
First Grade
First grade is the year a child learns to read, and everything else is arranged around that. One math book, one reading and one writing book, a science and a social studies page a couple of times a week, and a lot of books. This shelf holds all of it, including the first chapter books a six-year-old will finish on their own.
How to use it: about an hour, four days a week, with math first while they are fresh. The reading is the part that matters most this year, and the fastest way to wreck it is to make it the hardest part of the day. Read to them well past the point where they can read to you.
The whole year in one place: The Whole Year: 1st Grade. Or answer five questions and we will point you at the right shelf.
Shop our First Grade products below
Smithsonian Kids All-Star Readers: To the Moon and Beyond Level 2
National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Things That Go: All about Planes, Trains, Cars, and Vehicles
Smithsonian Kids: 5-Minute Dinosaur Tales
- Earth Science
- Life Science
- Story / Adventure
Why it works: Twelve short read-alouds give individual dinosaurs a day, a danger, or a growth stage, from an active Tyrannosaurus to a young Maiasaura. Smithsonian collaboration and realistic paleo-art place fossils and reconstruction behind each bite-sized prehistoric story.

