While the elementary years are packed with a ton of fun, they’re also packed with a ton of learning. It’s crucial to have certain things mastered during these years of school so your child will be ready to build upon those concepts in middle school and high school.
Now don’t worry, we’re going to cover learning styles, teaching styles, and which curriculum options and scheduling options will be the best fit for your family more in depth in the next two steps; this is just the 30 foot overview.
From preschool to fifth grade, here’s a grade-by-grade look at the fundamentals to cover in math and reading. What about all the other subjects you might ask? Well, while subjects like science and history/geography are important in elementary school, the skills you “should know” vary wildly from expert to expert. I will include a short science and history section at the end of each grade level, but keep in mind that this list is just a suggestion list of topics to cover and can be tailored to your child and your family.
Using my family as an example, Glori is in second grade and for sciende we use the Evan Moore Science book, but we also do a ton of hands on science experiments and science related art projects throughout the year in addition to unit studies when she really clings on to a particular topic. Currently we are taking a break from our traditional science lessons and starting a unit study on the arctic. We’ve been going over animals and habitats, so when my daughter showed a higher level of interest in the arctic fox than is normal for her, we ran with it. That’s the beauty of the flexibility of homeschooling.
For history we use a combination of the Evan Moore geography books as well our 50 states and a couple fun work books from amazon. We bring as much history to life as possible through hands on projects. Our big projects through early elementary school will be state boards/mini unit studies revolving around the states we’re studying. During the later elementary years we’ll dive into presidents, the “who was” series, and important world events as well as world culture.
I will show you our personal curriculum choices at the bottom of this page, but it’s just for reference. Your family may use different books than us and that’s ok! Step 4 (not finished yet, will be posted by the end of June) will cover all about curriculum options, so you can make an informed decision for your family.
Ok, let’s dive in!
Preschool is one of those things that none of the experts agree on. Some say start as young as possible, some say skip it and let the kids be kids; school will come soon enough. I say meet somewhere in the middle.
We did a “letter a week” preschool packet which involved a ton of play and a few fun worksheets. My only regret is not incorporating even more play!! This former teacher was too focused on making it feel like school because that’s what I thought it was supposed to look like. If you’re going to start your child young, just know it will be very teacher intensive (lots of hands on from you) and you’ll need to make it about having fun. Let your littles learn the alphabet (and a few other beginner skills) without knowing that they are learning.
- Counts to 10
- Understand concepts like more/less, full/empty
- Knows names and sounds of letters
- Knows common body parts
- Can point to those body parts when asked
- Can follow simple, one part directions
- Pronounces their first and last name
- Can retell what a short story is about
- Knows colors
- Can match shapes and knows basic shape names
- Can recognize and name common farm and zoo animals
- Can sing the alphabet song
- Understands size (big/small)
- Understands direction words like above/below, up/down
- Recognizes number 1-20
Science and History
In addition to a letter of the week curriculum, I would add in a very basic anatomy (learning simple body parts) and science (learning common farm and zoo animals) portion to your preschool. I don’t recommend a curriculum for this, just some fun trips to the library and maybe some coloring pages from the internet.
Kindergarten is a time where kids get to learn how to follow rules and routines, really start socializing with their peers, and continue building on those fundamental skills.
- Knows both upper case and lower case letters
- Can count syllables
- Can identify and continue simple patterns
- Identify first-fifth positions
- Knows the names of coins
- Knows right and left hands
- Continued practice of letter sounds
- Can read their own name
- Knows how to hold a pencil properly
- Able to count from 1-30
- Able to add and subtract single digit numbers
- Knows the days of the week in order
- Can sound out CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words like C-A-T and D-O-G
- Able to group objects into sets (example: blue objects, round objects, objects found in a kitchen, etc.)
- Know age appropriate sight words
- Can put pictures in sequence order for telling a story
- Can write upper and lower case letters
- Know the meaning of plus and minus signs
- Can tell time to the hour
- Know the difference between living and non living
- Continue learning body parts
- Identify basic parts of plants and animals
- Introduction to habitats
- Match animals babies with their parents
- Learn the 4 seasons and weather changes
- Learn directions (north, south, east, west)
- Introduce continents and oceans
- Recognize landforms and bodies of water (mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, and lakes)
Graduating kindergarten is such a huge accomplishment for most kids that entering the first grade feels like they’re finally a “big” kid. In first grade kids learn to develop their self control, specifically in the are of impulse control. The lessons in this grade become more focused on academics and therefore a bit more challenging, but this new level will help them develop greater concentration levels to tackle even bigger obstacles in their future.
- Identify root words and common endings
- Answer who, what, when, where and why questions about stories
- Count to 100 by ones, twos, fives, and tens
- Use tallies for counting
- Identify halves, thirds, and fourths
- Tell time to the hour and half hour
- Identify and draw shapes
- Identify and use contractions
- Recognize and write numbers 0-100
- Know how to read simple picture graphs
- Recognize and know values of coins and bills up to one dollar
- Read and understand age appropriate material
- Decode a story: what is the plot, setting, and main characters
- Print all upper and lower case letters
- Know nouns, verbs, and adjectives
- Spell simple three letter words
- Correctly use comparison signs for less than < and greater than >.
- Know basic addition and subtraction through 10+10
- Use a calendar to identify days, weeks, and months
- Introduce sound, light, and shadows
- Learn about birds and insects
- Learn about animals and their eggs
- Continue learning about seasons
- Understand how the sun, earth, and moon work together
- Learn about technology and tools
- Learn basic map skills
- Introduce the map of the US
- Recognize and name continents and oceans
Kids’ attention spans are consistently increasing, and by second grade they can usually learn more difficult concepts in one setting and apply them to another situation. They also form deeper friendships and demonstrate increased patience at this age.
- Know common abbreviations
- Practice print handwriting skills improving accuracy and legibility
- Spell phonetically correct words
- Understand the concept of even and odd numbers
- Estimate sums and differences equal to 100
- Order and compare numbers up to 1000
- Capitalize proper nouns
- Recognize horizontal, vertical, parallel, and perpendicular lines
- Read age appropriate material with expression
- Identify rhyme, rhythm, alliterations, simile, and metaphor in poetry
- Know the names of the months of the year in order
- Know how to read a thermometer
- Recognize and write basic fractions
- Memorize and recite short poems and rhymes (the concept of this is memory, so if you’re homeschooling with a biblical world view, memory verses work well for this as well)
- Know the correct use of periods, question marks, and exclamation points.
- Experiment with a range of writing projects (book reports, short stores, research papers, etc)
- Know and use the correct format for a friendly letter
- Recognize complete and incomplete sentences
- Identify synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms
- Change regular verbs to past tense by adding -ed
- Change regular verbs to past tense by adding -s
- Give short oral presentations
- Recognize and write numbers 0-1000
- Read numbers 0-100
- Understand place values for ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands
- Round to the nearest 10
- Collect, organize, and record data using pictorial and bar graphs
- Know basic addition and subtraction facts through 20
- Solve two and three digit addition and subtraction problems
- Add and subtract money and make change
- Introduce matter
- Learn about force and motion
- Continue building on the topics of body parts, plants, animal life cycles and habitats
- Learn about human activities and cultures
- Introduce presidents
- Introduce major historical events
By the time kids enter the third grade, they are usually eager for more independence and responsibility. You’ll notice an increased desire to “help” (even if it’s actually making more work for you haha) and do tasks alone like walking to Sunday School class or out to the car before the rest of the family. Third grade is a year of academic growth where students transition from concrete thinking to becoming more open to abstract ideas.
- Recognize and write numbers through 100,000
- Use capital letters and punctuation correctly
- read and write decimal numbers through hundredths place
- Calculate perimeter and area
- Able to count by twos, fives, and tens starting at any number
- Know the difference between fiction and nonfiction
- Identify common prefixes and suffixes
- Understand basic order of operations in mathematical sentences
- Use index, glossary, and table of contents to locate information in books
- Begin learning cursive writing
- Organize writing in coherent paragraphs
- Know the past, present, and future tense of verbs
- Round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100
- Know Roman numerals from I to XX (1-20)
- Understand negative numbers
- Identify and compare basic fractions
- Recognize and write mixed numbers
- Know basic multiplication facts through 10×10
- Multiply two and three digit numbers by single numbers
- Divide two and three digit numbers by single numbers
- Solve two step word problems using all four basic arithmetic operations
- Tell time to the nearest minute
- Define vertex and angle
- Learn about gravity
- Identify animals groups (mammals, birds, fish, etc.)
- Sort animals into those groups
- Introduce dinosaurs and fossils
- Learn about ecosystems
- Learn about natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and floods
- Learn about other countries
- Introduce Native American history
- Start memorizing presidents, states and capitals, and major historical events
Fourth grade is where cliques start forming. This isn’t to scare you, and since you homeschool, you won’t notice this much during the school week, but during extracurricular activities you’ll notice your kids preferring certain friendships over others. Socializing is a big priority to these soon to be tweenagers, and you’ll soon notice which students have the attitude of competitiveness and which ones just want to do their work and chill. In fourth grade children are ready to develop skills like organization and time management that will prepare them for the transition into middle school.
- Understand place value to 100 million
- Identify positive and negative numbers on a number line
- Compare decimals using greater than, less than, and equal signs
- Recognize and define the circumference, radius, and diameter of a circle
- Make both narrative and informational oral presentations
- Knows Roman numerals to 1000
- Identify mixed numbers and improper fractions
- Orally summarize books, articles, and stories
- Read and write decimal numbers through the thousandths place
- Round decimals to the nearest tenth and hundredth
- Multiply multi-digit numbers by single whole numbers
- Divide multi-digit numbers by single whole numbers
- Make change in amounts up to $100
- Understand the concept of time zones
- Calculate perimeter of polygons and areas of rectangles and squares
- Identify the main events of the plot and discuss character traits and motivation
- Use a variety of sources to obtain information
- Write frequently, exploring a large range of genres
- Create multi-paragraph compositions
- Identify and correct run on sentences
- Recognize and identify the 8 parts of speech
- Know numbers through the millions and able to write in both numbers and words
- Able to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100, and 1000
- Know the perfect square and square roots through 144
- Plot points on a coordination grid
- Add and subtrac fractions with like denominators
- Dive deeper into anatomy (muscles, bones, skin, eyesight, and hearing)
- Learn about waves (water, sound, and digital)
- Learn about energy (heat, electric, and light)
- Learn about early explorers
- Learn about famous people in history
- Introduce time zones
- Learn about ancient greece
- Learn about the Roman waterways
- Introduce how we can work together to protect the environment
Fifth grade is a year to put all the academic pieces together in preparation for middle school. Kids are expected to take on more responsibility at this age. Fifth grade is usually when the concept of long term planning is introduced during research projects, science fairs, and accelerated reading programs. The ability to see the big picture while simultaneously focusing on the task at hand will be a valuable life skill as they go through middle school and high school and enter adulthood.
- Define prime and composite numbers to 100
- Compare fractions using greater than, less than, and equal signs
- Round fractions to the nearest whole number
- Be familiar with both English and metric measurements of length, volume, capacity, and weight
- Read a varied range of poetic forms
- Continue to explain knowledge of prefixes and suffixes
- Add, subtract, and multiply fractions with like and unlike denominators
- Recognize right, acute, and obtuse angles
- Recognize equivalent fractions
- Continue to write frequently, producing a variety of works
- Properly use dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, almanacs, periodicals, and encyclopedias
- Develop simple outlines from short written selections
- Know numbers through the billions and able to write in words and numerals
- Round numbers to the nearest ten, hundreds, thousands, or ten thousands
- Compare and order negative numbers on a number line
- Explore the concept of exponents
- Collect, organize, and interpret data using line, bar, and pie graphs
- Collect, organize, and interpret data using stem-and-leaf scatter plots
- Solve problems involving interpretations of graphs and tables
- Round fractions to the nearest whole number
- Add and subtract decimals to four places
- Multiply and divide decimals by 10, 100, and 1000
- Write fractions to decimals and vice versa
- Know multiplication facts through 12×12 and equivalent division facts
- Find the average (mean) of a set of numbers
- Determine the least common denominator of fractions with inline denominators
Science and History
- Learn about food webs
- Learn about the atmosphere and earth’s water cycle
- Learn about weathering and erosion
- Deep dive into the solar system
- Learn about the structure and properties of matter
- Explore old and new ways of navigation
- Learn about GPS coordinates
- Learn about the beginning of our country and how it was founded
- Deep dive into farming
- Learn about old and new transportation
Well y’all, I hope this was helpful, but I also caution you not to let it overwhelm you. Again, it’s just a guideline. Every child is different and learning will vary slightly from student to student. If you have a middle or high schooler, check out the corresponding skills guide for them (coming soon)
Other resources to help you navigate the elementary years
Our personal curriculum choices
Introduce game schooling into your homeschool
New to homeschooling and not sure where to start?
