Foundations of First Grade

The primary goal of first grade is for the students to grow spiritually, socially, and academically.  As the year progresses, they should gain the self-confidence they need to read fluently and independently.
 
Religion
We begin each day with devotions and prayer and end our day with prayer.  We attend chapel services at 8:10 a.m. each Wednesday.  The daily Voyages curriculum lessons take us through the Bible.  We read the Bible story and do several activities to reinforce the application of the story to our daily lives.  Memory work is an essential part of our religious instruction allowing your child to hide God's Word in his/her heart.  Children will recite their memory work and be assigned a new verse each Tuesday and Friday.  Your child will be responsible for memorizing two verses each week.
 
Reading
Our Reading Street textbooks take a balanced literacy approach where no one method (sight, phonics) works for all, and so several methods are combined to help all learners read.  We also use songs and activities from Sing, Spell, Read & Write to help us learn and short vowel patterns, blends, and clusters.
 
Sight Words
Your child will be working through 30 sight word lists this year.  Students work at their own pace to master these words through practices at home.  We usually finish around Christmas.
 
English
CLS uses the Shurley Method to learn about sentence structure and the parts of speech including subject nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and article adjectives.
 
Accelerated Reader
The Accelerated Reader computer program is used in the second semester to enhance reading comprehension and allows children to work at their personal reading level.  Prizes are awarded for points earned.  Our goal for lunch with the principal is 50 points.
 
Science
Our Scott Foresman science teaches through a combination of textbook and hands-on lab experiences.  We will focus on scientific thinking skills while we study life, Earth, physical, and space and technology sciences.  Mini books, Internet activities, videos, music, and field trips are used where appropriate.
 
Social Studies
We use the Scott Foresman series to teach social studies around the basic concepts of family, neighborhood, community, work,our country, and our world.  Hands on activities, big books, mini books, as well as music, videos, Internet activities, and field trips are used when appropriate.
 
Mathematics
Our math series from Houghton Mifflin builds a solid foundation in the language and basic concepts of math including skills related to the calendar, number concepts, counting, patterns, addition, subtraction, place value, graphing, geometry, fractions, time, measurement, and money.  Students participate in the lessons by engaging in hands-on activities, discussions, and cooperative group work.  Strategies are presented to help children learn the number facts and use them to solve problems.  Children will work at their own pace to master the basic facts to 12 through practice at home.
 
Special Classes
Music and Physical Education (30 minutes twice per week)
Library (once per week)
Computer Lab (One hour per week)
 
Staff
Erica Ernest
B.A. Moravian College, Bethehem, PA
 
Danielle White
B.S. Manchester College