WHAT IS TAUGHT IN GRADE 1?

Grade 1 learners will be expected to have an understanding and knowledge of basic skills in language, arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The main skills that teachers will develop are listening, reading, and writing skills.

At the end of Grade 1 learners will be able to use these skills to:

• Listening and Speaking Skills: In Grade 1, learners will be taught how to listen carefully and ask questions when their teacher reads texts. They will also be able to sound the alphabet and learn how to build as well as pronounce words.

• Reading Skills: Learners understanding of the 'real' world will expand and be able to use their imagination more. Grade 1 learners should be able to recognize and sound all the letters of the alphabet, including basic words and sentences.

• Writing Skills: Grade1 learners will be able to use a pencil, paintbrush, and crayon. They will be able to write all the letters of the alphabet. Learners will be taught grammar skills including capitalization and basic punctuation. They will be able to use the alphabet to write their names as well as basic words and sentences to form stories. 

These are fundamental survival skills children learn in Grade 1, which will assist them in the fast-paced world we live in today:

• Critical thinking

• Problem solving

• The ability to communicate well.

• Being able to collaborate with others.

• Creativity

AN OVERVIEW OF A GRADE 1 CLASSROOM

The classroom is on the far end of the primary school’s campus which has access to the area that is meant for Foundation Phase learners to play in. When you enter the classroom, the door is on the left and you are met with a black chalkboard in the front of the classroom used for teaching most lessons as well as a whiteboard which is used for hanging illustrations. There are 40 learners in the classroom which are placed in rows of 4 on either side of the classroom. Each learner has their own chair bag which holds their coloring book, number charts, readers, and workbook. Learners are not grouped by their academic performance as the teacher prefers that students try and assist one another. At the back of the classroom is the teacher’s desk and where all resources and materials are found that are used for lessons besides the library nook which is placed at the front of the classroom for easy access when conducting Guided Reading Lessons. However, the mat where those lessons take place on is rolled up and placed at the back of the classroom in order to not take up space that could be utilized in the classroom. The classroom is decorated by many Grade 1 appropriate posters that are in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English. These posters include the daily chart which the teacher uses in her daily routine which shows learners the day, the previous day, the day after as well as the date and month. There are posters that describe the weather and list the ABC’s including images of words that start with each respective letter of the alphabet as well as self-portraits that the learners did in the beginning of the year as part of a Life Skills Lesson, as well as a more recent poster completed by the learners based around a Life Skills topic – Autumn. The teacher does have an extra lined board which she used to demonstrate to learners how to write in their lined books when they first started transitioning from free handwriting to more structured writing. The teacher has a little watering pot filled with extra stationery for any learners who have either lost some crayons or do not have. Fortunately, I had my own little station which I used to make notes, which was placed at the back of the classroom next to the teacher’s desk. The teacher has her own shelves and organizational system in the back of the classroom that is used to store learner’s class books, activities, and other administrative works.