1st Grade

 

Students in first grade are filled with exciting opportunities to learn and grow.  The children are challenged with a first and second curriculum to develop learning skills through a variety of experiences.  We have fun practicing our spelling words using shaving cream, practicing and learning math skills through manipulatives, and bringing our reading stories to life by acting, creating props, and baking cakes.  The students are introduced to Accelerated Reader as part of their reading curriculum, and enjoy taking quizzes using the computer.   Show and Tell is an important monthly event, and some of the field trips that we explore are the Palm Beach International Airport Fire Station and Bethesda Memorial Hospital.  First Grade also developed a project regarding random acts of kindness.  The students earn money so that they can buy Christmas gifts for others.

• Math:  This is a second grade curriculum where the students learn to add and subtract facts to 20, place value to 100, graphs, add and subtract two digit numbers with regrouping, geometry, identify and count money and tell time.

• Reading: Our second grade reading curriculum is a comprehensive program that provides materials to help the students become fluent readers.  The reading stories include realistic fiction and nonfiction, folktales, biography and autobiography, plays and poems.

• Spelling: The spelling curriculum presents words by patterns or relationships to help the students learn and retain each unit.  We begin by reviewing short vowels and then proceed into long vowels, consonant clusters, ending sounds, plurals, r-controlled, number and color words.

• English:  The activities and exercises in the English curriculum was created in four stages to match children’s growth over the course of first grade.  They are listening, speaking, viewing and writing.  The units include identifying sentences, writing, nouns including plural nouns, proper nouns, and pronouns, verbs, and adjectives.

• Social Studies: The curriculum includes six units: Going to School, Good Citizens, The Land around Us, All about People, Looking Back, and Jobs People Do.  The children explore these topics to further implement the skills using charts, graphs, maps, and globes.

• Science: A variety of experiences foster conceptual understanding for a better understanding of science.  The units include Plants, Animals and their Homes, Our Earth, and Weather and Sky.

• Handwriting: The goal of Zaner-Bloser Handwriting is for children to write legibly.  Learning and applying four keys to legibility include shape, size, spacing and slant. 

• Technology: The students go to the computer lab once a week to practice keyboarding skills using Mavis Beacon.  They also navigate through the math website that correlates with our math curriculum.

• Spanish: Children are engaged in more challenging topics, asking them to speak in Spanish to the classroom about their home or vocational experiences.  Students have a workbook and are expected to write and understand simple Spanish sentences.

• Music: In music class our focus is to make it fun and educational at the same time.  The number one goal in music is to create an environment where the students feel loved, nurtured, and that they feel that they are coming away with important information that perhaps they wouldn’t be getting if they were at another school.  Of course all of this will be reflected in their future thoughts once they’ve grown up a bit and think back on their musical education.  It is all an investment in their future.  Musical literacy is the key.  All music activities are designed to be fun and exciting while they are learning the basic foundations of reading music and gaining important knowledge about the mechanics of music and musical appreciation

• Art: First graders will express themselves through art by honing their skills and techniques with a variety of art materials. They will learn about and apply the art elements: shape, line, color, form and texture.

• Sacred Studies: Overarching theme is love of God, self and others.
  1. Learn Jesus’ summary of the Law and that God is Love.
  2. Learn that prayer is talking and listening to God.
  3. Exploration of various Bible stories.
  4. Learn about Saints – major chapel presentation on All Saints Day
  5. Peace Education with I-Care Cat (puppet) and friends.
  6. Practice service to others.


• Library: First Grade has a schedules Library period each week. Our primary goal at this level is the enjoyment of children’s literature.  Vocabulary and comprehension of the story line is explained.  Students are taught book care rules, organization of fiction and library etiquette.

• Physical Education: Physical Education will teach the age-appropriate fundamentals of several sports; how to properly catch and throw a ball and how to hit a ball off of a Tee in T-ball; how to catch and run with an irregular shaped ball in flag football; how to dribble and shoot a basketball; how to manipulate and shoot a ball using the feet in soccer; how to control and shoot a puck with a stick in hockey; how to hit a ball off of a tee and control a put in golf; how to hit and return a ball in tennis; how to field and throw a ball in lacrosse; and proper running technique in track. 
  
  
Sports taught throughout the year:


• Volleyball
• Flag Football
• Soccer
• Basketball
• Hockey
• Golf
• Lacrosse
• T-ball
• Tennis