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First grade marks a foundational moment in your child’s educational journey, a time of cognitive development, natural wonder, and establishment of core learning patterns that influence future growth.
Our Grade 1 curriculum harnesses this innate curiosity, introducing structured experiences that develop essential skills often overlooked in traditional education.
This year-long journey balances intellectual growth with emotional intelligence, basic entrepreneurial thinking, and practical life skills, nurturing not just what children learn, but how they perceive and engage with the world around them.
This optional AI Master Prompt is a powerful tool, ideally used before you begin the Grade 1 curriculum to establish a clear baseline for the year ahead. Designed for parents to use with leading AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini, it initiates a guided, interactive session to generate a deeply personalized learning profile of your child. This process illuminates their unique cognitive strengths, learning preferences, and developmental stage. The resulting profile serves as a powerful, reusable blueprint.
Beyond helping you tailor the QMAK curriculum, you can provide this profile to an AI anytime you request new educational ideas, allowing you to effortlessly generate additional lessons perfectly optimized for your child’s unique way of learning.
Instructions for Parent:
Unfortunately this highly engineered prompt is only available to Gold Members. Join today to get immediate access to all of our AI Master Prompts.
Grade 1 marks a critical period in your child’s development where natural curiosity and core learning foundations are established. Our curriculum harnesses this enthusiasm for discovery while introducing thoughtfully structured experiences that build essential skills across multiple dimensions.
During this formative year, we focus on:
For Grade 1, we focus on developmental growth objectives specifically tailored to six-year-olds, beginning a journey that will continue throughout your child’s development.
Unlike scheduled lessons, these objectives are integrated into daily life through ongoing practices, regular activities, and intentional experiences that evolve as your child grows.
Our Grade 1 curriculum delivers monthly lessons in critical thinking, basic entrepreneurship, self-awareness, and other foundational skills to complement your core academic instruction.
These comprehensive lessons integrate alongside your math, language arts, science, and other traditional subjects, incorporating books, movies, activities, and discussions worth revisiting.
This approach allows deep integration of crucial life skills often overlooked in traditional education, preparing your child for success in our evolving, AI-driven world.
Objective #1 Build Self-Responsibility
Choose an age-appropriate activity from our list to help your children develop an internal compass that guides them to make thoughtful decisions, understand the impact of their actions, and take ownership of their choices.
External Influences & Dependencies: Environment
Environment is everything around us that shapes how things develop and behave, influencing natural systems, social interactions, and technology through physical conditions, behavioral guidance, and selection pressure.
Film: Avatar (2009)
Avatar explores environmental systems by contrasting the Na’vi’s symbiotic relationship with nature to humanity’s exploitative approach, illustrating how understanding ecosystems as interconnected networks fosters sustainable practices and cultural harmony.
This reading exercise teaches children that their environment shapes their growth, while empowering them to choose supportive surroundings and create positive spaces for themselves and others.
Value Creation: Introduction to the Six Ways to Create Value
In this lesson, kids learn 6 fun ways to create value—like making things, helping others, sharing, selling, renting, or starting a subscription—all while using their own cool ideas!
Episode: Sweet Pete’s
Huge transformation centered on turning a charming candy brand into a scalable experience. Marcus refines product quality, improves the retail experience, and builds a flagship store that delivers joy and education — all elements of amplified customer value.
Episode: The Beach
Season 1, Episode 26
At the beach, impatient Bluey rushes to the rock pools, frustrated by slow-moving Bingo. After leaving her sister behind, Bluey realizes she missed out on Bingo’s wonderful discoveries, learning to appreciate her sister’s mindful pace.
Why it matters. Every six-year-old knows what it’s like to be dragged along by someone faster, or to be held back by someone slower. This episode doesn’t pick sides. Bluey’s impatience is real — she just wants to get there. Bingo’s pace is real — she’s genuinely captivated by the small things. The lesson isn’t that one approach is better. It’s that when you only focus on getting where you’re going, you miss what’s right in front of you. Your child has been both Bluey and Bingo. This episode helps them see both sides.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 1, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Documentary: Nature’s Great Events – Les Saisons (The Seasons) (2015)
Tracing Europe’s natural history since the Ice Age, Les Saisons poignantly depicts the changing environment. It visualizes how human civilization gradually replaced wild forests, highlighting the profound, shrinking impact humanity has on nature.
Value Creation: Make a Product: Creating Things People Want to Buy
In this lesson, kids learn how to make and sell their own products—like bracelets, toys, or snacks—by finding out what people want, making it special, and sharing it in fun ways!
Episode: Eco-Me
Strong product-based value creation. Marcus helps reposition the brand by emphasizing natural cleaning products’ health and environmental benefits, and works to simplify and clarify product offerings. The business evolves to better serve eco-conscious consumers.
Exploring Identity & Self-Concept: The Nameless Adventure
This month’s journey invites children into The Nameless Adventure, where they explore who they are beyond labels—discovering that their true self is more than just a name.
Book: “The Name Jar” by Yangsook Choi.
Episode: Shops
Season 1, Episode 23
While playing pretend shop, Bluey gets so caught up in dictating the rules that the actual game never starts. Her friends grow frustrated, teaching Bluey that play is only fun when everyone collaborates and enjoys their roles.
Why it matters. Six-year-olds are natural organisers — and natural dictators. They love making rules, assigning roles, and running the show. This episode holds up a mirror to that impulse without shaming it. Bluey isn’t being mean. She’s excited. She has a vision. But her vision doesn’t leave room for anyone else’s ideas. For a child entering an age where group play becomes more complex and friendships require genuine negotiation, this is essential viewing: your idea might be brilliant, but if nobody else wants to play it, you’re playing alone.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 2, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Mini Words
Relaxing word puzzle using the 721 most common English words. Builds vocabulary recognition, spelling confidence, and spatial reasoning for emerging readers. Supports early literacy foundations alongside DGO #1 — completing puzzles independently builds ownership of learning.
Adaptation & Self-Perception Biases: Novelty Bias
Novelty bias is our brain’s natural attraction to new things, which can affect our choices in technology, shopping, entertainment, and learning, sometimes at the expense of mastery.
Film: Moana (2016)
Moana explores novelty bias by showcasing how her attraction to the unknown drives innovation and discovery, demonstrating how curiosity and exploration can lead to breakthroughs and solutions to long-standing challenges.
This reading exercise teaches children about novelty bias – our natural attraction to what’s new and different – while helping them understand the value of both exciting new experiences and developing deeper appreciation for what they already have.
Exploring Identity & Self-Concept: The Erasing Game
This month’s journey invites children into The Erasing Game, where they playfully explore identity by adding and removing labels—returning again and again to the simple, powerful presence of “I am.”
Book: “I Am Enough” by Grace Byers.
Episode: Pizza Girls
Season 3, Episode 19
The girls ditch their broken pedal car for Muffin’s flashy electric one to deliver mud pizzas. When the shiny car’s battery dies, they return to the trusty pedal car, learning that older things hold unique charm and stories.
Why it matters. This is an episode about what things are worth. The new car is faster and shinier, but it can’t get dirty, it runs out of battery, and it doesn’t inspire any games. The old car is broken, but its brokenness becomes part of the play — fixing it is the game. Six-year-olds are starting to notice who has what, and to want the newer, better version of everything. This episode doesn’t lecture them about gratitude. It just shows them, quietly, that the thing with all the stories in it might be worth more than the thing that came out of the box yesterday.
After watching:
- “Why did Mum say Pedaly was full of stories? What does that mean?”
- “The electric car was faster and fancier. So why did the kids end up going back to Pedaly?”
- “Do you have something old that you love? What makes it special even though it’s not new?”
- “Muffin said no mud in the new car because it was expensive. What happened to the game when they couldn’t get messy?”
Resources & Downloads: Month 3, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Value Creation: Offer a Service: Helping Others with Your Skills
In this lesson, kids learn how to help others by offering a service—like walking dogs or teaching a skill—using their own talents to make people’s lives easier and more fun!
Episode: Taxi
Season 1, Episode 25
Bluey tries to run an organized pretend taxi service, but her demanding passenger Bandit, restless Bingo, and Mum’s malfunctioning “GPS” create hilarious chaos, forcing Bluey to adapt her strict rules to the unpredictable world around her.
Why it matters. Six-year-olds are at the age where their games have plans — and where those plans constantly fall apart because other people are involved. Bluey wants to run a proper taxi service. Everyone else wants something different. The comedy comes from the collision between her expectations and reality, and the episode gently teaches something every six-year-old needs to learn: you can have a plan, and the plan can change, and it can still be fun. Flexibility isn’t the same as giving up.
After watching:
Virtue of Humanity – Kindness: The Bear (1988)
A young bear cub loses his mother in a rockslide. Alone and vulnerable, he encounters a massive adult male grizzly—a creature who has no biological reason to help him. What follows is a wordless story of unexpected nurturing, as the solitary adult bear gradually accepts the cub and teaches him to survive.
Exploring Identity & Self-Concept: The Identity Explorer
This month’s journey welcomes children into The Identity Explorer game, where they playfully question “What are you?” while learning that who they are goes beyond any single definition—discovering the changing, many-sided nature of identity.
Book: “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain.
Episode: Work
Season 1, Episode 31
Bluey sets up a pretend office, acting stressed while taking calls and meetings. Through playing with Bandit, she quietly realizes that work isn’t just about being busy—it’s a purposeful effort to provide for the people you love.
Why it matters. Most six-year-olds have a vague sense that their parents “go to work” but no real understanding of what that means or why. This episode opens that door through play — which is exactly how children this age process abstract ideas. Bluey doesn’t learn about economics. She learns that her dad does something all day that’s sometimes boring and sometimes hard, and he does it because he loves his family. That’s the seed of understanding both responsibility and purpose — two concepts your Grade 1 curriculum is beginning to explore.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 4, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Cause & Effect Analysis: Murphy’s Law
Murphy’s Law teaches us to expect and prepare for problems before they happen, helping us develop backup plans and become more resilient when things go wrong.
Film: Man vs Bee (2022)
Man vs. Bee offers a hilarious exploration of Murphy’s Law, showing how simple tasks spiral into bigger problems. As Trevor battles a bee, students learn how attempts to solve one issue often lead to more.
This reading exercise teaches children about Murphy’s Law – the idea that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” – while helping them develop resilience, preparation skills, and a proactive mindset when facing life’s unexpected challenges.
Episode: BBQ
Season 1, Episode 7
The Heelers host a family barbecue. While adults chat, the kids mirror them by “cooking” in the garden. Bingo takes her salad-making role incredibly seriously, highlighting how children find deep purpose and focus in mimicking the grown-up world.
Why it matters. This is a beautifully simple episode about imitation as learning. Bingo doesn’t just pretend to make a salad — she puts genuine thought into which leaves look right, which flowers might work, which arrangement is best. She’s practising the same skills adults use when they cook: selection, preparation, presentation. Your six-year-old does this constantly — copying your phone calls, mimicking your routines, playing at being you. This episode validates that impulse and shows that the copying isn’t shallow. It’s how children rehearse for the world they’re growing into.
After watching:
Exploring Identity & Self-Concept: The Source Slide Adventure
This month’s journey takes children on The Source Slide Adventure, where they imagine sliding deep within themselves to discover where the thought of “I” comes from—exploring the origins of identity through guided visualization and gentle questioning.
Book: “Wherever You Go” by Pat Zietlow Miller.
Episode: Slide
Season 3, Episode 46
Bingo and Lila’s excitement over a new waterslide pauses when they keep finding bugs on it. They invent a “Bug Inspector” game to protect the tiny creatures, ultimately saving a caterpillar that later blossoms into a beautiful butterfly.
Why it matters. This is empathy in its purest, smallest form. Bingo and Lila don’t have to care about the bugs. Nobody is watching. Nobody would blame them for sliding. But they choose, again and again, to stop their fun to protect something tiny and voiceless. They even debate whether ants count — and decide they do. For a six-year-old, this is a powerful model: kindness isn’t just for people. It’s a choice you make about how you move through the world, even when it’s inconvenient, even when no one is keeping score.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 5, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Objective #2 Develop a Sense of Personal Power
Choose an age-appropriate activity from our list to help your child recognize their own strengths, make meaningful choices, and develop the confidence to face life’s challenges.
Value Creation: Share a Resource: Let Others Use Something Cool You Have
In this lesson, kids learn how to share something cool they own—like books, games, or spaces—so others can enjoy it too, all while helping others and maybe earning a little money!
Episode: Faceytalk
Season 3, Episode 24
During a chaotic video call, Muffin selfishly hogs the screen, ignores timeouts, and leads Uncle Stripe on a hilarious chase ending in the pool. Seeing this selfishness firsthand, Bluey promptly shares her tablet with Bingo.
Why it matters. Every parent has said “stop hogging” a thousand times. This episode shows what hogging actually looks like from the outside — and it’s not pretty. The genius is the structure: Bluey doesn’t learn from a lecture. She learns by watching Muffin’s chaos unfold in real time on a screen, and she draws her own conclusion. That’s how six-year-olds learn best — not from being told, but from seeing consequences play out for someone else and thinking, “I don’t want that to be me.” The fact that the whole episode is hilarious makes the medicine go down even easier.
After watching:
Exploring Identity & Self-Concept: The Existence Expedition
This month’s journey takes children on an Existence Expedition, exploring big questions about being alive through direct experience rather than thinking—discovering the wonder of existence by feeling rather than explaining the mystery of “I am.”
Book: “The Three Questions” by Jon J. Muth.
Resources & Downloads: Month 6, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Resource Management & Efficiency: Stock
Stock is a collection of resources saved for future use, like food in a pantry or knowledge in your brain, that helps systems remain stable during changes.
Film: Toy Story (1995)
Toy Story offers a fun exploration of stock through Andy’s toy collection, where the arrival of Buzz Lightyear shifts resource dynamics. The film shows how maintaining and adapting stock is crucial for system stability.
This reading exercise teaches children about stock – collections of resources that build up over time – while helping them understand the importance of saving, managing resources wisely, and planning for the future.
Episode: TV Shop
Season 3, Episode 45
Mesmerized by a pharmacy’s security monitors, Bluey directs Bingo like a mission controller to find their friends on screen. They search everywhere for Coco, only to realize she’s been sitting directly behind them the entire time.
Why it matters. This episode is about perspective — literally. Bluey can see the whole store from the screens, but she can’t see what’s right next to her. She orchestrates an elaborate search for Coco while Coco sits three metres away. For a six-year-old beginning to understand that how you look at something changes what you see, this is a delightful illustration. It also captures something beautiful about childhood friendships: the sheer excitement of spotting your friend in an unexpected place, and the desperate desire to connect even through a screen.
After watching:
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Emotion Artist
This month’s journey invites children to become Emotion Artists, exploring their feelings through color, shape, and texture—discovering that by painting emotions in their mind, they can better understand and express their inner experiences.
Book: “The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions” by Anna Llenas.
Resources & Downloads: Month 7, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Value Creation: Resell Things: Buy Low, Sell High!
In this lesson, kids learn how to resell things—like candy or stickers—by buying them for less and selling them for more, turning smart shopping into a fun little business!
Episode: Kids
Season 1, Episode 45
Playing “Kids” at the supermarket, Mum-Bluey favors “angelic toddler” Bingo over “sulky brother” Bandit. When Bluey declares Bingo her favorite, she sees Bandit’s genuine hurt, suddenly understanding exactly why real parents never choose favorites.
Why it matters. This is the episode where your child gets to be you — and discovers it’s harder than it looks. Bluey steps into the parenting role with absolute confidence and immediately makes the classic mistake: favouritism. The episode is funny because Bandit commits fully to being a terrible child, but the emotional core is sharp. When Bluey says “Snowdrop is my favourite,” she’s not playing anymore. She sees the real hurt. And in that moment, she understands something about her own parents that she couldn’t have understood from the other side: love isn’t a ranking.
After watching:
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Mood Explorer
This month’s journey turns children into Mood Explorers, teaching them to investigate bad feelings with curiosity rather than pushing them away—discovering that by playing with, understanding, and showing kindness to difficult emotions, they gain new power.
Book: “In My Heart: A Book of Feelings” by Jo Witek.
Episode: Bad Mood
Season 2, Episode 9
Bluey wakes up with an unexplainable, contagious bad mood. Instead of trying to fix or talk her out of it, Mum and Dad patiently give her space, allowing the emotional weather to naturally pass on its own.
Why it matters. This is one of the most important episodes for a six-year-old because it names something they experience but can’t yet explain: sometimes you feel bad and you don’t know why. There’s no villain. There’s no problem to solve. There’s just a mood that descended and won’t leave. The parents’ response is the masterclass: they don’t minimise it (“cheer up!”), they don’t punish it (“stop being grumpy”), and they don’t fix it (“let’s do something fun!”). They just hold steady. For a child learning to recognise and manage their own emotional weather, the message is: your feelings are real, they affect other people, and they will pass.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 8, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Foundations of Mental Models: The Map is Not the Territory
Our mental models and maps simplify reality but aren’t reality itself. Recognizing this helps us think flexibly and update our understanding when we encounter new information.
Virtue of Humanity – Love: Finding Nemo (2003)
Driven by paternal love, Marlin enters the unknown. He illustrates “the map is not the territory” by discovering his internal map of a purely dangerous ocean was false; the actual territory held unexpected allies, proving his fearful perception was not the full reality.
This reading exercise teaches children about the concept that “the map is not the territory” – how our representations of reality aren’t the same as reality itself – while encouraging flexibility, adaptability, and the understanding that even the best plans must be adjusted when facing the real world.
Documentary: A Perfect Planet – Oceans (2021)
Connecting Nemo’s fictional journey to reality, this episode reveals the actual power of ocean currents. It teaches kids that water doesn’t just sit there; it travels globally, carrying vital nutrients that sustain the vibrant reefs and marine life they love.
Episode: Chickenrat
Season 1, Episode 46
At the park, Dad invents a mythological “Chickenrat.” The kids excitedly track, theorize, and set traps for the imaginary creature. Though they never find it, the absorbing expedition proves that the joy of play is the true reward.
Why it matters. This episode is a celebration of nonsense — and nonsense is seriously underrated. Six-year-olds are at the age where imagination is still vivid but logic is starting to creep in. They might know the Chickenrat isn’t real, but they choose to believe in it anyway because the game is better that way. That choice — to stay in the story even when part of you knows it’s made up — is a form of creative courage. It’s also, quietly, a model for how ideas work: the best ones often start as something ridiculous that somebody decided to take seriously.
After watching:
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Awareness Expansion Game
This month’s journey teaches children The Awareness Expansion Game, where they learn to notice what else exists beyond overwhelming emotions—discovering that feelings, while important, are just one part of their rich, present-moment experience.
Book: “My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing” by Nick Ortner and Alison Taylor.
Episode: Bedroom
Season 3, Episode 23
After finally getting her own bedroom, Bluey’s excitement quickly fades into loneliness. Without Bingo’s comforting chatter and presence, she navigates the bittersweet reality of gaining independence but missing her sister’s companionship.
Why it matters. This is an episode about wanting something, getting it, and discovering that the getting doesn’t feel the way you imagined. Six-year-olds are in the thick of wanting more independence — they want to do things alone, go places alone, be treated as bigger than they are. This episode doesn’t say that’s wrong. It says: sometimes the thing you wanted comes with something you didn’t expect. Bluey wanted space. She got space and silence. That’s not a mistake — it’s growing up. And growing up is allowed to feel complicated.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 9, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Building on the science of currents, this episode reveals the ocean as a single, connected home. It highlights clever behaviors—like fish using tools—and introduces a vital lesson: how plastic travels those same currents, impacting the real-life families of the characters they love.
Value Creation: Create a Subscription: Give People Something Cool Again and Again
In this lesson, kids learn how to create a subscription—like monthly books or crafts—by giving people fun surprises over and over, helping them stay excited while building a cool mini-business!
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Freedom and Forgiveness Explorer
This month’s journey invites children to become Freedom and Forgiveness Explorers, playing games that help them notice their judgments, practice letting go of opinions, and experience the healing power of forgiveness toward themselves and others.
Book: “The Forgiveness Garden” by Lauren Thompson.
Episode: Verandah Santa
Season 1, Episode 52
Playing “Verandah Santa,” an angry Bluey denies baby Socks a present for biting her. After seeing Socks devastated, Dad gently helps Bluey build empathy, teaching her that kindness shouldn’t be conditional. Bluey apologizes, repairing their bond.
Why it matters. This episode goes to the heart of why we’re kind. Bluey’s logic is airtight by six-year-old standards: Socks bit me, she didn’t apologise, so she doesn’t get a present. It’s fair. It’s consistent. And it’s completely wrong — not because the logic fails, but because kindness isn’t a transaction. You don’t earn it by being good. That’s a concept most adults still struggle with. Mum’s line — “That’s not the reason to be nice to people” — is one of the most important sentences in the entire series. Your child may not fully grasp it. Plant the seed anyway.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 10, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Risk & Resilience: Fail Safe
Fail safes are backup systems and safety measures that protect against problems, like training wheels on bikes or spare tires in cars, preventing small issues from becoming disasters.
Film: Gravity (2013)
Gravity explores fail-safe systems through Dr. Ryan Stone’s struggle for survival in space after disaster strikes. The film shows how layered backup systems, from oxygen to thrusters, are vital when primary systems fail.
This reading exercise teaches children about fail-safe systems – backup plans that help when things go wrong – while showing how preparation, redundancy, and creative problem-solving can turn unexpected situations into positive experiences.
Episode: Fairytale
Season 3, Episode 27
For a bedtime story, the whole family improvises a winding, collaborative fairytale. As everyone adds different twists, complications, and characters, they create a unique, chaotic tale that none of them could have imagined alone.
Why it matters. This is collaborative storytelling at its finest — and it’s also a lesson in how creativity works. Nobody owns the story. Every contribution changes the direction. The funniest, most surprising moments come from the collisions between what different people wanted to happen. For a six-year-old who is beginning to read, write, and tell their own stories, this episode shows that the best stories aren’t planned. They’re discovered. And they’re almost always better when someone else adds something you didn’t expect.
After watching:
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Time Traveler’s Mind
This month’s journey transforms children into time travelers of the mind, teaching them to catch thoughts about past and future—discovering how to direct attention to the present moment and find peace in the now.
Book: “The Mindful Dragon: A Dragon Book about Mindfulness” by Steve Herman.
Resources & Downloads: Month 11, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
Value Creation: Rent Things Out: Share Your Stuff and Earn Money!
In this lesson, kids learn how to rent out their stuff—like toys or games—by sharing it for a short time and earning money, while still getting to keep the things they love!
The Virtue of Wisdom – Curiosity: Mongolian Ping Pong (2005)
On the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia, a young boy finds a small white sphere floating in a stream. He has never seen a ping pong ball before—and neither has anyone in his remote community. The object becomes a source of endless fascination.
Emotional Intelligence & Regulation: The Slippery Mind Slide
This month’s journey introduces children to The Slippery Mind Slide, where they imagine their thoughts gliding across a smooth surface that nothing can stick to—learning to observe their mental activity with ease while gently nudging persistent thoughts away.
Book: “Charlotte and the Quiet Place” by Deborah Sosin.
Episode: Stickbird
Season 3, Episode 41
While at the beach, older kids accidentally destroy Bingo’s sandcraft “stickbird.” Bluey teaches her a trick to throw her bad feelings into the ocean. Watching this, a quietly troubled Bandit uses the same technique to release his own burdens.
Why it matters. This is the most emotionally complex episode in the Grade 1 set, and it earns its place at the end. It works on two levels. For your child, it’s about what to do when something you created is destroyed and it wasn’t fair and nobody is going to fix it. The answer isn’t “it doesn’t matter” — it does matter. The answer is that you can hold the hurt, name it, and choose to put it down. That miming gesture — gathering the sadness and throwing it away — is the kind of concrete tool a six-year-old can actually use. For you, the parent, there’s the quieter story: Bandit sitting with something he can’t name, missing his family’s joy because he can’t get out of his own head. Chilli telling him to let it go. And the moment where his own daughter’s coping strategy becomes his. Sometimes the children teach us.
After watching:
Resources & Downloads: Month 12, Grade 1
Our resource page features quizzes, songs, coloring pages, and other downloadable activities that support and reinforce this month’s lessons.
To enhance and reinforce the concepts taught in our curriculum, we recommend incorporating these quality television programs that align with our Grade 1 learning objectives:
The Profit This reality business show follows entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis as he invests in struggling businesses and helps transform them. While advanced in some aspects, carefully selected segments provide excellent visual examples that reinforce our Systems Thinking and Business for Kids lessons, allowing children to see entrepreneurial concepts in action.
Bluey This charming animated series follows the adventures of a family of dogs, modelling healthy family dynamics, emotional intelligence, and creative play. It beautifully complements our Mind Explorers activities and Growth Objectives, presenting complex emotional concepts in accessible, age-appropriate ways. At just 7 minutes per episode, these thoughtfully created stories are perfectly sized for the attention span of most first graders, making them ideal for introducing concepts before deeper exploration.
These carefully selected programs can serve as springboards for meaningful discussions and provide visual reinforcement of the concepts being taught in our curriculum.
Our Grade 1 curriculum supplements core academic instruction with essential skills often overlooked in traditional education. These sequenced lessons develop foundational capabilities that serve your child throughout their educational journey.
We recommend following the monthly sequence as outlined, since concepts build purposefully across subject areas. Adjust pacing based on your child’s interests and learning style as needed.
Interactive activities, discussion prompts, and hands-on projects create learning experiences that strengthen your parent-child bond while developing key skills. These lessons work best when integrated with the ongoing developmental growth objectives.
Recommended movies are entirely at parents’ discretion. Consider your child’s readiness and family values when selecting films. Alternative resources are provided if particular films aren’t appropriate for your situation.
Begin with Month 1 and watch as your child develops into a confident, curious learner who acquires knowledge while building critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence, and practical capabilities essential for thriving in our changing world.
