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1st Grade homeschool history curriculum

All 36 weeks of 1st grade history, planned and ready, with the exact topic for every week below. Start with Week 1 free, no card needed.

Open the free Week 1 lesson See plans

How 1st grade history works

History is taught from primary sources: students read real documents, letters, and speeches, then analyze who wrote them and why.

The full 36-week scope & sequence

Topics and standards come straight from the live course. Standards codes are listed for reference; Life Academy is built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states.

Quarter 1 (weeks 1–9)

WeekTopicStandards
1Maps: home to school path with a key
2Community helpers and the tools of their jobs
3Rules become laws when a community writes them
4U.S. flag: stars = states, stripes = original colonies
5Calendar history: months, seasons, and remembered days
6Find our state; name the capital if we know it
7Seven continents and four oceans — point on a map
8Native peoples of this land: first, not a costume
9George Washington: commander, then first president (1789)

Quarter 2 (weeks 10–18)

WeekTopicStandards
10Abraham Lincoln: 16th president; Civil War; 13th Amendment (1865)
11Benjamin Franklin: printer, inventor, diplomat — checkable jobs
12Needs vs wants; goods vs services
13Then vs now: light, heat, and water in a home
14Local history: how our town got a name (or a nearby town)
15Independence Day = July 4, 1776 — Declaration, not fireworks first
16The Constitution is the rule book of the U.S. government (1787)
17Three branches intro: make laws, carry out, decide cases
18Midyear: map + Washington/Lincoln + flag battery

Quarter 3 (weeks 19–27)

WeekTopicStandards
19Landforms: mountain, river, plain, coast
20Rural, suburban, urban — how people settle
21Transportation history: river, rail, highway
22Communication history: letter, telegraph idea, telephone
23Holidays as history: Thanksgiving 1621 harvest meeting (not a cartoon)
24Martin Luther King Jr.: a real person, a real speech, a real law change
25Citizenship: being a fair neighbor and telling the truth
26Money: coins and dollars as a civic tool
27Schools and libraries as public goods

Quarter 4 (weeks 28–36)

WeekTopicStandards
28Our state's outline and one famous place
29A primary source can be a photo, a letter, or a flag itself
30Compare two maps: then and now of the same place
31Jobs that keep a town running (water, trash, roads)
32Review: presidents, dates 1776 / 1787 / 1865
33Biography: one American I can prove with two facts
34Family immigration or long-time-here story (facts only)
35History walk: old building, new building, one question
36Grade 1 history portfolio: maps, flag, two biographies

Need a little extra help?

Live 1:1 tutoring with David Clifford on Zoom or Google Meet: $35/hour, your first hour $25. See tutoring.

Same grade: 1st Grade math · 1st Grade English · 1st Grade science

← Kindergarten history · 2nd Grade history →

FAQ

Is this 1st grade history curriculum free?

Week 1 is free with no card needed: open the Week 1 history lesson. Weeks 2–36 unlock with a Student plan ($35/month) or a Family plan for up to 4 students ($69/month).

How long is a 1st grade history lesson?

Plan on about 15–25 minutes a day for history. There is one lesson per week of the school year, broken into short daily steps.

Is Life Academy accredited?

No. Life Academy is not accredited. It's built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states, and parents are the school of record. Why that's usually fine.

Can I print it?

Yes. Every lesson prints as a worksheet with a separate parent answer key.


Life Academy is a parent-directed online K–12 curriculum, built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states. It is not accredited, and parents issue the homeschool transcript. Nothing here is legal advice. Check your state's law at HSLDA. Questions? Email david.dukes77102@gmail.com.