Listening and Speaking

• The California state standards for language arts include listening, speaking, reading and writing goals. For listening and speaking, students should be able to comprehend and respond to a speaker; speak in an organized way with specific vocabulary; compare points of view in the media; and distinguish between fact and opinion. They should be able to tell and dramatize stories.
  
  

Reading

• For reading, young students should use context and prefixes to figure out new words, and read fluently on grade level. They should be able to use structure in nonfictional text such as a chapter heading and a glossary. Students should be able to find the main idea in text and connect their past knowledge to new information. In the primary grades, students understand stories like fairy tales and the theme or message they impart.
  
  

Writing

• In writing, students become familiar with the writing process (sometimes called Writers' Workshop) of pre-writing, developing a draft, editing their own work and the work of others, and producing another draft. They should also be able to write a paragraph complete with a main idea and related details. Students should begin to use reference materials such as dictionaries and a thesaurus to support their writing. In the early grades, youngsters begin to write stories and letters with the proper format.
  
  

Oral and Written Language Conventions

• In the primary grades, students should understand sentence structure for declarative sentences and questions, and they should speak and write with appropriate grammar. In writing, they should punctuate book titles, dates and places correctly, and they should use capitals when necessary. Students begin to learn rules of spelling at this time, such as changing a "y" to an "ies" (as in bunny and bunnies) when making a word plural.
  
  

Mathematics

• Students should comprehend numbers up to 10,000, and solve math problems with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At this stage, they are learning to work with fractions, decimals and money. Primary grade students are introduced to algebra, use symbols and solve simple problems. They are also starting to use measurement and geometry. Students are instructed in mathematical reasoning so they can estimate, apply varied methods such as charts, and use calculation to solve problems.
  
  

History-Social Science

• Primary grade students are starting to learn about their local region and its physical characteristics. They learn about the culture of indigenous people where they live, the explorers who visited and the settlers who established communities. The rule of law and principles of government are introduced. Along with symbols, documents and landmarks of significance in America such as the American flag, the bald eagle, the Constitution and the Statue of Liberty.