Our Curriculum

September - Welcome to Grade 1

Reading - Students begin the year with focusing on a general understanding of stories.  We discuss setting, characters, problem, and solution in a story.  We also begin to discuss "The Helping Hand" to help students read tricky words.  When your child gets to a tricky word in their writing they can do the following:

                        1. Look at the pictures

                        2. Look for a chunk you know

                        3. Go back and reread

                        4. Skip it and go on

                        5. Get your mouth ready to sound it out

Phonics - Please practice the following concepts with your child:       -at word family, -ap word family

Writing - We are learning writing procedures as well as ways to pick a topic for our stories.  Your child will also be exposed to "Cast A Spell".  This is a program in which students learn to spell words with special patterns (ie. Words in the "at" family).  Students will also practice "Muscle Words" (which are their Spelling Words)

Math - We are beginning to work with number sense and learning to tell time by the hour and half hour.

October - Dot Books, Homework, and Halloween

Reading - We continue teaching the Reading Hand.  Your child will begin taking home "Reading At Home" (RAH) Homework as well as 5 dot books at their level.  Students will be reading in small groups that compliment their reading goals.  Your child will bring a word ring back and forth to school each day.  Please practice these words with your child.

Phonics - Please practice the following concepts with your child:       -ang word family, -ong word family, short vowel sounds (a,i,o)

Writing - We are beginning to write personal narratives.  We enjoy writing about our families and friends. 

Math - Students will be exploring different pattern block shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, triangle).  We will also begin to count up to solve for a mystery number in a word problem: 6 + __ = 10.

November - Fall into Conferences and our Thanksgiving Play!

Reading - Your child will be learning to make text-to-self connections to improve their comprehension.  You can help your child by modeling your connections to a story as you are reading with your child.

Phonics - Please practice the following concepts with your child:       Endings (-ed -ing)  Digraphs (th, sh), Blends with s (sl, sp, sk), Blends with r (cr, dr, gr), R Controlled Vowels "Bossy R" (ar - as in STAR, er - as in BERT, ir as in BIRD, or as in CORN, and ur as in TURKEY).  Bossy R does not let the vowels say their own name!

Writing - In writing we are working on stretching our stories to make them more interesting.  We will continue to use mentor texts to give us ideas for writing. 

Math - Students will learn to count on and count up to solve problems.

                        Count on

Put the larger number in your head and count on!  6 + 3 = __

                        Count up

Count up to find the mystery number!  6 + __ = 8

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December - Snow Is Falling and Word Rings Are Growing!

January- !

February- !

March --!

April -Kenya-!

May -Butterflies-!

June --!