Focus on First
This page is for the 2018 Fundations-aligned version of Focus on First. The Sounds, Letters, and Words version can be found here.
Please note: For full access to these resources you need to have first logged into your BPS email account.
About Focus on First (Grade 1)
In the revised Focus on First (Fo1) curriculum, children and teachers work together to develop understandings and communicate meaningfully through various media across six broad topics. Focus on First is designed to take advantage of, build upon, and expand children's established understandings and skills. With text at the core of classroom experiences, children ask questions about the world around them and consolidate ideas about their place in it as learners and contributors.
Pacing calendar
Launch - Learning Around the World
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 1 - Families, Communities, and Connections
In this unit, children learn about relational connections, within and across communities, including families, classrooms, and neighborhoods—and the influence of these connections on both the individual and the group.
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 2 - Goods and Services
In this unit, children learn about the ways that people around the world get what they need, and how the exchange of goods and services affects people’s lives and promotes the interconnectedness of our global community.
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 3 - Animal Distinctions and Adaptations
Building upon Unit 2 of Focus on K2, children will learn about how animals are different from one another and what makes them different. Children will also learn about how animals are the same in certain ways. During this unit, children will have the opportunity to think and talk about how animal differences can help them survive in their habitats as well as ways that communities and scientists can partner together to protect animal habitats.
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 4 - Understanding Weather
In this unit, children learn to understand how weather affects people and communities across the world. Students have a chance to read and learn scientific weather information, to think about the kinds of weather we experience in Boston, and also hear stories that highlight cultural explanations for weather-related occurrences. The culminating project allows students an opportunity to generate a narrative around personal experiences with weather.
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 5 - Technologies' Inventions and Innovators
Technology affects us all. In this unit, children think about how new ideas and products have changed lives, and learn about some of the inventors who have been behind the world’s advancements. Inspired by fiction, non-fiction and poetry, students have the opportunity to reflect on life today versus life long ago, and think through the kinds of inventions that made daily life for their parents and grandparents very different than it is for them. Among other conversations, we challenge the children to discuss how discoveries often occur because people are observing carefully and thinking about ways to improve daily life, and we also challenge them to discuss whether new inventions improve life, or whether old ways of doing things have benefits, too.
Resources: Teacher-created
Unit 6 - Maps and Mapping
Why do we need maps? We use particular maps according to the information we want to gain. In Unit 6 children begin to learn what maps are and how to read and use them. The representation of a large space on a small piece of paper is an abstraction; children will develop this concept over time. Children will look at and analyze different types of maps to learn that maps provide us with different types of information. By creating their individual “Me on the Map” booklets, children will share the location of their school, important places in their communities, and special places in the world.
Resources: Teacher-created
Newsletters
Past newsletters