California Science — Grade 1
Comprehensive Course Syllabus
Course Overview
Our California Grade 1 Science course is designed according to the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS). The curriculum encourages students to explore the natural world through observation, investigation, evidence-based explanations, and simple engineering activities.
Students develop scientific thinking by studying plants and animals, their structures and behaviors, inherited traits, sound, light, the Sun, Moon and stars, seasonal patterns, and simple engineering solutions.
Plants, Animals & Their Structures
Plant Parts and Their Functions
Students explore external parts of plants, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits, and learn how these parts help plants survive and grow.
Animal Body Parts
Students investigate how animals use body parts such as eyes, ears, legs, wings, mouths, and other structures to move, find food, sense their surroundings, and protect themselves.
How Plants and Animals Meet Their Needs
Students learn how plants and animals use their external structures and respond to their surroundings to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Nature-Inspired Design
Students explore how engineers can copy useful features of plants and animals to design solutions to human problems, such as protection, stability, or sensing danger.
Parents, Offspring & Inherited Traits
Parents and Their Young
Students observe how young plants and animals are similar to their parents while recognizing that offspring are not exactly identical to their parents.
Similarities and Differences
Students compare parents and offspring by observing physical characteristics such as size, shape, color, leaves, fur, patterns, or other visible features.
Animal Parent Behaviors
Students explore patterns in the ways animal parents care for their young, including feeding, protecting, comforting, and responding to signals from their offspring.
How Young Animals Survive
Students learn how behaviors of parents and offspring help young animals meet their needs and survive in their environments.
Sound & Vibrations
What Makes Sound?
Students investigate how vibrating objects can produce sound using simple activities involving strings, objects, musical instruments, and other everyday materials.
Sound Can Cause Vibrations
Students observe that sound can make nearby materials vibrate and investigate these effects through simple classroom experiments.
Exploring Different Sounds
Students compare sounds produced by different vibrating materials and explore how changing an object can affect the sounds it produces.
Investigating Sound
Students plan and carry out simple investigations to collect evidence about how vibrations and sound are connected.
Light, Shadows & Materials
Seeing Objects with Light
Students investigate why objects can be seen when they are illuminated and explore the difference between objects that produce light and objects that reflect or receive light.
Light and Shadows
Students explore how blocking light can create shadows and observe how changing the position of an object or light source affects the shadow.
Transparent, Translucent & Opaque Materials
Students investigate how different materials interact with light, including materials that allow most light through, allow some light through, or block light.
Mirrors and Redirecting Light
Students explore how mirrors can reflect and redirect light and use simple investigations to observe changes in the direction of light.
Sun, Moon, Stars & Seasonal Patterns
Patterns of the Sun
Students observe the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky and identify predictable patterns in where it appears and disappears.
Patterns of the Moon
Students observe the Moon at different times and explore predictable patterns in its appearance and movement across the sky.
Observing the Stars
Students learn that stars other than the Sun can be observed in the night sky and identify simple patterns in when they are visible.
Daylight and Seasons
Students make observations at different times of the year and compare the amount of daylight during different seasons.
Engineering, Technology & Problem Solving
Identifying Simple Problems
Students learn how observations and questions can help identify simple problems that can be solved by creating or improving an object or tool.
Designing Solutions
Students explore how engineers think about possible solutions and create simple designs using available materials.
Building and Testing Models
Students build simple models or prototypes, test how well they work, and use observations to identify possible improvements.
Improving a Design
Students compare different solutions and make simple changes to improve a design based on how well it meets the intended goal.
Science Investigation & Communication
Asking Scientific Questions
Students learn to ask questions based on observations and identify things they can investigate about the natural and designed world.
Making Observations
Students use their senses and simple tools to observe plants, animals, materials, sounds, light, weather, and objects around them.
Collecting and Using Evidence
Students record observations through drawings, simple charts, notes, and classroom activities and use evidence to support basic explanations.
Communicating Scientific Ideas
Students learn to share observations, explanations, designs, and discoveries through speaking, drawings, models, writing, and simple presentations.
Teaching Methodology
Our science classes focus on learning through investigation, observation, evidence, and hands-on exploration.
Students learn through:
Learning Outcomes
By the end of Grade 1, students will be able to:
Assessment & Progress Tracking
Student progress is evaluated through: