About First Grade

Reading

We use Lucy Calkins Units of study for our curriculum and this is intermixed into the reader's workshop structure. Reading is an area that your child will grown in tremendously throughout the year. In first grade, students will learn decoding, fluency and comprehension skills. Additionally, they will learn how to break a word apart and to blend it back together. By the end of first grade, they should know their vowels and the vowel teams very well. They will be immersed in both nonfiction and fiction genres and will compare and contrast both types of books. 

Reading lessons will focus on a wide-range of strategies that will help young readers develop the necessary skills and techniques to become a fluent reader. We will have a reading goal each day where I will teach a strategy, model how to do this strategy when I am reading, and then have students help me try the strategy together as a class or with partners. Then, I will send them off to their very own books to try this exact strategy when they are reading. Sometimes this will require them to jot their thinking on a sticky note or in their reading journal. This helps me and their reading partner to understand their thinking process.

Students will be able to pick out their own books weekly. We will use the "I-PICK" tool to help us pick out books that are JUST RIGHT for us. By doing so, students will be reading independently with books that are at their level to increase their fluency and to practice the words they already know. I will be pulling groups of students to practice reading at their "guided reading level" (one level above their independent level" so that we begin to move them to the next level with support from a teacher. Students will also bring home a WEB (Wonderfully, exciting, books) book each night. This is their reading homework. The book will be at their independent level. This means that they can read is very easily and that is ok! This encourages positive attitudes about reading and allows students to feel success when reading on their own. 

Writing

We also use the Lucy Calkins units of study for writing. These are supplemented with the MESSA units of study as well. Students begin the workshop with a mini -lesson where I will teach a writing strategy or process and they will try it with me and eventually do it on their own. Students are supported by the teacher through writing conferences (one-on-one) and through work with their writing partners (their classmates). It is amazing to see the growth in writing over the course of the year! Each day we have a time for sharing. Kids love to share their work! This encourages them to try strategies in their writing and compliments their efforts! Occasionally, you will see writing that comes home with colored pictures. This will tell you that your first grader has chosen that piece of writing to celebrate!

Math

Math Expressions is the curriculum used through our elementary building. In first grade, students will learn how to compose and decompose numbers, how to read a graph, compare numbers, add and subtract numbers to 100 and explain the attributes of shapes. Students will be invited to our math workshop each day. During this time, we will use hands on manipulatives and our math partners to help us explain our thinking. We will increase our number sense by describing how we came to our answer instead of just memorization. Students will take a pre-test and a post-test to show growth. There will also be various quizzes and quick checks along the way to track student understanding.