What Your First Grader Needs to Know Book Review - Schoolhouse Saturday by A Panama Mama

This is a series of books written for The Core Knowledge Series to help parents "prepare their children for a lifetime of learning." This book is a great resource for helping parents know if the school their child is attending is teaching the basic skills that are needed. These are skills that are the foundation for other skills to be built off of. There are multiple books in this series, but today I would like to focus on What Your First Grader Needs to Know.

This book was written with the parents in mind to encourage them to have a say in the education of their children. The author believes each of these is vital for children to learn in order to be able to build off of these in future grades. He encourages parents to ask to see what curriculum their students are learning and either ask that teachers begin implementing this essential knowledge or that parents teach this on their own at home.

I find that the books has a lot of great ideas all located in one place covering a variety of topics. The main topics included in the book include Language and Literature, History and Geography, Visual Arts, Music, Mathematics, and Science. Each of these sections is broken into smaller sections.

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In the Language and Literature section, parents will find information on helping their First Grader with reading and writing. There are sections for poetry, Aesop's Fables, stories, drama and familiar sayings. Some of the stories are taken from famous fairy tales from English speaking countries and some are from around the world. The sayings part is pretty interesting because they not only tell the saying, but also what it means and use it in an example paragraph. This section is really a fun section for kids and teaches them some poems and stories they might otherwise miss out on.

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The History and Geography section covers two different areas: World and American. Students will learn about what history actually is. The book then discusses Egyptian history leading up to Mesopotamia and into three main religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In American history, the book discusses the Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations leading to the European conquerors. The Pilgrims and early American life are discussed and various other evens leading up to The Louisiana Purchase.

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In the section for Visual Arts, you will find about 20 pages devoted to teaching children about arts. They will learn about primary colors, lines and shapes. Then they will be able to learn about different kinds of portraits and see some famous ones. Finally they learn about murals and see some examples.

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The Music section covers about 30 pages of folk songs for children and learning about various instruments. They will read about what an orchestra is and some great composers. Words to some favorite songs are included like "Dry Bones," "Skip to My Lou," and "Billy Boy." You can easily find these songs on YouTube if you do not already know the tune!

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I am always interested to see what kids need to know for Mathematics at different ages. This section is about 30 pages long and includes sub-categories like Numbers, Computation, Money, Geometry and Measurement. The students should know all numbers from 1 to 10 as well as place value up to 100. They learn greater than and less than and have some activities included in the book. They should be able to add and subtract to 12. I am sure the students would enjoy the activities associated with this section!

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The last section in the book is Science. Sub-sections include Living Things and Their Habitats, Oceans and Undersea Life, The Human Body, Matter: Solid, Liquid and Gas, Measurement, Electricity, Astronomy, Earth, and Scientists. The students will read a lot of information in these 50 pages about science and do some experiments that are explained in the book. Great photographs are included in each section. I imagine this could be a fun part of the book to get the students involved in learning!

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I believe that this would be a great book to help any parent who is questioning if their child is getting a well-rounded, fundamental public school First Grade education. It is even something a homeschool parent would want to use to make sure they have covered all the basics for their child. This is a book I plan to pick up again, even if it is to check off the nursery rhymes and songs as I teach them to the kids.

There are many books in this series and I plan to go through each one in the future. Be sure you check back to see what your kindergartner, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th grader needs to know. Sadly, I don't have 3rd grade (and I have no way of getting it here)! Each photo was taken by me of the book pictured.

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