Ireland · NCCA Curriculum Specifications
1st Class Foundations of Mathematical Thinking
This course develops first class students' fluency with numbers up to 100 while fostering spatial reasoning and data literacy. Students engage in hands-on exploration to build a deep conceptual understanding of how mathematics describes the world around them.
Number Mastery and Place Value
Students explore the structure of the base ten system and develop strategies for counting and comparing numbers up to 100.
Understanding how grouping items into tens and units makes counting large sets more efficient.
Developing a sense of magnitude by comparing sets and estimating quantities before counting.
Identifying visual and numerical patterns within a 100-grid to build mental computation skills.
Operations and Algebraic Logic
Moving beyond rote memorization to understand the relationship between addition and subtraction.
Exploring addition as joining sets and subtraction as taking away or finding the difference.
Building a toolkit of mental strategies including doubles, near-doubles, and bridging through ten.
Solving problems where the total is known but one of the parts is missing.
Geometry and Spatial Reasoning
Investigating the properties of 2D and 3D shapes and how they fit together in space.
Identifying, describing, and classifying flat shapes based on sides and corners.
Examining the characteristics of three dimensional objects in the environment.
Using mathematical language to describe position and give directions.
Measurement in the Real World
Using non-standard and standard units to quantify length, weight, capacity, and time.
Comparing objects and using uniform non-standard units to measure distance.
Exploring the concepts of heavy and light, and full and empty through hands-on investigation.
Reading the clock to the hour and half hour and understanding the passage of time.
Data and Chance
Collecting information and representing it visually to answer questions and make predictions.
Gathering information from the class and organizing it into categories.
Using pictures to represent data and interpreting the results of a graph.
Using the language of chance to discuss the likelihood of everyday events.