This unit helps to build a community of readers and writers, establish routines, and build foundational skills.

Students will understand: 

• Every living thing has a life cycle in which it grows and changes.
• Many stories include animal characters that grow and change.

Students will be able to: 

• Match spoken words to written words.
• Recognize directionality with a return sweep.
• Understand punctuation (periods, exclamation marks, question marks) and text features like italics.
• Recognize and produce rhymes.
• Categorize, blend, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Learn the short 'a', 'i', and 'o' sounds; 's' as /z/; digraph 'ck' as /k/; plural nouns (-s); and double final consonants.
• Practice phrasing, intonation, and expression while reading.
• Ask questions and create mental images.
• Reread to clarify or confirm understanding.
• Identify the main topic and retell key details.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information.
• Retell key story details and describe major story events using key details.
• Identify similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic.
• Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters.
• Identify real-life connections between words and their use.
• Sort words into categories to demonstrate understanding.
• Write personal responses.
• Use common and proper nouns.
• Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and future.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• Stories of all kinds, including fairy tales, fables, fantasies, and realistic fiction, have characters who face challenges.
• Stories can teach us that families and communities work best when people make responsible choices and help one another.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation marks) and quotation marks.
• Recognize uppercase letters.
• Recognize and produce rhyming words and alliteration.
• Blend, segment, categorize, and manipulate phonemes.
• Learn the short 'e' and 'u' sounds; possessive nouns; inflectional ending -s; l-blends; alphabetical order; short 'a', 'i', and 'o' sounds; 's' as /z/; digraph 'ck' as /k/; plural nouns (-s); and double final consonants.
• Practice phrasing, expression, and self-correcting while reading.
• Draw inferences and determine text importance.
• Reread to understand the text.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story.
• Use illustrations and details to describe characters, settings, or events.
• Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters.
• Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs.
• Write narrative texts.
• Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences.
• Use articles and demonstratives.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• When people exhibit the qualities of good citizenship, communities become safer and more enjoyable.
• Responsible citizens follow laws and principles that include respect for the rights, opinions, and property of others.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand end punctuation and uppercase letters.
• Categorize, blend, substitute, delete, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Recognize and produce rhyming words.
• Learn r-blends, s-blends, l-blends, abbreviations, contractions, final consonant blends, short vowels, and inflectional endings (-ed).
• Practice pitch, intonation, pausing, expression, self-correcting, and recognizing features of a sentence while reading.
• Make connections and summarize and synthesize information.
• Read more slowly and think about words to clarify understanding.
• Use text features, like the table of contents, to locate key facts or information.
• Identify the reasons an author gives to support points.
• Answer questions about relevant details using photographs and identify relevant details in the text.
• Identify and use context clues.
• Write informative texts.
• Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns.
• Ensure noun-verb agreement with singular and plural nouns/pronouns.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• Realistic stories tell about characters, settings, and events that could exist. Fantasy stories include elements that could not happen in real life.
• Reading stories from different points of view allows us to learn about other people’s perspectives.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand punctuation in context, including dashes, commas, quotation marks, periods, exclamation marks, and question marks.
• Recognize uppercase letters.
• Identify, categorize, blend, substitute, add, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Learn consonant digraphs (th, sh, ng, ch, tch, wh), closed syllables, three-letter blends, plural ending -es, inflectional ending -ing, and short vowels.
• Practice self-correction, rate (pausing), and expression while reading.
• Ask questions and create mental images.
• Read out loud to support comprehension.
• Identify who is telling the story and ask and answer questions about key details.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events using key details.
• Identify words and phrases that appeal to the senses.
• Identify root words and their inflectional forms.
• Define words by category and key attributes.
• Use context as a clue to word meaning.
• Write opinion texts.
• Use adjectives and commas in dates and to separate words in a series.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• The use of technology can help people work more quickly and efficiently.
• People create technology to solve problems and improve the way people live and do work.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand end punctuation, return sweep directionality, commas in context, and uppercase letters.
• Categorize, blend, substitute, add, delete, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Learn long 'a' and 'o' sounds (final -e); contractions with ’ll, ’re, and “not”; soft 'c' and 'g'; short vowels; consonant blends and digraphs.
• Practice self-correcting, pausing, expression, rate, and mood while reading.
• Draw inferences and determine text importance.
• Stop and think about the author’s purpose.
• Know and use text features to locate key facts or information.
• Use illustrations and details to describe key ideas.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, and draw inferences.
• Identify the main topic and retell key details.
• Sort words into categories and distinguish shades of meaning among verbs.
• Write explanatory texts.
• Use different sentence types and prepositions.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• Stories, such as fables, folktales, and realistic fiction, can teach the reader a moral or lesson.
• Teamwork can help people solve problems that they may not have been able to solve on their own.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand punctuation in context (dashes, colons, quotation marks) and general punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation points).
• Recognize return sweep directionality and uppercase letters.
• Categorize, blend, substitute, add, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Learn long 'i', 'u', 'e', and 'a' sounds (final -e); VCe syllables; long 'a' vowel teams; inflectional endings (drop final -e, double final consonant); and short vowels.
• Practice self-correcting, pausing, rate, phrasing, and expression while reading.
• Make connections and summarize and synthesize information.
• Confirm or correct word recognition and understanding.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events using key details.
• Understand the central message of a text.
• Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters.
• Use context and affixes as clues to word meaning.
• Write opinion texts.
• Produce simple and compound sentences.
• Use frequently occurring conjunctions.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• Knowledge of the past is important to understand the present and plan for the future.
• People use tools, such as timelines and maps, to help organize and understand events of the past.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand literary elements like onomatopoeia and sound words.
• Recognize end punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation points), dashes, ellipses, hyphens, and text features like italics.
• Isolate, categorize, and manipulate phonemes.
• Add and substitute syllables in compound words.
• Segment phonemes and syllables.
• Learn long 'o', 'e', 'i', and 'a' spellings; alphabetical order to two letters; prefixes 'un-' and 're-'; open syllables; and final 'e' long vowel sound-spellings.
• Practice rate, pausing, and self-correcting while reading.
• Apply cumulative metacognitive strategies.
• Reread to clarify or confirm understanding and read more slowly while thinking about the words.
• Identify the main topic and retell key details.
• Use text features like captions, glossaries, and timelines to locate information.
• Distinguish between information in pictures and text.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information.
• Use context clues to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
• Write how-to process texts.
• Use possessive nouns and ensure noun-verb agreement with singular and plural nouns.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• By observing and exploring, we develop knowledge about Earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
• In many cultures, people tell stories to explain what they observe in the night sky.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand punctuation in context, including commas and quotation marks, as well as end punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation points), return sweep, and uppercase letters.
• Identify, blend, segment, and manipulate phonemes.
• Delete syllables in compound words and segment syllables.
• Learn r-controlled vowels (/är/, /ôr/, /ûr/), compound words, approximate sounds (schwa), r-controlled syllables, and long vowel sound-spellings.
• Practice rate, intonation, expression, and self-correcting while reading.
• Apply cumulative metacognitive strategies.
• Confirm or correct word understanding, read out loud to support comprehension, and stop to think about the author’s purpose.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events using key details.
• Distinguish between information in pictures and text and explain differences between stories and informational text.
• Use illustrations and details to describe key ideas.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information.
• Identify the main topic and retell key details.
• Understand the central message of a text.
• Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs and use context as a clue to word meaning.
• Write opinion texts.
• Use pronouns and past-, present-, and future-tense verbs of being.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions.
• State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.

Students will understand: 

• The exchange of goods and services is an essential part of living in a community.
• There are many different ways to create goods and provide services.

Students will be able to: 

• Understand punctuation, including commas and ending marks, and capitalization of the first word. Recognize reading directionality (left to right, top to bottom, return sweep).
• Categorize, blend, isolate, segment, and manipulate phonemes. Substitute parts of blends.
• Learn vowel diphthong sound-spellings (ou, ow, oi, oy), comparative inflectional endings (-er, -est), suffix -ly, vowel sound-spellings (oo), vowel team syllables, r-controlled vowel sound-spellings, and long-vowel sound-spellings.
• Practice rate, pausing, phrasing, inflection, intonation, stress, and self-correcting while reading.
• Apply cumulative metacognitive strategies. Reread to clarify or confirm understanding, gain information from text and pictures, and read slowly while thinking about the words.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or information. Identify the reasons an author gives to support points. Identify the main topic and retell key details.
• Identify similarities and differences between two opinion texts.
• Use illustrations and details to describe characters, setting, or events. Retell stories and demonstrate understanding of the central message.
• Use context as a clue to determine word meaning. Identify root words and their inflectional forms.
• Write informative texts, such as research reports.
• Use commas and adjectives.
• Engage effectively in whole-class and peer discussions. State, clarify, and support ideas in a constructive conversation.