.
Lesson 4
Past and Present
Students read specified informational sections about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Europe (Activity 2 and Activity 3) and are asked to compare settings, clothing, and daily life. Students are asked to dictate 5 clues about a chosen time period (Activity 7), to write a sentence describing how life in the past differs from today (Activity 8), and to complete grids and sorting tasks that require locating facts about homes, transportation, clothing, and school (Activity 5). The skills list also directs students to use text features to locate key facts and to connect information in text to their own experience.
Lesson 5
Exploring the Past
Students locate and examine the book's "Culture" pages and are instructed to draw and write or dictate descriptions of information about homes, clothes, food, and transport, which requires extracting key details from the text. Students cut out pictures of cultures and place them on a timeline, recalling which cultures are earlier or later, which reinforces identifying the central topic of cultural differences over time. Students write one sentence about each element of culture for a chosen culture, illustrate the sentences, assemble a book, and present it to family, directly practicing retelling key details.
Lesson 6
Predicting Future Change
Students read brief scenarios (Activity 1) and are asked to identify what changed in each situation and to predict how the change will affect the future, which requires recalling and describing key events in the text. Students dictate a description of a personal change (Activity 3) and attempt to read it, and they write or copy a sentence about a change (Activity 4), which has them state key details about a single topic (a change).
Lesson 7
People of the Past
Students read a simple biography and are asked directed questions such as "How would you describe this person?" and "What did this person do to make a positive change?", which prompts them to recall and state key details. In Activity 2 students read short descriptions, point to the individual described, and glue descriptions beneath pictures, which requires identifying and matching specific details from informational text. In Activity 4 students write a sentence about a historical person, practicing retelling a detail from the text in writing.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
Students are asked to read the reader The Pig Can, read the title, describe the cover, and answer the question "What do you think this book is about?" Students are prompted to point to punctuation and to read each page, then read the book a second time and answer a comprehension question ("Do you think the pig and the cat can fit in the box?") and explain their thinking.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
In Activity 5.2 students are asked to read the reader The Bug, read the title, and describe the cover, which requires them to identify the subject of the text. After reading, students answer targeted comprehension questions about what the bug is able to do, what the bug wants to do, and why the bug cannot do it, which asks them to recall and retell specific details from the text.
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
Students read Reader #7 — They Get Wet on their own and aloud while pointing to each word, and they are asked a preview question: "What do you think will happen in this book?" After reading, students are asked specific comprehension questions: "Where is the ship at the beginning of the book?" and "Why are the rat and the cat wet at the end?" These tasks require students to recall and describe key details from the text.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
On Day 4 students read the reader "Meg and Dan and the Sled" on their own and then read it aloud while pointing to each word. After reading, students answer specific comprehension questions that ask them to recall events (e.g., why they fell off the sled) and explain a character action (why they stop for a snack).
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students read Reader #9 — The Club on their own and then answer comprehension questions about it (e.g., the color of the flags; what the kids do at the club). The activity directs students to point to each word as they read and to respond to specific factual questions about the text and to a personal-response question about what they would do at the club.
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students read the short reader One Can on their own and are asked comprehension questions such as "Where are the ducks swimming to?" and "What are the kids running on?," which asks them to recall specific details. Students also read the Weekly Message aloud and follow along, pointing to words they know, giving additional practice with reading connected text. Several activities ask students to read words aloud and read back words they built, providing more opportunities to extract individual facts from short texts.
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
Students read the reader At Camp independently and aloud to an adult. After reading, students are asked specific comprehension questions such as "What do the kids do at camp?" and "What are the kids hunting for?" that require them to state the central activities and a key detail from the text. The lesson also encourages students to reread previous readers and to read to others, providing additional practice in recounting text content.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students read Reader #12 "Huff and Puff" independently and then read it aloud while pointing to words. After reading, students answer targeted comprehension questions such as "What insects are shown in the book?" and "Why is everyone huffing and puffing at the end of the book?", which requires recalling specific details from the text. The Weekly Message is read aloud with students pointing to words, supporting attention to text content.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
Students read the reader Spring Has Sprung! on their own and then read it aloud to an adult, pointing to each word as they read. After reading, students are asked direct comprehension questions such as "What do the kids do at the track?" and "What do the kids do at the pond?" which elicit specific events and actions from the text. The lesson prompts students to name activities from the story (sprint, splash, squint, squish) connecting questions to explicit details in the text.
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
Students read Reader #15 — The Raft Trip independently and aloud to an adult. After reading, students answer direct comprehension questions that ask for specific details (e.g., "What animals are on the bank of the river?" and "Which animals nap on the raft?"). Students also practice writing dictated sentences drawn from the unit, reinforcing recall of text-specific information.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students read the reader In the Fall independently and aloud (Activity 5.1). After reading, students answer specific comprehension questions that ask them to recall activities Lin and Dev do in the fall and what Lin does while Dev makes cakes. Students are also asked to share which of the activities they like most, prompting them to connect details from the text to their own response.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
Students read the reader They Chose To Doze on their own and then answer explicit comprehension questions such as "What did the family do on their trip?" and "Who fell off of the mule?" which require recalling events and details. Activity 5.1 asks students to read aloud and then respond to questions about story events, prompting them to state what happened in the text. The sentence-dictation and rereading tasks require students to read sentences and identify sentence boundaries, supporting comprehension of text structure.
Lesson 3
Hard and Soft c and g
On Day 5 (Activity 5.2) students read the graded reader "These Mice" independently and aloud to an adult. After reading, students answer explicit comprehension questions about story details (what mice use for beds, what they sit on to eat cake) and a question about why the mice like their home. The lesson also lists skills such as "Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding," supporting text comprehension practice.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
Students read The Gray Day independently and then read it aloud to an adult, after which they answer specific comprehension questions (e.g., "What do the boys play with indoors?" and "What animal do they see on the drain outside?"). Students are prompted to reread the Weekly Message and point to long a words, which requires scanning text and identifying words and some details. Students also participate in sentence dictation and are asked to read their written sentences back, reinforcing recall of sentence-level content.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
On Day 5 students read the reader "What Do You Eat?" independently and then read it aloud to an adult. After reading, students answer specific comprehension questions such as "What does the worm eat?" and "How many beans are the birds eating?", which require recalling key details from the text. Students also respond to a personal-question prompt about foods they like, connecting the text to their own experiences.
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
On Day 5 students read The Dark Night independently and aloud and are asked specific comprehension questions: "What do Tom and Val see in the sky?" and "What do Tom and Val dream about?" These prompts require students to recall and state key details from the text (moon, stars, bats; Tom dreams of pie, Val dreams of mice). The activity also asks a follow-up question connecting to personal experience, encouraging students to discuss details of dreaming.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
On Day 5 (Activity 5.1) students read The Slow Boat and answer explicit comprehension questions such as "How many boats are in the race?" and "What color is the boat that wins the race?" Activity 5.1 requires students to read the story independently and then respond to specific factual details from the text. Activity 5.3 (optional) and the rereading of the Weekly Message prompt students to locate and discuss words/ideas in a short text.
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students read the reader Would You Eat It? independently and aloud to an adult (Day 5). After reading, students answer specific comprehension questions such as What does Tom add to the stew? and What color does Val add to the stew?, which require recalling key details. Students also reread the Weekly Message and point to words, demonstrating engagement with text-level reading.
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
Students read Reader #10 — The Wild Colt on their own and then read it aloud, after which they are asked specific comprehension questions (e.g., why the colt is hard to find; how the man stops the colt from bolting) that require recalling story events and details. Students complete sentence dictation ("The child is kind."; "The colt is blind.") and are asked to reread the Weekly Message and identify words, reinforcing reading for meaning and recall of facts from text.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students read Reader #12 "The New Toy" on Day 5 and are asked to read it aloud and answer comprehension questions such as "What sound does the toy make?" and "What do you think Dan's new toy is?" Students are also prompted to reread the Weekly Message and point to words with the oi/oy sound, and they respond to guided questions about words and meanings during various activities.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
Students read Reader #13 — The Hound and the Owl independently and then read it aloud to an adult. After reading, students are asked targeted comprehension questions about story events (e.g., what the hound does during the day, what the hound does at night, and why the hound howls at the owl), prompting recall of key details.
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
Students read Reader #14 (The Pups) independently and aloud (Activity 5.1). After reading, students answer specific comprehension questions such as "Where do the pups sleep?" and "What are some of the things the puppies in the story do?", which requires them to recall and state key details from the text. The lesson's skills list also includes reading with purpose and understanding, supporting comprehension practice.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
On Day 5 (Activity 5.2) students read Reader #16 — The Gnats on their own and then answer explicit comprehension questions about what the gnats do at the playground and at the picnic. The lesson instructs the child to read the story aloud to an adult and then respond to questions that require recalling events from the text. The Skills section also lists reading grade-level text with purpose and understanding and reading aloud with accuracy and expression.