1st Grade Curriculum

First Grade is a very busy and active year for your child. We learn all sorts of fun and interesting things! This year your child will grow by leaps and bounds. Here is a closer look at the curriculum in First Grade.

Literacy: Our writing and reading work starts with a strong foundation in phonemic awareness. We will utilize the EBLI approach (Evidence Based Literacy Instruction) with work work, spelling, and decoding words. Feel free to visit https://eblireads.com/ to learn more about this approach. 

Reading: The largest growth your child will make this year is in the area of reading. We use the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our curriculum, integrated into a Reading Workshop structure. Through this program, the students will learn to decode, read fluently and comprehend both fiction and nonfiction stories. The students receive a whole group mini-lesson, independent reading practice time, partner work, whole group sharing, and strategy reading groups daily to enhance their skills. We learn to read words and talk about our books in a variety of ways. In First Grade, your child will learn to use decoding strategies, recognize familiar letter patterns, retell stories, focus on characters and their traits, read nonfiction to learn new information, compare and contrast books and themes, and discuss all parts of books with classmates. We utilize post it notes and "thinking journals" throughout the year to track our thinking through books. Your child will bring home a WEB book to read every night as their nightly homework. This book will always be at your child's "Independent" level, meaning that it should be easy for them to read. This promotes a positive attitude about reading.

Writing: Writing is another large growth area in 1st Grade! We use the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our curriculum. Each day, the students participate in a Writing Workshop that consists of a whole group lesson, independent writing time, partner work, and whole group sharing. We will learn to write small moment personal narratives, nonfiction pieces including How to's and Informational Books, Persuasive/Opinion letters, Poetry, work with partners, and revise and edit our stories.

Math: Our Math program is called Math Expressions. It focuses on learning core skills such as number recognition and counting. We also learn to visualize numbers in terms of 5's and 10's. Math Expressions will help us to learn how to explain our thinking in Math, rather than simply "doing" it. We do a lot of discussions about the endless ways to solve equations.  

Handwriting: Good penmanship is very important in First Grade. We are still learning to keep our b's and d's straight, as well as to write legibly so that others can read what we have written. We use the Handwriting Without Tears program. It focuses on 4 main strokes: big line, little line, big curve, little curve. With these four strokes, we can make every letter in the alphabet! Handwriting instruction will be hit hard at the beginning of the school year.

Science: Our science curiculum is covered during the STEAM special. 

Social Studies: First Grade focus is on ourselves and our family. We learn about being a Good Citizen, Families, Economics, Geography (and learning to write our address), and the Past and Present. 

There will be a lot of learning and many new changes happening during this First Grade year for your child. You are your child's first and best teacher, so please continue to support your child's learning at home too!