What to Expect from Each Grade Level

Last updated Wednesday, June 5, 2002

Grade Levels:     Kindergarten   |   1st   |   2nd   |   3rd   |   4th   |   5th

Grade	Educational Level	Art Ability	Emotional Level
Back to top	•  Most will know alphabet by Jan., numbers to 30 by June.  •  Can best grasp simple stories with simple logical sequence  •  Little concept of city, state, or country  •  Best with simple instructions, one at a time	•  Difficulty with scissors except with simple shapes  •  Coloring not always inside the lines  •  Can not trace patterns  •  Gluesticks or paste ok--trouble with liquid glue	•  Will interrupt a lot!  •  Very fidgety, with little concept of personal space  •  10-15 minute attention span
Back to top	•  Understand characters, setting, and sequence when obvious, and later, even with just clues  •  Can start to write simple sentences  •  Working on adding adjectives to describe nouns  •  Have better understanding of cities--if told they live in CA they may reply, "No, I live in L.A."  •  Can handle complex one-step instructions or two simple sets of instructions  •  Can handle simple comprehension questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how?	•  Somewhat increasing dexterity, but more notable in second grade  •  Understand mixing colors will make new colors  •  Hand-eye better for tracing simple patterns  •  Gluesticks or paste still preferred	•  Will still interrupt!  •  Still fidgety  •  20 minute attention span
Back to top	•  Can discuss characters, setting, plot, and author's purpose  •  Increased comprehension--can and answer some questions  •  Can also understand prediction--have them predict what will happen next, and teach cause and effect with this  •  Can grasp main ideas and details that support that idea	•  Can trace difficult patterns unless too intricate  •  Can fold, tear, cut to make a picture, but when asking to fold many times, do so slowly and one step at a time  •  Have begun to know and explore complex colors	•  Less fidgety, with better concept of personal space  •  20-25 minute attention span
Back to top	•  Can write complete thoughts in paragraphs  •  Understand more complex thoughts, and can determine the underlying theme in a story  •  Understand the world is made up of continents, countries, states, and so forth  •  Can really begin breaking apart stories to create ideas of their own. They can generate alternative endings to plots, and understand why	•  Creativity increasing--have them create 3-D models of the setting, paint the backdrop for a play they read, rewrite the ending of a story, create a story with the same characters but different plot  •  Can trace, cut and color well  •  May show a need to have the project be "perfect"--will want to start over a lot	•  Should behave and be much easier to manage  •  20-25 minute attention span
Back to top	•  Begin to analyze things critically  •  Much increased vocabulary, with ability to determine meaning of word from context  •  Can evaluate new information and hypotheses by testing them against known information and ideas  •  Can recognize figurative language (simile, metaphor, etc.) in text	•  Pretty much capable of creating anything  •  Creativity may be disappearing so pull it back and give them ways to be creative	•  Will be accustomed to behaving in a classroom  •  May express a growing need to be "cool"  •  Half hour attention span
Back to top	•  Can identify the main problem or conflict of the plot and explain how it is resolved  •  Can follow multiple step instructions  •  Understand synonyms, antonyms, figurative language  •  Can understand complex themes	•  Capable of most projects  •  Again, may have forgotten how to be creative, and will be more inclined to copy others--encourage creative brainstorming.  •  Need things that are meaningful to do or will do a poor job  •  Need to feel it is their idea to do it and not to be forced	•  Will be accustomed to behaving in a classroom  •  Half hour attention span

Grade Levels:     Kindergarten   |   1st   |   2nd   |   3rd   |   4th   |   5th