Introduction:

Families are always crucial partners with their children’s schools. In these days when we are all schooling-from-home, families are more crucial partners than ever before. How do we know if our children are learning everything they will be responsible for mastering at their grade level?  

We’ve streamlined the Nevada Academic Content Standards into easy-to-follow summaries, by grade level, for English Language Arts and math. For parents who want more details, you can access the full content standards documents here. Whether your child attends district-run public schools, charter schools or most private schools, the content standards are the same.

For parents who want to learn more, we highly recommend the “What Your xxth Grader Needs to Know,” series of books by eminent education professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr., which are available from Amazon or directly from the Core Knowledge Foundation: https://www.coreknowledge.org/store/

Here are the Kindergarten and First Grade standards. Over the coming weeks, we will be adding additional grade levels, so please check back. And please send us your questions, as always, to ashley@nevadaaction.org.

Author’s note:  Over the past two years I have watched my now eleven-year-old daughter struggle with math. As I see her grades slipping, I wonder if she is truly learning and retaining everything she needs to know in order to be successful at the next grade level. Now that we have entered a time of remote online learning, I worry that she won’t be ready for next year. While she seems to be grasping the things being taught now better than she ever did inside a traditional classroom, there is still that nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that next year is going to be an even bigger struggle than this one. So the big question is, what should she be mastering at her current grade level?

Kindergarten ELA/Reading

• Ask and answer questions regarding key details in things they have read
• Retell familiar stories, and include key details
• Identify characters, settings and major events in their readings
• Ask and answer questions about words they do not know
• Ask questions with the intent of gaining understanding
• Identify the author and illustrator, book cover and title page and explain what each does
• Understand how print is organized (for example, following words from left to right and top to bottom)
• Match book illustrations with the moments in the text they are portraying
• Work in a group to read and discuss books that have been read
• Compare and contrast basic similarities and differences of written works
• Read common sight words (the, my, she, is, etc.)
• Understand that written words represent spoken words, and that words are made up by combinations of letters
• Understand basic grammar, such as capitalizing the first word in a sentence and being able to name punctuation
• Identify all, and write most, letters of the alphabet, both upper- and lowercase
• Use a blend of drawing, writing, and speaking to create a work that conveys their opinion, a series of events, or information
• Understand syllables and sounds in words (for example, be able to rhyme)
• Take turns in conversations, with both peers and adults
• Able to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly when talking
• Use plural nouns when speaking
• Acquire vocabulary by realizing new meanings for familiar words
• Recognize the opposite of some verbs
• Use vocabulary acquired through conversations and being read to

Kindergarten Math

• Count by ones and tens to 100
• Count forward when starting somewhere other than 1
• Write numbers from 0-20
• Count objects
• Understand that when counting objects, the total stays the same even if the order the objects are in changes
• Compare objects
• Be able to compare two written numbers between 1 and 10 
• Displaying addition and subtraction by using objects, such as fingers, as well as mental images, drawings, clapping or other sounds
• Understand and solve word problems containing addition or subtraction 
• Understand that numbers can be made up of a variety of groupings ( 4 = 3 + 1 and  4 = 2 + 2)
• Add and subtract up to 5 fluently
• Describe and compare measurable attributes
• Place objects into categories (food, shapes, etc.) and count the objects in each category
• Recognize and describe shapes
• Compare and contrast shapes

1st Grade ELA/Reading

• Read and understand grade-level informational text 
• Ask and answer questions about key details in written texts
• Retell stories and informational texts, with key details to describe setting, events and characters, as well as prove comprehension of the message of the text
• Use illustrations to describe characters, settings, and events
• Identify who is telling the story at a variety of points throughout the story
• Identify words and phrases in texts that suggest feelings
• Explain major differences between works of fiction and nonfiction texts
• Compare and contrast stories, including the experiences of the characters, or two texts written on the same topic
• Recognize details used by an author to support the point
• Describe the connections between two pieces of informational texts, including individuals, events or ideas
• Read grade-level poetry
• Ask and answer questions to determine the meaning of words and and phrases, as well as using context clues
• Use features of a text to find information in a text, for example, table of contents, glossary, etc.
• Identify information provided by illustrations and pictures, as well as information from the words in a text
• Identify the basic features of a sentence
• Understand long and short vowel sounds in single-syllable words
• Blend sounds to say single-syllable words
• Break single-syllable words up into their complete sequence of individual sounds
• Able to take apart one syllable words by matching letters to sounds
• Understand vowel team conventions for long vowel sounds
• Recognize vowels in syllables, and how to count syllables
• Identify the the corresponding spelling to sounds for common consonant letter blends, such as sh, ch, and th
• Read words that end in -ing, -ed, -es, -s
• Identify grade-appropriate words that do not follow a common phonics pattern
• Read grade-level texts out loud with accuracy at an appropriate rate of speed
• Use context in the text to self-correct misread words
• Write structured opinion pieces that include the topic, an opinion, the reason for the opinion, and a closing.
• Write structured informative texts that include the topic, facts, and a closing.
• Write a narrative that retells at least two events in the proper order, and includes details, temporal words for event order, and a closing.
• Respond to questions and suggestions from peers regarding a topic, and use those conversations to add details to their writing 
• Research, and write about, a topic (for example, have your child read a “how to” book and write sequence of instructions)
• Recall information from experiences, or use information contained in provided sources, to answer questions
• Participate in grade-level discussions by listening, taking turns talking, asking and answering questions, in a manner that builds on what others have said
• Express ideas clearly when speaking by using descriptions of people, places, things and events
• Clarify verbal ideas with drawings or other visuals when needed
• Print all letters of the alphabet, both upper- and lowercase
• Use nouns appropriately (common, proper, possessive, singular and plural)
• Use personal possessive pronouns
• Use verbs to show past, present, and future
• Use frequently occurring adjectives, conjunctions, and prepositions
• Use determiners (words used to introduce a noun, for example, the cookie, a bunny)
• Form complete declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences
• When writing, capitalize dates and names, use end punctuation, use commas in dates and to separate single words in a series, correctly spell frequently used words, spell unknown words phonetically
• Sort words into categories (colors, clothing, food)
• Define words by category and one or more attribute (a lizard is a reptile that has legs)
• Recognize the real-life connections between words and the way they are used
• Understand different meanings of verbs used in different manner (look, peek, glance, stare)
• Use vocabulary acquired from conversations, reading, and being read to

1st Grade Math

• Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction up to 20 by using objects, drawings, and equations to represent the problem
• Solve word problems that call for adding of three whole numbers
• Use properties of operations as a strategy to solve problems (if 7 + 3 = 10, then 3 + 7 = 10)
• Be able to solve subtraction as an unknown-addend (10-4, find the number that can be added to 4 to make 10)
• Relate counting to addition and subtraction 
• Fluently add and subtract up to 20
• Know the meaning of the equal sign, and determine if addition and subtraction equations are true or false (3 = 3, 5 + 2 = 7, 4 – 2 = 2)
• Find an unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation that involves 3 whole numbers (7 + ? = 12, 3 + 4 = ?, 8 = ? – 5)
• Count, read, and write numbers up to 120 starting with a number other than 1
• Understand place value of ones and tens
• Properly use >, =, and < to compare numbers
• Add within 100, including adding two-digit and one-digit numbers
• Find 10 more or 10 less than any given number without having to count
• Subtract multiples of 10 in the range of 10-90 
• Organize three objects by length, compare length of objects
• Measure and express lengths as a whole number of length units (the pencil is 3 paper clips long)
• Use analog and digital clocks to tell and write time in hours and half-hours
• Organize, show, and interpret data with up to three categories
• Recognize the difference between defining attributes (squares have four sides) and non-defining attributes (color)
• Draw two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, combine these shapes to make new shapes
• Divide circles and rectangles into 2 and 4 equal parts, use wholes, halves, and quarters to describe the parts

Stay tuned, Nevada Action for School Options will be adding Nevada Content Standards summaries for other grade levels in the days and weeks to come.

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