Grade Overviews

Reception 1 Overview of Big Ideas

Describe how objects are the same and different:
The big idea of “same and different” is explored throughout the year with familiar small parts such as toys, crayons and buttons. Students will identify attributes, match, sort, compare and order a variety of objects in everyday contexts.

Demonstrate knowledge of patterns:
Patterning is an extension of the big idea “same and different”. Here, children investigate and describe order in their world both qualitatively and quantitatively by identifying, replicating and extending patterns.

Explore and describe spatial relationships and shapes:
Children learn the language of location to describe the relative position of themselves and objects in space. Children also explore 3-dimensionaleveryday objects (real-world) before being introduced to 2-dimensional objects.

Use number concepts:

• Conservation:
  The big idea of conservation is an important foundational concept for number and capacity. For example, children have many opportunities to describe that moving objects around has no effect on the total number of objects.
• Counting:
  Children progress from rote counting through one to one correspondence to keeping track of the number of objects counted.
• Unitizing:
  Students will explore how a number can be represented as a group or broken up into individual parts.
• Operations:
  Students will build their understanding of the meaning of the operations through stories that children can illustrate, act out or demonstrate with objects.

Reception 2 Critical Areas of Focus

Counting and Cardinality:

• Know number names and the count sequence
• Count to tell the number of objects
• Compare numbers

Operations and Algebraic Thinking:

• Understand addition as putting together and adding to, and understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from

Number and Operations in Base Ten:

• Work with numbers 11-19 to build foundations for place value

Measurement and Data:

• Describe and compare measurable attributes
• Classify objects and count the number of objects in categories

Geometry:

• Identify and describe shapes
• Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes

Grade 1 Critical Areas of Focus

Operations and Algebraic Thinking:

• Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction
• Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction
• Work with addition and subtraction equations

Number and Operations in Base Ten:

• Extend the counting sequence
• Understand place value
• Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract

Measurement and Data:

• Measure and compare a variety of lengths with non-standard units
• Tell and write time
• Represent and interpret data

Geometry:

• Reason with shapes and their attributes

Grade 2 Critical Areas of Focus

Operations and Algebraic Thinking:

• Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction
• Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for multiplication

Number and Operations in Base Ten:

• Understand place value
• Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract

Measurement and Data:

• Measure and estimate lengths in standard units
• Relate addition and subtraction to length
• Work with time and money
• Represent and interpret data

Geometry:

• Reason with shapes and their attributes