First Grade Overview

First Grade Overview

The primary focus in first grade is to build a solid foundation of basic skills. These skills are essential for future success in school and in life. We strive to help children realize their full potential in all areas of development.

Reading is taught in small groups and reinforced through a home/school reading program. Writing is incorporated into all subject areas with an emphasis on handwriting, spelling of core words, sentence structure, and mechanics. In math, strategies are developed for addition and subtraction and these operations are applied in problem-solving activities. Graphing, estimating, patterning and problem solving are emphasized throughout the year. Other units include place value, time, money, geometry, fractions and measurement.

Students will be exposed to historical perspectives in their study of "Coming to America". They will discover that a variety of people contributed to the development of America. Topics will include explorers, Native American tribes, Plymouth Colony, and Thanksgiving. Students will compare and contrast the current cultures of Canada and Mexico with our own. In addition, they will locate places on maps and globes. Students will learn to recognize some of the earth's physical geographic features. The first grade science curriculum presents opportunities for the students to learn more about the world around them as we study various animal groups.

Reading

Our language arts program combines reading skills and strategies in a literature-based approach which exposes all students to significant literary works. Direct instruction is provided in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It uses collaborative learning and higher-level thinking skills and builds on students’ interests and experiences.

The following skills will be taught in first grade:

• recognition of consonant letters and their sounds
• learning the vowel sounds
• matching of printed to spoken word
• seeing and hearing rhyming words
• recognition of a basic first grade vocabulary
• reading aloud with expression and understanding
• developing independent reading

Math

The concepts we will be working with this year will include the following:

• number formation to 100
• time
• money
• sums and differences
• skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s - geometry and graphing
• problem solving activities - measurement
• place value - fractions
• ordinal numbers - estimating

Science

The areas to be studied are:

• classifying living and non-living things
• analyze similarities and differences between parents and offspring in a variety of organisms including plants and animals.
• earth composition – rock, soil, air and water
• analyze and interpret observations about solids and liquids and their unique properties
• health needs – nutrition, personal hygiene, rest and exercise

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