First grade is an exciting year for students, families and teachers. So much learning happens this year, you will see amazing growth in both your child's academic and social skills. Below you will find details on our literacy, math, science, social studies and social emotional learning for the year.

Literacy

Each day we will spend time in whole and small group settings working on important skills such as comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, writing development as well as handwriting.

We use Reading Street as our core curriculum for comprehension. Students have the opportunity to read fiction and non-fiction stories to work on a variety of comprehension skills such as: predicting, inferring, and retelling. In addition, we will practice identifying the characters, setting, problem, and solution as we read.

We use Letterland as our phonics and spelling program. This program brings letters and letters sounds to life using characters that represent each letter of the alphabet to help children learn letter names and sounds. This program also uses fun and engaging stories about the letter characters to teach concepts such as: digraphs, silent e, vowel teams and r controlled vowels.

When it comes to writing we will have two focuses: handwriting and writing development. Students will receive explicit handwriting instruction using the program, Handwriting Without Tears. This multi-sensory handwriting program supports all learning styles to master handwriting as an automatic and comfortable skill. Students will learn about three different types of writing this year. We will practice and explore: opinion writing, informational writing and narrative writing.

Math

We use Eureka math for our math program. In first grade, your student will continue to build their addition and subtraction skills. Students will work to represent and solve problems using objects, drawing and equations with symbols. We will also explore exciting concepts such as geometry, measurement, place value and telling time.

Social Studies

In first grade, students develop their understanding of basic concepts and ideas from civics, economics, geography, and history. We will learn about citizenship, community members, mapping, U.S. symbols, wants and needs, and colonial life. Many of our social studies topics will connect to our literacy themes as we read books and discuss different social studies topics.

Science

In science this year your student will wonder, explore and discover about the world around them. Some topics we will explore this year are insects, moon phases, plant and animal adaptations, light and sound, and engineering. Students can look forward to a variety of hands on activities as we learn about the different topics. We will also be utilizing a program called, Mystery Science, that brings learning to life by answering science questions (ex. Why do birds have beaks?) with short videos followed by hands on lessons.

Social Emotional

In first grade, social emotional learning is an important part of our curriculum. Our school utilizes Responsive Classroom to create a learning environment that is safe, joyful and engaging. Responsive Classroom is a student-centered, social and emotional learning approach to teaching and discipline. Responsive classroom's core belief is that in order to be successful in and out of school, students need to learn a set of social and emotional competencies—cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self-control—and a set of academic competencies—academic mindset, perseverance, learning strategies, and academic behaviors. These competencies are supported by a variety of activities that students will participate in daily including morning meetings and closing circles. Morning meeting will provide children with the opportunity to greet each other, share about themselves,and participate in a group activity. To end the day we will meet in a closing circle where students will have the opportunity to reflect on their learning and say goodbye to each other.

Another important piece of our social emotional curriculum is The Zones of Regulation. The Zones of regulation is a framework designed to foster self regulation and emotional control. Self-regulation is something everyone is continually working on. The goal of this program is to help students recognize when they are becoming less regulated, and provide them with strategies and tools to manage their feelings and get themselves to a healthy place. The Zones framework provides strategies to teach students to become more aware of and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, manage their sensory needs, and improve their ability to problem solve conflicts.

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