Grade Level Progressions, PK-3

Concepts & skills addressed in VCS Curriculum:

Pre-Kindergarten 
  • Early number sense (1:1 correspondence, counting, cardinality and comparison)
  • Recognition of two and three-dimensional shapes found in everyday environments
  • Exploration of weather, patterns, living things, solids and liquids
Kindergarten:
  • Representing and comparing numbers, building on the idea of ‘number’ as a value
  • Recognition and description of the properties of shapes
  • Pushes and pulls (forces) in science, weather phenomenon and the importance of worms and composting in ecosystems
1st Grade:
  • Addition, subtraction and using strategies for adding and subtracting within 20
  • Place value, whole number relationships including grouping in tens and ones
  • Describing and measuring objects
  • Recognizing patterns by observing the sun, moon and stars
  • Basic needs of living things and animal adaptations
  • Ways light and sound can be transmitted  
2nd Grade: 
  • Base-ten notation, building fluency with addition and subtraction
  • Standard units of measurement
  • Analysis and classification of two dimensional shapes (polygons or non-polygons)
  • Characteristics of landscapes and climate
  • Properties of Matter, including the (re)cycling of materials
  • Animal adaptations and the interaction of bees and plants in the environment
3rd Grade:
  • Multiplication and division; strategies for multiplying and dividing within 100
  • Conceptual foundation of fractions, and the unit fraction (x/1)
  • Rectangular arrays and area; describing characteristics of of polygons based on the number of sides and vertices
  • Weather and climate including natural hazards associated with weather
  • Balance within ecosystems 
  • Life cycles of butterflies and other living things