First Grade Curriculum 2024-25
It’s that time again! Last year, we started our school year in mid-July. Due to Elani’s many summer camps this year, we will most likely begin in August. Don’t hold me to that though! We are forever flexible in our homeschool. Elani will be in first grade this coming school year, and Emi will be in PreK.
This post will just be about first grade curriculum, but you can reference this video for my PreK choices.
If you read my kindergarten post then some of what we are using for first grade will look familiar. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? I created a planning chart (available in my free printables) to help organize my thoughts as I chose this curriculum. This is the first grade curriculum that we are using for the 2024-2025 school year.
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Language Arts
Core Knowledge & Pinwheels
We are using two language arts curricula simultaneously. It’s not as intense as it sounds. The Core Knowledge curriculum has two strands (Listening & Learning and Skills), but we will only be using one of them. We will not be using the Skills strand of Core Knowledge, which focuses on phonics and spelling. Instead, we will be starting Year 2 of Pinwheels. Elani did Year 1 for kindergarten and I adore Pinwheels for her. It is gentle and engaging. Pinwheels covers phonics, spelling, grammar, word study, and handwriting, but if you wanted to address necessary skills and still keep your language arts curriculum free, I think that the Skills portion of Core Knowledge would be great. I have looked through it and probably would have used it if I had not already purchased Pinwheels.
We will be using the Listening & Learning strand of Core Knowledge which covers everything from fables and stories to frontier explorers.
Dash into Learning, Explode the Code, First Language Lessons, and The Measured Mom
Two things that we used for kindergarten language arts that we will be continuing with for first grade are Dash into Learning Set 2 and Explode the Code Book 2. It took Elani a long time before she warmed up to and enjoyed using Dash into Learning. If you want to know a little bit more about that, I explained it in this video. Explode the Code has been working well for us for years so I am excited to continue using it. I had planned for Elani to complete two pages a day last school year, but that did not happen. I will aim for 1-2 for this upcoming school year.
New to our language arts will be resources from The Measured Mom and First Language Lessons Level 1. I have used The Measured Mom printables for years, but I finally purchased a membership and have access to so many amazing resources now. I will use her printables when Elani needs additional practice with specific skills. I recently received First Language Lessons from my cousin who no longer needs it for her family. I look forward to finding ways to incorporate the lessons.
Math
Great Minds - Eureka Math
Elani had great success with Eureka Math in kindergarten so we are keeping it for first grade. I am excited that we will be able to use Zearn more this year. If you are unaware, both Eureka Math and Zearn are completely free! Eureka Math does not have some of the pretty colors and illustrations that you can find in other curricula, but it is effective, engaging, and now Zearn lessons are available even for Kindergarten. I am very excited to use the 1st grade Zearn lessons with Elani. Last year, I used a wonderful YouTube channel to help with lessons, but it will be nice to be able to do everything through Zearn.
Geography
Torchlight Level K
We will be using Torchlight again for geography. Elani will not be starting the next level since we did not finish Level K. I purposely divided the curriculum so we completed the first half in kindergarten and she will complete the second half in first grade. This allowed us to slow down and put more focus into the countries that we were learning about.
Social Studies
Core Knowledge Civics & Guide to Pennsylvania
In my state, social studies includes civics, world history, history of the United States, and history of Pennsylvania. There is some debate about whether all of these need to be taught every year or just at some point during the elementary years. As of now, I plan to teach them all, but not in depth. Certain years will be spent more on certain areas, and I will generally follow the PA standards to determine when that will be unless Elani has an interest in something specific.
As I mentioned in the language arts section of this post, Core Knowledge has multiple domains. Some of those domains address the necessary social studies topics that I would like to cover. Separately, I will be using the civics domain from Core Knowledge Social Studies to address my state’s civics requirement. With it being an election year, I think that this will be a fun year for that.
I printed a free Guide to Pennsylvania packet that has some good information about the state. I feel that we will do a lot of our learning through field trips to places such as Independence Hall, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the Museum of Indian Culture.
Science
Sonlight Science Level A
I chose Sonlight Science because I was looking for an NGSS curriculum that provided materials for experiments. The topics covered will be light and sound waves, biological features, space systems, and engineering design. In comparing the prices of Bookshark and Sonlight, I found Sonlight to be slightly cheaper. I understand that Sonlight has specific books to accompany the lessons, but I chose not to purchase those books. This will make the curriculum a little less open and go for me, as I will have to find similar books and will not be able to reference the exact pages that Sonlight outlines for information, but I did not want to spend the money of a bunch of books that I may not wish to keep in our library. The one book that I purchased was The Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia since it seems to be the spine of the curriculum and is the only thing listed as a “required resource.” The curriculum also provides access to videos of the experiments which I think that both of my girls will enjoy.
Foreign Language
Homeschool Languages - Spanish
I have been eyeing Homeschool Languages for a long time and finally took the plunge. We already have Spanish books from Habbi Habbi and I still have a few fun activities from Hola Amigo. If it was within our budget, we would be using the Hola Amigo subscription alongside our Homeschool Languages curriculum. Maybe someday! We have already started Homeschool Languages as a family and it was been quite an adjustment for my girls. This is the only curriculum that we are doing as a family and they are still learning to not be too silly just because their dad is learning alongside of us. My husband, Evan, and I both know very little Spanish so we felt it was important for us to learn together, as a family. Once my girls get used to Evan being a part of this learning time, I think the lessons will start to flow more smoothly.
Art & Music
Science in Art & Hoffman Academy
Elani adores art so I know that this curriculum will be so much fun for her because it connects art and science, which is another favorite of hers. This curriculum does not need to be taught in any particular order so I will be adding it in based on the sequence of our science curriculum. The Science in Art curriculum contains nine units. Those units are animals, plants, nature, sun and moon, weather, music, light, and communication.
We have not purchased a piano or keyboard yet, but I am hoping to find the space for one to allow Elani to use Hoffman Academy. Hoffman Academy provides free online piano lessons and you can go at your own pace. I also downloaded a free Peter and the Wolf lesson that I think both of the girls will enjoy. There is a Teacher’s Guide and a Student’s Guide.
Safety Ed., Health, and P.E.
Core Knowledge
The only curriculum that I will be using for these three subject areas is Core Knowledge. As part of the language arts curriculum, Elani will be learning about the human body. I will also be using The Human Body Learning Lab, which is a fantastic books for kids learning about the human body. I have already downloaded a few online resources for fire safety and P.E. will be our time spent outside and at activities (dance, rock climbing, etc.).
It may feel like a lot all typed out, but I have a feeling I will be finding and adding more as we go! Last year, we kept school to an hour. I feel that it will be 1-1.5 hours this first grade year.
If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel yet, make sure you do to stay up-to-date on all that we are doing this school year. We have some big things coming!
