Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated What Your First Grader Needs to Know What will your child be expected to learn in the first grade? How can you help him or her at home? How can teachers foster active successful learning in the classroom? This book answers these all-important questions and more offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American first graders. Featuring a new Introduction filled with opportunities for reading aloud and fostering discussion this first-grade volume of the acclaimed Core Knowledge Series presents the sort of knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging first-grade education. Inside you ll discover - Favorite poems --old and new such as The Owl and the Pussycat Wynken Blynken and Nod and Thirty Days Hath September - Beloved stories --from many times and lands including a selection of Aesop s fables Hansel and Gretel All Stories Are Anansi s The Tale of Peter Rabbit and more - Familiar sayings and phrases --such as Do unto others as you would have them do unto you and Practice makes perfect - World and American history and geography --take a trip down the Nile with King Tut and learn about the early days of our country including the story of Jamestown the Pilgrims and the American Revolution - Visual arts --fun activities plus full-color reproductions of masterworks by Leonardo da Vinci Vincent van Gogh Paul C zanne Georgia O Keeffe and others - Music --engaging introductions to great composers and music including classical music opera and jazz as well as a selection of favorite children s songs - Math --a variety of activities to help your child learn to count add and subtract solve problems recognize geometrical shapes and patterns and learn about telling time - Science --interesting discussions of living things and their habitats the human body the states of matter electricity our solar system and what s inside the earth plus stories of famous scientists such as Thomas Edison and Louis Pasteur