Curriculum/Program Guide: Elementary Level

Grade 1 – 6 Curriculum Maps | Elementary Concepts in ELA and Math

Grade K – 6 Curriculum Maps

Grade-level curriculum maps serve as planning tools that help teachers plan the pacing of their instruction. The maps are a general guideline and are subject to change during the year. View maps for grades Kindergarten through 6 below.

• Kindergarten Curriculum Map
• Grade 1 Curriculum Map
• Grade 2 Curriculum Map
• Grade 3 Curriculum Map
• Grade 4 Curriculum Map
• Grade 5 Curriculum Map
• Grade 6 Curriculum Map

Elementary Key Concepts in ELA and Math

View the key concepts in ELA and Math for specific grade levels below.

Kindergarten | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6

Kindergarten

English Language Arts (ELA)

Reading

• Rhyming words
  • Tell a rhyme
  • Matching rhyming pictures
• Identify beginning, middle, and ending sounds
  High-frequency words
• Blending/sounding out new words
• Substituting beginning and ending sounds
• Consonant and vowel sounds
• Comprehending: answering questions about a text

Writing

• Uppercase and lowercase letters
• Capitalize the beginning of a sentence and the pronoun “I”.
• Place a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of
• sentence.
• Use appropriate spacing between words.
• Phonetically spell consonant-vowel-consonant words.
• Write the sequence of events using first, next, and last.
• Write detailed facts about a given topic.
• Provide an opinion with a supporting detail.
• Write a reaction (closing sentence) when writing.

Math

• Number Sense
  • Name and write numbers through 100
  • 1:1 correspondence with numbers through 20
  • Order numbers 0 through 20
  • Comparing using more and fewer (1 more, 2 more, 1 fewer, 2 fewer)
  • Recognize patterns on 100 chart; count by 2s, 5s, and 10s
  • Estimate numbers to 30
  • Ways to make 10
  • Composing and decomposing numbers through 19, using a 10-frame
  • Concepts of inside/outside, above/below/on, in front of/behind, and left/right
• Addition and subtraction of whole numbers
  • Adding and subtracting within 10, using a + and – sign
  • Write number sentences
• Geometry
  • Plane shapes – square, rectangle, triangle, circle, and hexagon
  • Recognize same size, same shape
  • Make shapes from other shapes
  • Compare 3-dimensional shapes
• Measurement
  • Non-standard measurement for length, weight, and capacity
  • Reading picture graphs

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Grade 1

ELA

Phonics

• Long and short vowels
• Blends (sp, bl)
• Consonant sounds
• Segmenting
• Decoding
• Identify beginning, middle, and end sounds

Comprehension

• Predict what will happen next.
• Retell the beginning, middle, and end with details.
• Story structure: main character, setting, problem, and solution.
• Cause and effect
• Main idea
• Character traits
• Making connections

Fluency: read grade-level text at an appropriate rate with expression and accuracy.

Grammar

• Nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs
• Synonyms and antonyms
• Homographs and homophones

High-Frequency Words: weekly words to know

Writing

• Capitalize the first word in a sentence and “I”
• Ending punctuation: ?, !, .
• Provide topic sentence, three details, and a conclusion/closing in opinion, narrative, and informative pieces.
• Use sequence words (e.g., first, next, then, last)
• Spell grade-level words accurately

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Grade 2

ELA

Reading

• Retell stories with specific details telling the overall lesson or moral.
• Answer questions such as who, where, when, why, and how to determine understanding of key details in a text.
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend nonfiction texts on a grade 2 to 3 level.

Phonics

• Long and short vowels
• Decode two-syllable words
• Decode common prefixes and suffixes
• Decode irregular sound spelling patterns

Fluency: read grade-level text at an appropriate rate with expression

Writing

• Write opinion, informative, and narrative paragraphs.
• Complete three oral presentations during the year.
• Answer a question beginning with a topic sentence and stating a claim.

Math

• Place value
  • Place value to the hundreds place
  • Standard and expanded word form
• Math fact mastery – addition and subtraction
• Addition and subtraction of whole numbers
  • Fluency of addition and subtraction facts to 20
  • Adding and subtracting up to 3-digit numbers, including across a zero in the tens place
• Multiplication
  • Understand arrays as a foundation for multiplication
• Geometry
  • Plane and three-dimensional shapes
  • Vertices, faces, and edges
  • Understand perimeter as the length around a shape
  • Polygons
• Measurement
  • Measuring in different units (nonstandard, customary, and metric units)
  • Draw a picture or bar graph to represent data
• Time
  • Telling time to 5 minutes
  • Quarter to and quarter after
• Money
  • Recognize coins by name (front and back) and know their value
  • Counting coins from most valuable to least valuable
• Problem solving
  • Solve word problems using all key concepts
  • Use bar diagrams to solve problems and include examples

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Grade 3

ELA

Reading

• Topic sentences will be presented as a claim.
• Text features: students will use features to increase understanding.
• heading, captions, illustrations, reading charts, diagrams
• Author’s purpose
• Sequence of events
• Main idea and supporting details

Writing

• Opinion writing with supporting details
  • Three main idea paragraphs
  • Two to three details for each main idea
• Informative writing: introduce topic with facts
• Narrative writing
  • Descriptive details
  • Senses (show, don’t tell)
  • Temporal words
  • Dialogue
• Edit for capitalization, punctuation, indenting, subject-verb agreement, and complete sentences.

Grammar

• Verbs
• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Subject and predicate
• Quotations and dialogue
• Sentence structure: punctuation, subject-verb agreement, complete sentence

Math

• Place value
  • Place value to the hundred-thousand place
  • Rounding whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred
  • Estimating using rounding or compatible numbers
  • Modeling with place value blocks for adding and subtracting
  • Standard and expanded word form
  • Comparison and ordering of larger numbers
• Math fact mastery – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Addition and subtraction of whole numbers
  • Using mental math to add and subtract
  • Adding and subtracting with regrouping
  • Subtracting across zeros
• Multiplication and Division
  • Understand that multiplication is repeated addition
  • Use arrays as visual models of multiplication
  • Commutative and distributive properties of multiplication
  • Multiply 3 factors
  • Multiples of 10
  • Understand that division is sharing and repeated subtraction
  • Relationship between multiplication and division
• Fractions and Decimals
  • Fractions as equal parts
  • Fractions as parts of a set
  • Fractions on a number line
  • Comparing fractions with like denominators
  • Equivalent fractions
  • Mixed numbers
• Geometry
  • Lines, segments, angles
  • Polygons, including triangles and quadrilaterals, and their characteristics (number of sides, angles, parallel sides, right angles, etc.)
  • Perimeter and area
  • Customary and metric units of capacity, weight, length
• Time
  • Time to half hour, quarter hour, minute
  • Units of time: days in a week, hours, etc.
  • Elapsed time and working backwards to determine elapsed time
• Problem solving
  • Solve word problems using all key concepts
  • Use bar diagrams to solve problems and include examples
  • Determine if an answer is reasonable or not
  • Multiple-step problems

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Grade 4

English Language Arts (ELA)

Reading

• Comprehension Skills
  • Story structure: characters, setting, plot
  • Author’s purpose: to inform, to persuade, to entertain
  • Cause and effect
  • Theme: the central message of the text
  • Understanding characters: studying characters’ words, thoughts, actions
  • Fact and opinion
  • Point of view: first person, third person
  • Conclusions and generalizations
    • A conclusion is a reasonable judgment you make after looking at facts.
    • A generalization is a conclusion that is true most of the time, but not always.
  • Simile and metaphor
  • Text and graphic features
    • Text features: headings, captions, etc.
    • Graphic features: diagrams, maps, etc.
  • Sequence of events
  • Main idea and details
  • Compare and contrast
  • Idiom: a phrase that means something different than what it says (e.g., It’s raining cats and dogs.)
• Comprehension Strategies
  • Summarize: retell the main events in a story, but not including every detail.
  • Monitor/clarify
    • Monitor: stopping periodically to pay attention to your understanding of what you’re reading.
    • Clarify: make the meaning clearer by rereading a text slowly and thinking about the main ideas.
  • Visualize: stopping periodically to visualize places and the people who live there.
  • Analyze/evaluate
    • Analyze: to look closely at parts to find out what they mean or how they work
    • Evaluate: evaluate the actions and thoughts of the characters.
  • Infer/predict: stopping periodically to visualize places and the people who live there.
  • Question: ask questions about characters, thoughts, actions, and words.
• Fluency: can read orally with appropriate expression, rate, phrasing, and accuracy.

Writing

• Write informative/explanatory texts
  • Introduce a topic clearly.
  • Develop the topic with facts, details, or other information related to the topic.
  • Provide linking words and phrases and a concluding statement.
• Write opinion pieces
  • Introduce an opinion clearly.
  • Provide reasons supported by facts and details.
  • Provide linking words and phrases and a concluding statement.
• Write narratives about real or imagined experiences
  • Introduce a narrator and/or characters.
  • Use dialogue and description.
  • Use transition words and phrases to manage sequence of events.
  • Use sensory details to convey events clearly.
  • Provide a conclusion.
• Short-constructed response: responding in writing to a question about a text
  • State a claim: the general answer to the question.
  • Support your claim with text details/evidence.
  • Provide a closing statement.
  • Use grade-appropriate grammar and spelling.

Grammar

• Write complete sentences, recognizing and correcting fragments and run-ons.
• Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their, they’re; your, you’re).
• Use correct capitalization.
• Use commas and quotation marks to mark direct speech and quotations from text.
• Spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed.

Math

• Place value
  • Understand that each place is 10 times the value of the next place
  • Rounding whole numbers to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, or ten thousand
• Math fact mastery – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Addition and subtraction of whole numbers
• Multiplication
  • Understand that multiplication is repeated addition
  • Break apart factors and multiply using the distributive property. For example, 15 x 12 = (10 + 5) x (10 + 2) = (10 x 10) + (10 x 2) + (5 x 10) + (5 x 2)
  • 2-digit by 1-digit multiplication
  • 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication
  • 3-digit by 1-digit multiplication
  • 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication
• Division
  • Understand that division is repeated subtraction
  • Divide 2-, 3-, and 4-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers with and without remainders
  • Understand what the quotient and remainder represent
• Fractions and Decimals
  • Addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators
  • Equivalent fractions
  • Simplifying fractions
  • Ordering fractional amounts from least to greatest with like and unlike denominators
  • Changing improper fractions to mixed numbers
  • Adding and subtracting mixed numbers
  • Understanding the relationship between fractions and decimals (tenths and hundredths)
• Problem solving
  • Solve word problems using all key concepts
  • Use bar diagrams to solve problems and include exam

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Grade 5

English Language Arts (ELA)

Reading

• Figurative language: simile, metaphor, idioms and adages, personification
• Vocabulary in context
• Theme
• Making inferences and drawing conclusions
• Nonfiction text structure
• Text and graphic features
• Author’s purpose, point-of-view, tone
• Character traits
• Craft a response to reading based on two or more texts
• Fluency
• Familiarity with poetry and terms

Writing

• Narrative, informative, and persuasive
• Mechanics, usage, and grammar for revising and editing
• Topic sentences and conclusions
• Voice
• Constructing an opinion based on a text
• Dialogue use
• Organization

Grammar

• Punctuating dialogue
• Prepositions (e.g., on the table, after dinner)
• Verb tenses, including perfect tense (e.g., had walked, has eaten, will have spoken)
• Conjunctions: and, but, or, so
• Comma use: in a series, introductory element, direct address)
• Compound sentences
• Direct and indirect objects (e.g., She gave the cake to me.)
• Commonly misused words (e.g., to, too, two)
• Adverbs
• Comparative adjectives (e.g., high, higher, highest)

Math

• Place value
  • Whole numbers to the billions place
  • Decimals to the thousandths
  • Rounding
  • Standard and expanded word form
• Math fact mastery – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• 3-digit multiplication
• 1- and 2-digit long division
• Basic fraction knowledge
  • Estimating fractions
  • Value of numerator/denominator
  • Equivalent fractions
  • Simplest form
  • Improper to mixed number/mixed number to improper
  • Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions
  • Adding, subtracting, and multiplying mixed numbers
• Decimal numbers
  • Visual representations of decimal numbers
  • Estimating decimals
  • Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals
• Geometry
  • Area and perimeter
  • Volume
  • Solid figures
  • Coordinate geometry
  • Polygons and their characteristics (number of sides, angles, parallel sides, right angles, etc.)
• Writing and evaluating algebraic expressions

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Grade 6

Math

• Number system
  • Place value to the trillions place
  • Place value of decimals to the ten thousandths
  • Multiply and divide fractions and mixed numbers
  • Ordering and comparing rational numbers
  • Absolute value
• Math fact mastery – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Expressions and Equations
  • Write and evaluate expressions with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and variables
  • Order of operations
  • Property of operations
  • Solve one-variable equations and inequalities
  • Analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables
• Statistics and Probability
  • Identify statistical questions
  • Mean, median, mode, range and use them to analyze data and create histograms, line plots, and box plots.
• Ratios and Proportional Relationships
  • Understand the concept of ratio and use ratio language to show relationships between quantities
  • Understand the concept of a unit rate
  • Use ratios and rates to solve real world problems
  • Make tables with equivalent ratios
  • Find percents of numbers
• Geometry
  • Area of regular and irregular polygons
  • Volume of rectangular prisms with whole and fractional edge lengths
  • Coordinate graphing of polygons
  • Surface area

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