Expeditions

Make New Friends

In first grade, we start the year with our first mini-expedition: Make New Friends. For the first few weeks of school, we will be learning how to make new friends and keep our old ones.

In reading, we will we learning how to pick "Just Right" books. They should be hard enough that there are a few words on every page that we don't know and have to sound out, but not so hard that we can't get through them.

In Math, we are making our own number books and learning how to do the calendar. We are learning how to arrange information neatly on a graph and how to break things into categories by playing guess my rule.

Writing for the first few weeks will be largely a review of our handwriting to get us back up to speed making neat and clear letters and words. We will also become familiarized with our Important Word Books which will be a useful tool in later writing work.

We will teach several different solutions to dealing with social problems. We will also have a Friendship Day Celebration where we make Friendship Hats and we pitch in to make a big Friendship Fruit Salad!

3rd Rock from the Sun

September/October/November

Topics: Third Rock from the Sun explores the world around us and our relationships to the natural world. We will learn about maps/globes and major land features, rocks and minerals, water, and other natural resources. We will also explore the relationship between the earth, moon, and sun and how their interactions create day/night and our seasons.


Guiding Questions:

  1. How does the movement of the Earth, Sun, and Moon affect our lives?
  2. What makes Earth materials useful?
  3. How do our observations help us understand the natural world?


Tools We Use


January/February/March

Topics: Tools We Use introduces the physics of movement in the human and mechanical worlds. We will learn about balance, forces, movement and simple machines and how they help us work. Students will conduct experiments and share their knowledge with a science fair during exhibition night.


Guiding Questions

  1. What makes things move?
  2. How do things balance?
  3. How do tools help us do work?
  4. How have tools changed over time?

Once Upon A Time


April/May

Topics: Once Upon a Thyme, our Fairy Tales expedition, is an in depth study of classic fairy tales. We also learn performance skills as we prepare for, and perform, a 40 minute play based on fairy tale characters and character development.


Guiding Questions:

  1. What makes a fairy tale a fairy tale?
  2. How do you tell a good story?
  3. What makes good guys good and bad guys bad?