Grade 1 English
Grade 1 English: the first words, the first sounds, and the first time a child hears that English is something you can play with.
What Grade 1 covers
In Grade 1 English is taught orally, inside the Environment Related Activities lesson rather than as a subject of its own. Children meet English through themes they already know — the school, the home, animals in the garden, water, the sky, food, transport — and learn a small set of words and one or two sentence patterns for each.
Almost everything is done through songs, games, listening and speaking. Reading and writing at this stage means recognising letter shapes and forming them, not reading passages.
The syllabus that governs Grade 1 English
Grade 1 and Grade 2 share one syllabus: Activity Based Oral English, issued by the Department of English at the National Institute of Education. It is organised into 16 themes, and for each theme it names the vocabulary, the sentence structures, and the songs, games and activities used to teach them.
It is a teacher training syllabus — written for the primary teacher who takes ERA, not for the child. Parents may still find it useful, because it shows exactly which words and phrases a Grade 1 child is expected to meet.
The 16 themes, in syllabus order
| Theme | What the child learns to say |
|---|---|
| 1. We and the school | Greetings, and asking and giving a name: Good morning, What's your name?, I'm ... |
| 2. Our home | Family words, and the polite phrases: Thank you, You're welcome, Good night. |
| 3. Animals that come into the garden | Animal and colour words, and Do you have a pet? with yes and no. |
| 4. Play with water | Verbs for what we do with water: I wash, I drink, I eat. |
| 5. Sinhala and Hindu New Year period | Words for clothes, sweets and cleaning, and Mother has ..., I like ... |
| 6. The sky we see | Sun, moon, stars, clouds and colours, with What colour is the ...? |
| 7. Things we eat and drink | Food words, and expressing likes: I like ... and ... |
| 8. How information is received | Polite forms and personal information: My name is ..., I'm sorry. |
| 9. Changes in the environment | Weather and tidiness words, with It's ... and the articles a and an. |
| 10. Likes and dislikes | Places and foods, with I like ... |
| 11. How we get our needs | Asking politely: Please give me ..., Can I have ..., Here you are. |
| 12. Transport | Vehicles and traffic lights, with I see ..., I come by ... |
| 13. Play with light | Light and dark words, with It's ... and Is it ...? |
| 14. Places where people work | Jobs and workplaces, with He is ..., She is ..., What is she? |
| 15. Different places in the environment | Garden and field words, with There's ... and There are ... |
| 16. People who help us | Simple commands and polite requests: Can you help me?, Thank you very much. |
Downloads are awaiting permission checks
We have Grade 1 material in hand — the NIE oral English syllabus, a zonal activity book, model papers and a primary word list. None of it is offered for download yet.
Crediting an author or an education office is not the same as having permission to republish their work. Each file is being checked for ownership and redistribution permission first, and we will link to the official source wherever one exists rather than host a second copy.
The teaching content on this page is written by RCF English and is free to use.
Also useful for a Grade 1 child
Alphabet Practice
Letter shapes, letter sounds, capitals and small letters, and how to hold a pencil.
Poems and rhymes
Rhyme is how the sounds of English are learned before the spelling is.
Games and practice
Short activities that mark themselves and explain every answer.