First grade math

First grade is where place value starts and where addition and subtraction facts need to become quick. TEKS pushes numbers to 120, composing and decomposing into tens and ones, comparing with the symbols, fact strategies within 20, skip counting by twos, fives, and tens, time to the hour and half hour, coin values, and halves and fourths. Common Core caps first grade at 120 as well, so the two agree closely here. Our rooms cover place value, column arithmetic, fact strategies, fair shares, and time. They do not cover coin values or skip counting drills, so add those yourself.

• K
• 1st
• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th
• 5th

What to aim for this year

By the end of first grade, a child working at grade level can usually do these.

• Reads, writes, and represents whole numbers to 120
• Composes and decomposes numbers up to 120 as so many tens and so many ones, in more than one way
• Compares and orders whole numbers to 120 using the symbols for greater than, less than, and equal to
• Uses fact strategies to add and subtract within 20, and recalls facts to 10 quickly
• Finds the unknown whole number in an addition or subtraction equation
• Solves word problems involving joining, separating, and comparing sets within 20
• Skip counts by twos, fives, and tens to 120
• Tells and writes time to the hour and half hour on analog and digital clocks
• Identifies coins and states their values
• Partitions two-dimensional figures into two and four fair shares and names the parts
• Sorts and organizes data into two or three categories and answers questions about it

Free, and legal to use

Every one of these costs nothing. The license tag says what you may actually do with it, which is not the same question as whether it is free to read.

• MEP Primary, Year 2 (CIMT) Free Free to use

  Full lesson plans, practice books, and copymasters. Strong on mental arithmetic and on making a child explain his reasoning. Note the numbering: British school years run roughly one ahead of American grade labels by age, so Year 2 sits near U.S. first grade. Ignore the number and place him by the content.

  License: Free to download, copyright retained by the originators through CIMT, restricted to non-profit-making purposes. Fine for your own family, not open for republishing.

• Illustrative Mathematics K-5 Math, Grade 1 Free CC BY

  A complete, carefully sequenced curriculum with strong teacher notes, free through Kendall Hunt. The word-problem work at this level is more substantial than what most first grade material attempts.

  License: CC BY 4.0. Openly licensed, so you may adapt and share with attribution.

• Simply Good and Beautiful Math 1 (The Good and the Beautiful) Free Openly licensed

  120 parent-led lessons, free as a full-color PDF. Short lessons with a lot of games and movement, which suits a wiggly six-year-old. Math Box manipulatives are separate, with make-your-own instructions on the level's FAQ page. General Christian worldview throughout.

  License: Free to download and use, copyright retained by the publisher. Not openly licensed.

• Khan Academy, 1st grade math Free CC BY-NC-SA Not confirmed

  Free practice and short videos organized by skill. Best used to shore up one weak spot rather than as the main course, since it will not teach place value with objects in a child's hands.

  License: Free to use. The Terms of Service state CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 for Licensed Educational Content, though video licensing has reportedly changed. Check the license before adapting.

• EngageNY Mathematics, Grade 1 modules Free CC BY-NC-SA

  Thorough and heavily scripted lessons, free as PDFs. The place value progression in these modules is carefully built and worth borrowing even if you use something else as your spine. Get them from the New York State archive rather than the publisher's marketing site.

  License: CC BY-NC-SA. Free for non-commercial use with attribution and ShareAlike. The paid Eureka Math Squared is a different product and is not covered.

Paid programs, honestly

Nothing here is required. These are the programs families most often ask about, with the real drawback of each one named rather than skipped.

• Math-U-See Alpha Paid Roughly $130 to $145 for a Level Up Set if you already own the Integer Block Kit, or about $220 for the complete set with blocks included.

  Good at: Single-digit addition and subtraction taught to real mastery with blocks, and the videos coach the parent through every concept first. Each lesson ends with systematic review pages that pull earlier material back in, so facts get revisited. Children who have struggled elsewhere often click here.

  Drawback: One operation for an entire year bores some children badly, and the strands outside arithmetic get very little air. Time, money, measurement, geometry, and data barely appear at this level, so a parent tracking grade-level standards will supplement them. The unusual sequence makes switching out mid-stream painful.

  Suits: A child who needs to see why carrying works before he will trust it, taught by a parent who wants the video to do the explaining.

• Dimensions Math 1 (Singapore Math Inc.) Paid $14.50 per book, so about $58 for the four student books, more with guides. Verified August 2026.

  Good at: Number bonds and the concrete-pictorial-abstract sequence build genuine understanding, and the books are inexpensive for what they are.

  Drawback: The Home Instructor's Guide is effectively required, which roughly doubles the cost, and the mental math work only happens if the parent does it out loud. Practice volume is light, so some children need a separate drill supplement for fluency.

  Suits: A parent who wants understanding first and is willing to read a guide and run the oral work.

• Saxon Math 1 Paid Roughly $150 to $235 for the home study kit depending on retailer. List price runs near $390 and is discounted heavily everywhere, so shop it. The K-3 manipulative kit is a separate purchase of about $75.

  Good at: Scripted lessons with a daily meeting, continuous review that keeps facts alive, and hands-on work built into the lesson structure. Nothing gets forgotten because everything comes back.

  Drawback: The scripted lessons are long and tedious to read aloud, and conceptual development is thin next to Singapore or Beast. The manipulatives are not in the kit, which surprises people. Some children find the constant review demoralizing rather than reassuring.

  Suits: A family that wants every day to look the same and does not want to decide what comes next.

• Beast Academy Level 1 Paid About $100 per year for the online subscription, verified at $99.99. Printed books are sold as a full-level bundle; Level 1 uses four combined guide-and-practice books rather than the eight-book structure of higher levels, so check the current bundle price on the site.

  Good at: Comic-book guides and puzzle-based practice that teach problem-solving rather than procedures. A mathematically hungry child will read it for fun. Level 1 is written for ages 6 to 8 and is the gentlest entry point in the series.

  Drawback: It is still not a gentle first program. The publisher expects a child to count and write to at least 20 before starting, and notes that early readers may need a parent alongside. It will not drill facts for you, and a child who melts down when confused will fight it.

  Suits: A child who likes being stuck and figuring it out, reading with a parent nearby.

• Horizons Math 1 Paid Around $100 to $120 for the boxed set, approximate and varies by retailer.

  Good at: Spiral, colorful, and open-and-go, with two workbooks and a teacher handbook. Very little preparation required.

  Drawback: Drill-forward with limited conceptual development, and it moves on from topics quickly by design. A child who needs to understand before he practices can get lost.

  Suits: A parent short on planning time with a child who is comfortable on paper.

Prices are approximate and change often. Check with the publisher before you buy. We describe and link to these programs; none of their material is hosted here.

What a week looks like

1. Four days of new work at about 25 minutes, one day of games and review.
2. Open with two minutes of fact practice in /bonds before anything else.
3. Two days on place value, one on addition and subtraction, one on time or measurement.
4. Do one word problem a day out loud, with him explaining his thinking to you.
5. Friday is a game day: coins on the table, a clock face, dice.

Practice it here, free

These rooms on this site cover part of the year's work. No sign-up, and they work offline.

• place — Tens and ones, numbers to 120
• column — Adding and subtracting two-digit numbers
• bonds — Fact strategies within 20
• share — Fair shares, halves and fourths
• graph — Sorting data into two or three categories
• units — Measuring length
• clock — Time to the hour and half hour

The rest of first grade