Language Arts Homeschool Curriculum Skills List

Language arts activities have a social studies or science theme and incorporate reading, handwriting, and English skills. Unit one begins teaching the child basic letter sounds. The activities provided during the year will drill phonics and blend these skills with sight word recognition to promote fluency and comprehension in reading. The questions for discussion of literature will incorporate new vocabulary words that will become part of your child’s usable vocabulary, and stimulate higher-level thinking skills. Practice worksheets to reinforce these concepts will also be included within the lessons.

Reading

• Recognize the symbol and sound for each letter in the alphabet.
• Develop left to right and top to bottom orientation.
• Recognize the eight basic color words.
• Look at a picture and tell a story about the picture, using a variety of descriptive words.
• Identify and use words that rhyme, start, or end with the same sound.
• Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text.
• Demonstrate evidence of literal and inferential comprehension.
• Understand story sequence.
• Develop the ability to recognize the main idea of a story.
• Develop the ability to draw conclusions.
• Identify cause and effect relationships.
• Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information in text.
• Read to learn new information or perform a task.
• Understand literature written in a variety of genres.

Writing

• Write upper and lower case manuscript letters, using proper spacing between letters.
• Understand that the names of people and places start with capital letters.
• Understand that a sentence ends with a punctuation mark.
• Understand and use a writing process.
• Write in a variety of forms for different audiences and purposes.
• Write clearly and effectively.
• Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of written work.

Communication

• Use listening and observation skills and strategies to gain understanding.
• Use communication skills and strategies to interact and work effectively with others.
• Dictate statements or questions for a story, card, or interview.
• Demonstrate the ability to express an opinion, or present ideas in a variety of situations.
• Participate in dramatic play.
• Recite nursery rhymes, poems, and Bible verses.
• Listen to and follow directions.