First Grade - ELA
1: Environment
Unit 3: Community
Final Project
I Can Make A Difference
The lesson lists the skill "Use words that name and words that tell action (LA)" and provides sentence starters and writing tasks that require verbs (e.g., "I am planning to __," "The first thing I will do is __," and "I helped __ with __"). The example plan and reflection prompts include inflected verb forms such as "planning," "will do," "will buy," and "helped," which students will produce when writing and speaking about their projects.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 7
Different Homes
Students read and sort word triples such as "big, bigger, biggest" and either color pictures or write the correct comparison word beneath each picture (Activity 1, Student Activity Page). The activity explicitly models and practices comparative and superlative forms across several adjective sets (big/bigger/biggest; small/smaller/smallest; tall/taller/tallest; long/longer/longest). Students are asked to record the correct word beneath pictures, showing identification of different word forms.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
Students fill in parallel sentence prompts that contrast first person and third person forms, for example the example text: "I live in America. Jung Wei lives in China." The Student Activity Pages explicitly show prompts such as "I live in" alongside "(name) lives in," so students write and read both the base form and the -s third-person form. The book creation task asks students to write sentences about themselves and another child, exposing them to repeated verb forms in context.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 11
People Change the Environment
The lesson repeatedly uses base words and their inflected forms such as "reduce"/"reducing", "reuse"/"reusing", "recycle"/"recycling", and "change"/"changes" in definitions, explanations, and activity instructions. Students are asked to discuss reducing, reusing, and recycling and to describe how things are changing in illustrations, which requires using these word forms in speech and writing.
Unit 2: Characters Change
Lesson 1
What's in a Name
The lesson explicitly teaches about suffixes in Facts and Definitions, stating that "-less" means "without" and "-ful" means "full of," and lists using affixes as a skill. Activity 4 (Vocabulary) has students underline "less" in "priceless" and "ful" in "dreadful," ask students to infer meanings from context, and provides examples (careless, fearless, beautiful, helpful). The Skills section also includes "Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word," which students practice through vocabulary guessing and matching.
Lesson 5
The Raft
Students read sentences that contain inflected forms (e.g., "I mumbled," "were cluttered," "swooping," "tied it to the dock," "I startled an otter") in the Vocabulary activity and elsewhere in the text. In Activity 2 students read each sentence and match it to a definition, so they read and process verbs in different forms (past tense and -ing forms) while determining word meaning.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
Students practice forming plurals by adding -s in multiple activities: Activity 3.1 has students add s to words (cat → cats) and say phrases like "one dog, three dogs." Activity 3.2 has students write plural forms to match pictures (answers include dogs, pigs, rats, etc.). The skills list explicitly states students will "Form regular plural nouns orally by adding s or es," and Activity 5.1 includes word chains and plural examples (e.g., cabs → cubs → tubs; dots → dogs).
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students build and spell words that include inflectional -s (for example, they spell and write plums, plugs, flags, flocks, and blocks) during word-building and writing activities. Students are explicitly taught and asked to use the verb pair have and had, with an explanation that have is present tense and had is past tense and opportunities to produce sentences using each. Word-building tasks require students to create both base forms and their -s forms (e.g., plum/plums, plug/plugs) using letter and word-building cards.
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students build and spell words that include inflectional -s forms (e.g., drips, drops, tricks, bricks) in the word-building activities (Day 2 Group #3 and Day 3 / Alphabet Soup examples). The Alphabet Soup activity explicitly notes that students can create "versions of some words with s at the end," and students are asked to read the words they create, including those with -s endings. Word-building pages ask students to create and write multiple word forms (e.g., drag / drips / drops; trip / tricks), so students practice producing base words and some -s forms.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students are exposed to examples of base and modified words in Activity 2.1 where the left column shows words like "run" and the right column shows modified forms like "running," and they are asked to listen for differences and clap syllables. In Activity 1.3 the lesson contrasts present and past verb forms by having students hear and read sentences that use "are" vs. "were" and mentions "have" and "had." The lesson also tells students that words can form new meanings by combining or modifying them (starlight, pancake, running, horseplay).
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Students read, sort, and glue words that demonstrate the "add s" plural rule (e.g., cats, pigs, camps, frogs, chips, shops, tents, balls) and explain that adding s shows more than one. Students read and write plural words in dictated sentences (e.g., "The cats sang a long song.") and practice reading sight-word and word-family lists that include plural forms. Students complete activities that require placing words on a page labeled "Add s rule."
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
Students are asked to spell and read words that show different inflectional forms: Activity 2.2 Group 1 has students spell "spring, sprang, sprung" and "scrap, scraps." Activity 3.2 and other activities have students spell and read pairs like "shrink" and "shrunk." The word-sorting and word-building pages include lists with multiple forms (e.g., sprang, sprung, scraps, shrunk) for students to read and categorize.
Lesson 15
More Ending Blends
Students are reminded in the "Alphabet Soup" activity that they can add s to some words to show more than one (plural) and are encouraged to spell words that include those plurals (examples given: rafts, lifts, lists, quilts). Students read and spell words that appear in different forms throughout the lesson (e.g., left, wept, slept, kept, helped/ help forms in lists), and the activities ask students to build, spell, and read those word forms. Several tasks prompt students to change letters to make new words (for example, changing "pat" to "pact" and changing "let" to "left"), exposing students to altered word endings.
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
Students spell and read pairs that show a base word and a plural form (for example, Activity 3.1 asks students to "Spell park, parks, shark, spark, yarn, barns"). Activity 3.1 also has students spell "yard, yards" and "cards" in group exercises, and several word lists and word-sorts include both singular and plural items that students categorize and read aloud. Students practice writing and reading these word forms in multiple activities (writing words, fill-in-the-blanks, and word sorts).
Lesson 17
Semester Review
The skills list explicitly names "Adding s to show more than one," and word-building materials include an "ing" card and endings such as ing/ink/ong, which students use to form words. In Activity 1.2 students spell words that include plural and inflected forms (for example, flags) and use word-building cards to assemble words. In Activity 3.2 students write dictated sentences that include inflected forms such as "dogs" and the past tense "slept." In Activity 2.3 students write and consider words including "sang," providing exposure to a past-tense form.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
Students are asked to add an -s to words to show more than one (bat -> bats) and to read the new plural forms (games). They are asked to change a verb by adding -s (like -> likes) and to notice the difference between "like" and "likes" in two sentences. Activities explicitly direct students to add an s to each dictated word and read the resulting words.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
Students are asked to add the lowercase letter s to the end of the sight word "other" and say the new word "others" (Activity 1.3). Word-building activities require students to spell and read words that include final -s or plural forms (e.g., "worms," "barks") during Group 3 and other word-building lists. The lesson also has students read and write words aloud after spelling them, which gives practice reading words with added -s endings.
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
Students practice adding -s to words in the "Alphabet Soup" activity (encouraged to "add s to some words to show more than one of something") and the Making Sentences activity includes plural words such as "girls." The sight word list and practice include the root word "look," which students read and use in sentence-building and sight-word activities.
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
Students are asked to spell and read base words and their related forms (for example: pie, tie, die, lie and the forms tied, cried, tried, fried, and dried in Activity 4.1). Students read and write these forms aloud and practice spelling them by adding letters to word parts (e.g., asking the child to spell tied, cried, tried). The materials include multiple examples where a base word and a modified form appear together, allowing students to produce both forms.
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
Students are prompted to add s to some words to show more than one (‘‘Remind him that he can add s to some words to show more than one of something'') and plural forms appear in word lists and example words (e.g., colds, folds, gifts). The Alphabet Soup and spelling/word-building activities require students to spell and read both singular and plural forms (students are asked to read words like "colds," "folds," "gifts" and to spell words from provided letter cards). The activities include guided reading of word families where students orally read and write multiple word forms.
Lesson 11
Long Vowel Sounds Review
Students encounter inflected words in multiple activities: Activity 3.1 explicitly notes that 'pies' is 'pie' + s and asks the helper to point this out. Reader review lists show paired base and inflected/plural forms (e.g., skate/skates, bake/cakes, rain/rains, train/trails), and the sight words include 'called' (a past-tense form). Several fill-in and sorting activities require students to read and write words that include plural -s and past-tense/past-participial forms.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students read and write words that include inflectional endings such as plural -s (e.g., the sentence dictation "The boys play with the toy," Set 5 words including boy, toys) and encounter -ing forms in the Weekly Message (reading, writing). Students also produce and spell words in context (making sentences, sentence dictation, and word building) that present base words alongside their inflected forms (boy/toys, read/reading).
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
Students are told explicitly that "made" is the past tense form of "make" and are given example sentences contrasting make/made. The activities encourage adding s to some words to show more than one (e.g., Alphabet Soup lists laws, claws, draw → claws) and students are asked to spell and read plural forms they create. Spelling, dictation, and reading tasks require students to read and write inflected forms (made, laws/claws) in context.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
Students are asked to locate and read the word "gnashed" in Where the Wild Things Are, so they encounter an inflected form (-ed) in context. Students also read and manipulate a set of base words (gnat, gnash, know, write, knock, etc.) during word-building, sorting, and spelling activities, which exposes them to base forms of common words.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
Students are asked to practice adding s to show more than one (listed under skills and in the year-end checklist). In Activity 1.2 (Which Words?) students identify words that include s to show more than one (plants, gems, rings). The Alphabet Soup and word lists include plural forms such as boys and toys, which students are prompted to read and spell.