First Grade
First grade students develop the social and communication skills needed to successfully work together, resolve conflicts, and become good citizens. Building trust, empathy, and tolerance creates a safe learning environment. Engaging, multidisciplinary activities integrate a variety of teaching strategies. They also strengthen important academic skills while allowing for a wide range of student responses and creative choices. Students are encouraged to challenge themselves and support each other as learners, each with unique gifts and talents.
Goals
- to take responsibility for personal needs and actions
- to develop cooperative and collaborative skills
- to care for the community and planet in age-appropriate ways
Highlights
- Dr. Seuss’ birthday festivities
- gardening throughout the year at the Good Shepherd Center
- spring Book Links celebration of the year’s total reading
Literacy integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking throughout the curriculum. Students observe audience behavior and identify traits of good listeners, speak in front of their classmates in discussions, and carefully prepare for presentations to the entire school. First grade reading focuses on the reading process and the sharing and enjoyment of literature, with skills developed in phonics, decoding, sight words, fluency, and comprehension. Writing in many genres gives practice in skills built through the writing process, with consideration of fluency, voice, conventions, and audience needs. The goal of fluid, legible writing drives lessons in handwriting through the Handwriting Without Tears program.
Math draws upon a variety of strategies to work with the basic strands of mathematics. The first grade Bridges in Mathematics curriculum emphasizes numeracy to 100, including rote and skip counting, odd and even numbers, and addition and subtraction using objects, drawings, and numbers. Students work on sorting and categorizing objects, collecting and displaying survey results, measuring and ordering length, and identifying patterns and geometric shapes.
Social studies explores how the natural environment is related to people’s lives. From gardening and recycling in Wallingford to the school-wide Global Studies regional focus, students consider how people’s environment influences their way of life. Oral traditions, beliefs, and traditional arts are highlighted in Global Studies.
Science combines hands-on experiences with more formal research methods. Students use direct observation to study plants: drawing their parts, tasting their fruits, describing their attributes. Guest speakers talk about their own scientific work and methodology, leading to carefully structured experiments highlighting the scientific process. Making use of written, pictorial, and primary sources, first graders study oceans and their zones, life, and food chains.
Character education includes both individual and community goals: how to transition smoothly, persist with difficult tasks, and produce quality work on one’s own, and how to share tasks, clean up, and assist others in the community. Cooperative learning activities promote the development of appropriate social skills, as students learn strategies to meet their needs and the needs of others with fairness. Citizenship emphasizes caring for the community and planet in ways appropriate for children, such as separating recycling and compost from garbage and working in the Good Shepherd Center gardens. Fourth grade “buddy classes” serve as role models and partners in various activities.