K-1 Essential Skills

Excited for the new year?   I know you are!  And...I know you have spent your summer putting together ideas on how to make your classroom and instruction even better. 😊

I just wanted to remind you about our discussion on Essential Math Skills by Bob Sornson last spring.  Have you thought of ways to measure these to start the year so that you can identify who may need some additional support or instruction?

In Kindergarten, you would only need to measure the first 4, because the next 4 aren't expected to be mastered until the END of kindergarten. 

We hope these are the skills that arrive with our kiddos when they come to kindergarten:

1. Demonstrates 1 to 1 correspondence for numbers  1-10 with steps
2. Demonstrates 1 to 1 correspondence for numbers 1-10 with manipulatives
3. Adds on/takes away using numbers 1-10 with steps
4. Adds on/takes away using numbers 1-10 with manipulatives

You probably have a pretty good idea right now whether the majority of your students will or will not have these skills.  This will mean you are really looking for the outliers.  The book that was given to each building has a checklist in it that you can use to keep track, or maybe you have a way that will work better for you. 

You might find it easier to do whole class activities to look for these skills, or you might decide to use stations so that you can watch your students in smaller groups.  Whichever you choose, I recommend trying to embed the activities into your beginning of the year activities and math workshop development so that it is not more days of formal assessment for you and your kiddos.

Once you identify the kiddos who need more support, hopefully, you can build time into your Unit 1 and 2 lessons so that you can work on strengthening these skills for them.

This is the early numeracy progression video by Graham Fletcher that we shared in the spring.




In First Grade, you may want to measure the first 8 skills, as the remaining 5 are not expected to be mastered until the end of 1st grade.

So, in addition to the 4 skills above, 1st grade teachers may want to watch for these skills at the beginning of the year:

5. Demonstrates counting to 100
6. Has one to one correspondence for numbers 1-30
7. Understands combinations to 10
8. Recognizes number groups without counting 2-10

I think that many of these skills go naturally together as a progression, so for example, a 1st grade activity might begin with one to one correspondence within 10 and build to 30 with possible addition and subtraction within.

We want you to watch for these skills in a way that works best for you and your students. This is going to look different for each of you, and that is fine.  

We do ask that you continue to move through your grade level's units and assessments.  All students should be exposed to your grade level's CCSS, and many will be able to master those.  However, some students will need more time to develop these essential skills, and that is okay. We hope to get to a point where nearly all students can leave with these essential skills so that they have a strong foundation to build on in later grades.

By the end of 1st grade, we hope that our students possess the 8 skills above as well as these remaining skills:

9. Counts objects with accuracy to 100
10. Replicates visual or movement patterns
11. Understands concepts of adding on and taking away (within 30) with manipulatives
12. Adds or subtracts single-digit numbers on paper
13. Shows a group of objects by number (to 100)

Recommended activities and ideas are included in the book that we gave to each building last spring. Here is the link to the folder we created in the spring that might help you with ideas and activities for your classroom.  In addition, here is Mr. Sornson's website.

This is the addition and subtraction progression video by Graham Fletcher.

Let me know what questions you still have or how I can support you.