The Grade 1 year promises to be filled with growth, exploration, and new adventures in learning! As a Grade 1 educator, you have a pivotal role helping to guide young learners through a transformative year in reading and writing, grounded in the principles of the Science of Reading and aligned with the 2023 Ontario Language Curriculum. During their Grade 1 year, students make significant strides in their reading and writing skills, laying the solid foundation for a lifelong love of learning.

In Grade 1, students will continue to develop crucial foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphology, which will empower them to decode words and build their vocabulary. They will engage with diverse texts that promote comprehension and critical thinking, while also embarking on their own writing journeys, crafting sentences and expressing their ideas with clarity.

This guide is intended to provide an overview of the curriculum expectations for Grade 1, highlight some useful resources and provide some friendly suggestions for research-supported teaching strategies that our ONlit team members have found useful in their own classrooms. Your school board may have additional guidance and suggestions.

As always, use your professional judgment to plan and deliver instruction that meets the needs of your students, and know that the ONlit Curriculum Assistance Team is here to support you every step of the way. Just use this form to send us your questions, and one of our team members will reply with personalized suggestions and support.

And remember, as you guide your students through this transformative year, every lesson, every book, and every writing activity is a step towards empowering them with the essential skills they need to succeed. Get ready for a year filled with wonder, growth, and the joy of success!