First grade history and social studies

First grade widens the circle from the family to the classroom, the school, and the community. The TEKS add named historical figures, patriotic symbols and holidays, goods and services, and cardinal directions on a map. Story of the World becomes genuinely age-appropriate this year if you want a spine. Nothing on this site covers the first grade social studies strand, and that is worth saying plainly.

• 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.

• Explains the difference between the classroom, the school, and the community, and where he fits in each.
• Names Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Abraham Lincoln, and says one thing each of them did.
• Recites the Pledge of Allegiance and identifies the United States flag, the Texas flag, and the bald eagle.
• Says why we mark Independence Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Presidents' Day, and Constitution Day.
• Uses the cardinal directions on a simple map and finds his own town on a map of Texas.
• Tells a good apart from a service and names several jobs people do in the community.
• Explains what a rule is, why it exists, and what would happen without it.
• Puts the days, weeks, months, and seasons in order and places events from his week on them.
• Describes a custom his own family keeps and compares it with a different family's.
• Gives a concrete example of being a good citizen and explains why it counts.

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.

• Core Knowledge History and Geography, Grade 1 units Free Creative Commons

  The Grade 1 sequence runs Continents, Countries, and Maps, then Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and Three World Religions, then Early Civilizations of the Americas covering the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, then the culture of Mexico, early exploration of North America, from colonies to independence, and exploring the West. Read-aloud text with teacher notes throughout.

  License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Attribute in Core Knowledge's specified wording, no commercial use, and any adaptation you share must carry the same or a similar license. Do not pull images out of the PDFs for other uses.

• Texas Almanac Free Free to use

  The state's reference book, readable online. Good for state symbols, county facts, towns, lakes, officeholders, and the plain data that a six-year-old's questions about Texas keep running into.

  License: Free to read online and copyrighted by the Texas State Historical Association, which publishes it. Cite it and link to it rather than copying it into materials of your own.

• Library of Congress classroom materials and primary source sets Free Public domain Not confirmed

  Themed bundles of documents, photographs, and maps with a teacher's guide supplying historical context and discussion questions. Sets exist by topic and by state. The Library reorganized these pages, so browse from the classroom materials hub rather than an older bookmarked path.

  License: Largely public domain federal material, but rights genuinely vary item by item. Read the rights statement attached to an individual item before you reuse it publicly.

• Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool Free Openly licensed Not confirmed

  A complete free online curriculum that includes a history track, scheduled day by day, which removes the planning burden for a family that wants a script to follow.

  License: Free to use on the site and copyrighted by its author rather than openly licensed. It is openly Christian in framing, which is the point for some families and a mismatch for others. Read the site's own terms before reproducing anything.

• National Park Service Junior Ranger Free Free to use

  Park booklets and national theme booklets. At six a child can work most of a booklet with light help, and the badge is a real motivator.

  License: United States government work, free to download and print. Photographs inside can carry separate credit lines.

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.

• The Story of the World, Volume 1, with the Activity Book Paid Two purchases, text plus activity book, with the activity book the more expensive of the two. Current publisher pricing was not confirmed for this page.

  Good at: Now the right age. Short narrative chapters, map work, coloring pages, and review questions in the activity book, and the whole thing is built for a parent teaching more than one child at once.

  Drawback: Ancient world only, so no American and no Texas content all year. It compresses complicated events into very short chapters, and the framing leans Western in places. Some families notice that and some do not.

  Suits: A family that wants a chronological four-year spine and is willing to add American content separately.

• Our Star-Spangled Story (Notgrass History) Paid Sold as a curriculum package in the range of roughly one hundred dollars. The publisher's product pages could not be read directly for this page, so confirm the current price and what is in the package before ordering.

  Good at: One set of books covers a year of American history for the early elementary band, written for a mixed-age family to work through together, with activity ideas you choose from rather than complete.

  Drawback: Openly Christian and patriotic in its framing, which the publisher states plainly. It covers the United States and not Texas, so a Texas family still needs a separate state track when fourth grade arrives.

  Suits: A Christian family that wants American history early and prefers one purchase to a book list.

• Build Your Library Level 1 Paid Sold as digital levels. Current pricing not confirmed here; check the publisher, and note they run periodic sales.

  Good at: Secular, Charlotte Mason flavored, and built around good books instead of a textbook. The reading list is the real product and it is a strong one.

  Drawback: It leans hard on your library. If holds are slow or your branch is small, the schedule falls apart. It also assumes you keep pace, and there is no tidy way to recover a missed month.

  Suits: A secular family with a good library system and the discipline to reserve books a few weeks ahead.

• The Good and the Beautiful history units Paid History is sold in family sets. One recent history year set was listed at about $75. Language arts and math downloads are free at their free page.

  Good at: Attractive, built to teach several ages at once from one book, and the publisher gives away a great deal for free, including full-year language arts and math PDFs for K through 8. You can read the tone at no cost before spending anything on history.

  Drawback: God and Christian values run through the materials, and the founder is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which some families want to know before buying even though the material is presented as non-denominational. The history is family-style, so a first grader mostly rides along behind older siblings.

  Suits: A family teaching several children together that wants one attractive book rather than a stack.

• Torchlight Level 1 Paid Sold as digital levels. Current pricing not confirmed; check the publisher.

  Good at: Secular and deliberately wide in whose stories it tells. Strong on cultures and on people a standard sequence skips.

  Drawback: A clear progressive point of view, stated openly by the publisher. Long library list, and no alignment with the Texas sequence.

  Suits: A secular family that wants a global first grade and has library access to match.

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. Two Story of the World or Core Knowledge chapters read aloud, fifteen minutes each, with the map page from the activity book.
2. One community or civics item: a symbol, a holiday, a rule, a job. Short and conversational.
3. One map skill, using our /map room or a paper map of your county.
4. One historical figure a week. Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Abraham Lincoln are the ones the TEKS name.
5. A library trip every other week to keep the read-aloud stack full.

Practice it here, free

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

• know — Continents for the geography strand, and the ancient Egypt topic lines up with the Core Knowledge Grade 1 Egypt unit.
• map — Cardinal directions and map reading, which the first grade TEKS ask for by name.
• stories — Read-along practice with syllable chunking, useful while history is still entirely read aloud.
• order — Sequencing, which underpins the days, weeks, months, and seasons milestone.

The rest of first grade