Welcome to a new school year!


Throughout the year I will be sharing information about the first grade curriculum with you through newsletters like this. In this one, I will share an overview of the curriculum that we begin the year with.  I will follow up with more specific information on each curricular area in upcoming newsletters.

Science:
Our first unit is entitled ‘Organisms’ where the children study a variety of plants and living creatures. An essential question in this unit is: What are the needs of living things? Much of the work that we do in this unit is done in the forest. Our weekly visits to the forest provide hands-on, place-based experiences for the children.  We look at snails, insects, trees, various plants and whatever we happen to come across in our explorations in the woods. The children work on their observational skills, learn what the needs of living things are and compare themselves to other living things. Each child adopts a tree that he/she will observe through the changes of the seasons.
Last Spring the first grade planted a ‘Three Sisters’ Native American garden.  We will be learning about the legend and design on which the garden was based, harvesting the garden, and looking at the life cycle of plants.

Math:  Investigations Math Program
This program is designed to engage students in making sense of mathematical ideas. This program focuses on helping students learn to become mathematical thinkers and develops computational fluency with whole numbers. There is an emphasis on reasoning about mathematical ideas and on students sharing their mathematical thinking. Each math session includes the modeling of a math concept, playing math games to practice and learn the skills and concepts, written work and a closing discussion that examines student work. The first unit is How Many of Each? Addition, Subtraction and the Number System.  In this unit the children will be counting and ordering numbers, comparing quantities and will be introduced to combination problems that build the concept of fact families.

Social Studies:
“Community’ is the first Social Studies unit. We first work on building a safe and caring classroom community emphasizing respect, belonging, sharing and trust. Throughout the year the students will work on developing collaborative skills that are the foundation of a caring community such as: taking turns, waiting your turn and cooperating. An essential question in this unit is: What is a community? The children will explore this question as well as learn about the roles of people in our school and town communities. This study also relates to our work in science; learning about the community of living things in the forest.

Word Study:
The essential parts of Word Study in first grade include learning about letter-sound correspondences, developing word-solving skills and building understanding of vocabulary and language. During Word Study the children develop skills that they need for reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding). Early in the year the emphasis is on initial, medial and final consonants and short vowel sounds as well as learning new sight words. The children do a variety of activities such as: word and picture sorts, rhyming activities, separating and blending sounds, writing words and sentences and  generating lists of word families, Most of the writing the children do in word study is on whiteboards.  They are nice to use because mistakes can be so easily fixed!  When reading stories to children we often work on expanding their vocabularies by learning the meaning of words that they are unfamiliar with.

Writing:
Writing is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum.  The children write often on topics of their own choosing. Soon we will be working on writing Small Moment Stories where students choose a small moment from their lives and explain it in detail. Throughout the year we will also be writing and illustrating books modeled on children’s picture books. The year starts with a study on illustration. This will be a continuation of the writing the children did in kindergarten. The children will be writing about what they observe and learn in our visits to the forest in their science journals. They are expected to sound out words and to spell as best they can. The expectations for correct spelling grow as they learn strategies and spelling rules throughout the year.

Reading:
Each child is assessed in reading at the beginning of the school year. Based on the information obtained through the assessments we provide the children with instruction on their level. Each child has a reading folder with books and lists to record what they read. They work through a series of books on a certain level and when they are fluent enough and understand what they read; they move to the next level.  We also have a collection of books of different genres that the children read.  There is a strong emphasis on reading strategies such as prediction and re-reading, phonics, fluency and comprehension strategies. There are several teachers that assist with reading in our classroom. Your child will be in a reading group taught by Marty Bouchard, Sharon Boffey or me. Literacy is at the heart of a first grade curriculum and a great deal of time is spent to ensure that each child’s needs are met.