Skip to main content
North Carolina Standards

North Carolina 1st Grade ELA Standards

All 40 North Carolina English language arts standards for 1st grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.

40 standards

Reading Foundational Skills

5 standards
RF.1.1
Follow print left to right and top to bottom, know that letters in order make a word with spaces between words, and name every upper and lowercase letter.
Common Core RF.K.1
RF.1.2
Print every capital and small letter clearly enough that others can read it, like B, b, Q and q.
RF.1.3
Hear and make rhymes, clap syllables, say the first, middle and last sounds in a short word like cat, and swap a sound to make a new word, like cat to hat.
Common Core RF.K.2
RF.1.4
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
Common Core RF.K.3
RF.1.5
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Common Core RF.1.4

Reading Literature

9 standards
RL.1.1
Ask and answer questions about the important parts of a story without being prompted, like why the fox wanted the grapes.
Common Core RL.1.1
RL.1.2
Retell a story in order with its important parts and say what lesson it teaches, like slow and steady wins the race.
Common Core RL.1.2
RL.1.3
Describe a story's characters, where it happens and its big events on your own, pointing to details from the story.
Common Core RL.1.3
RL.1.4
Find the words in a story or poem that show a feeling or bring in the senses, like shivered or a crunchy, sweet apple.
Common Core RL.1.4
RL.1.5
Explain the big differences between storybooks and books of facts, like made-up characters versus true information and headings.
RL.1.6
Tell who is speaking at different points in a story, like when the narrator stops and a character starts talking.
Common Core RL.1.6
RL.1.7
Use a story's pictures together with its words to describe a character, the setting or what is happening.
Common Core RL.1.7
RL.1.9
Tell how the adventures of characters in two stories are alike and different, like two heroes who both face a wolf.
Common Core RL.1.9
RL.1.10
With help, read and understand first grade stories and poems, sticking with the reading for longer stretches of time.

Reading Informational

10 standards
RI.1.1
Ask and answer questions about the important parts of a story without being prompted, like why the fox wanted the grapes.
Common Core RL.1.1
RI.1.2
Name the main topic of an informational book on your own and retell its key facts, like what a book about the moon teaches.
Common Core RI.1.2
RI.1.3
Describe how two people, events or ideas in an informational book are connected, like how rain fills the river that fish live in.
Common Core RI.1.3
RI.1.4
Ask and answer questions to figure out what a word or phrase in an informational book means, like hibernate in a book about bears.
Common Core RI.1.4
RI.1.5
Use text features like headings, a table of contents, bold words and a glossary to find important facts in a book.
RI.1.6
Tell which facts come from a book's pictures and which come from its words, like a photo showing a bird's colors while the text names its food.
Common Core RI.1.6
RI.1.7
Use an informational book's pictures and words together to describe its main ideas, like how a diagram shows the parts of a plant.
Common Core RI.1.7
RI.1.8
With help, find the reasons an author gives to back up an idea, like why the writer says dogs make good pets.
RI.1.9
Point out simple ways two texts on one topic are alike and different, like two books about the moon sharing facts but using different pictures.
RI.1.10
With help, read and understand first grade nonfiction, like books about animals or weather, keeping at it for longer and longer periods.

Writing

6 standards
W.1.1
Write an opinion about a topic or book with a reason and an ending, planning ideas first and adding details after feedback, with adult help.
W.1.2
Write a short piece that names a topic, gives a few facts about it and wraps up, planning with adult help and adding details after feedback.
W.1.3
Write a story of two or more events in order with some details, words like first, next and then, and an ending, planning and revising with adult help.
W.1.4
With adult help, use different digital tools to create and share writing, including with classmates, like typing a story together on a tablet.
W.1.5
Take part in group research and writing projects, like reading several books on bugs and writing a class report about them.
W.1.6
With an adult's help, answer a question by remembering something that happened or by looking in books the teacher provides.
Common Core W.K.8

Speaking and Listening

5 standards
SL.1.1
Talk with classmates and adults about 1st-grade topics and books, following discussion rules, building on what others say over several turns, and asking when confused.
Common Core SL.1.1
SL.1.2
Ask and answer questions about the key details of a read-aloud, a talk or a video, like what the main character wanted.
Common Core SL.1.2
SL.1.3
Ask a speaker questions to learn more or to clear up something confusing, and answer questions about what they said.
Common Core SL.1.3
SL.1.4
Talk in full sentences when describing a person, place, thing or event, adding details that matter and making ideas and feelings clear.
SL.1.5
Add a drawing, photo or other visual when it makes an idea, thought or feeling clearer to listeners.
Common Core SL.1.5

Language

5 standards
L.1.1
Use first grade grammar when speaking and writing, like he runs but they run, past and future verbs, Sam’s hat, and pronouns such as they, his and anyone.
L.1.2
Capitalize names and dates, put a comma in a date like June 5, 2026, end each sentence with the right mark, and spell common patterns and sight words correctly.
L.1.4
Work out unknown words and words with more than one meaning in first grade texts using sentence clues, word parts and related words, like bat or looked.
L.1.5
With adult help, sort words into groups, define words by group and trait, like a duck is a bird that swims, and tell apart look, peek and stare.
L.1.6
Use words picked up from talk, reading and read-alouds, including joining words like and, but, so and because.

The official North Carolina documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of North Carolina's standards, not the official wording, which North Carolina Department of Public Instruction publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.