What
will we be learning in First Grade?
Reading
Our
reading instruction takes place in small, guided reading groups. In
September children are introduced to our Reading Workshop, where they
learn how to work independently on a variety of activities like
Lexia, independent reading, and games from our ABC or science center.
During this time, teachers provide individual and small group
reading instruction based on each child's needs. In these small
groups, readers work on phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency,
vocabulary and comprehension, which are all key components of reading
instruction. They read fiction and non-fiction books, learn
strategies for decoding words and in the process, become fluent
readers. Children will take home a book most nights to practice with
families so you can see reading growth over the year.
Writing
We
use Lucy
Calkins Units of Study
for teaching writing at Leverett Elementary School. Our writing time
begins with a whole class mini-lesson on a specific topic. Then
children have independent writing time, where they choose topics that
are important to them to write about. During this time, teachers
meet with children individually or in small groups for writing
conferences. At the end of each writing time, we have time for
“Author's Chair”, where children are invited to share their
writing with the class and take questions and comments from the
audience. In first grade, children begin by writing Small Moment
stories, which are true stories from their lives. Then we work on
creating non-fiction Teaching Books. After that, we do opinion
writing, where children learn how to convince their readers of their
opinion. Finally, we end the year writing some poetry. At the end
of the year, we have an Author's Breakfast, where families are
invited into the classroom to hear us present our writing and
celebrate all our hard work!
Math
At
LES, we use Everyday Math for math instruction. Many math concepts,
such as graphing the change in weather over the course of the year,
take place during our morning meeting. We begin Math Workshop with a
whole class lesson. Then children complete math journal pages to
practice the new concepts we learned. After they are finished,
children have time to play math games or do Symphony on the computer.
During this time, teachers meet with students for individual or
small group lessons based on need. In first grade, students are
developing an understanding of addition, subtraction, and strategies
for adding and subtracting within 20. They are developing an
understanding of place value and learning how to group numbers in
tens and ones. They are learning linear measurement and measuring
lengths in units. They are also learning attributes of shapes and
how to compose and decompose geometric shapes. We also celebrate the
100th
Day of School in February and each child is invited to create
something using 100 objects to present to the class. We have a lot
of fun growing as mathematicians by sharing ideas with each other and
using language like, “I noticed.....”, “I like how you....”,
“I don't understand how...”, whenever we present our work and our
math thinking to the class.
Fundations
Fundations
is the program we use for spelling, phonics and handwriting.
Children learn letter sounds and how to combine letter sounds to make
words. They learn about important spelling concepts like digraphs,
suffixes, base words, and bonus letters. We learn how to spell “trick
words”, which are common words we use everyday and must be
memorized because they cannot be sounded out. (the,
and, very,.....)
We learn how to write a complete sentence with capitals, periods,
neat handwriting and finger spaces.
Social
Curriculum
Our
social curriculum is something we weave into many parts of our day
through read alouds, morning meeting, choice time and on Wednesday
mornings when we do lessons from our Second Step program, which
teaches us how to be a good friend, how to manage our emotions, and
how to make good choices.
Social
Studies and Science
During
the year we will alternate between social studies and science themes,
which we focus on every Wednesday and follow up with during the week
through read alouds and independent shelf activities. These are the
themes we will cover in first grade:
Insects
Changing
of Seasons
Maps
American
Symbols
Family
Traditions
Animal
Adaptations: Bears
Sound
and Light
Famous
Heroes: Biographies
Pond
Habitat