K–5 • DISCOVER & MASTER • DRAFT
Elementary school should make children competent and curious.
The first six years establish the mechanics that make later independence possible: decoding, fluent reading, writing, arithmetic, measurement, observation, vocabulary, broad knowledge, persistence, imagination, play, art, music, making, and the satisfaction of discovering how the world works.
This assumes Minnesota’s reading law.
The Minnesota Learning Project is designed to align with Minnesota’s READ Act and structured reading instruction. It does not replace that law. Elementary schedules should protect substantial daily time for evidence-based reading instruction and mathematics before adding new statewide demands.
Explore the grades
Each grade has a reader-friendly overview, representative projects, coded technical standards, and a mastery check.
KINDERGARTEN
The World Is Interesting
Letters, sounds, stories, counting, shapes, nature, observation, songs, movement, play, art, and building.
GRADE 1
I Can Read Things Myself
Decoding, connected reading, addition and subtraction, measurement, time, money, stories, drawing, and simple experiments.
GRADE 2
How Does That Work?
Fluency, paragraphs, multiplication concepts, clocks, money, maps, simple machines, habitats, making, and creative work.
GRADE 3
The Big World
Writing, multiplication and division, fractions, geography, ancient civilizations, science, evidence basics, art, and projects.
GRADE 4
Civilization, Invention & Minnesota
Complex information, fractions, graphs, engineering, Minnesota geography and institutions, tools, art, and design.
GRADE 5
America & the Physical World
Substantial reading, essays, fractions and decimals, controlled investigations, U.S. history, budgeting, building, and creative work.
By the end of Grade 5, a student should be able to show:
- Fluent, accurate reading of grade-appropriate narrative and informational text.
- The ability to explain what a text says, identify important details, and support an answer with evidence from the text.
- Clear paragraph and multi-paragraph writing with complete sentences, logical organization, and basic revision.
- Recall and accurate use of multiplication and division facts.
- Competence with whole-number operations, fractions, decimals, measurement, time, money, and practical multi-step problems.
- Foundational knowledge of science, geography, U.S. history, Minnesota, and basic civic institutions.
- The ability to follow written instructions, distinguish observation from inference, read a simple chart or graph, and explain how a basic system works.
- Basic practical numeracy, including a simple budget and comparison of prices or quantities.
If a student is not there yet
The school owes the student more time, targeted instruction, appropriate materials, and a written plan identifying the unfinished skills, the additional support to be provided, who is responsible, and when progress will be checked again. The default is not automatic grade retention.
Year-one local elementary pilot checklist
- Protect a defined daily block for structured reading instruction and intervention.
- Protect a defined daily block for mathematics.
- Map the Grade 5 mastery outcomes backward through K–5.
- Choose a small set of common mastery checks in reading, writing, and mathematics.
- Create a written support-plan template for students who miss a check.
- Audit new activities and mandates for instructional time displaced.
- Preserve weekly time for science, art, music, physical activity, play, making, and read-alouds.
- Report baseline and year-end results to the local board in plain language.
Developmental purpose
The dominant emotional character of K–5 should be wonder, humor, discovery, accomplishment, imagination, play, artistic expression, and the satisfaction of mastery.
Content guardrails
Any required content should be tested for age appropriateness, purpose, emotional intensity, instructional time, and whether it advances a clear competency. Difficult history should be taught accurately and proportionately as students mature. Lists of disputed theories or methods belong below the core academic expectations, not at the front of the elementary program.
Return to the Curriculum hub or continue to Grades 6–8 →.
The Minnesota Learning Project 