Reading

• Learns different reading strategies to help decode words
• Builds a sight vocabulary
• Recognizes and produces rhyming words
• Matches spoken words to print
• Retells a story from beginning to end
• Uses prior knowledge and experience
• Identifies main idea
• Recognizes cause and effect
• Compares and contrasts information
• Makes predictions and conclusions
• Asks questions to clarify meaning

Cast-A-Spell

• Spell words using initial and ending sounds
• Spell words using short and long vowels
• Spell words using sh, ch, th, wh
• Spell words with more than one syllable
• Spell words using er, ir, ur
• Spell word endings s, er, ing, y, er
• Spell long vowel sounds vcv, ee, ea
• Spell words using chunks-tion

High Frequency Words

• By the end of first grade children need to have mastered 85% of the high frequency words on the word list.

During the week the children will be engaged in writer’s workshop where they will learn a new skill, have time to write and then most importantly share their writing with others. They will learn the process of writing. Some of the writing activities will be writing personal stories, friendly letters, poems, creative stories and writing about books.

The following expectations are used when scoring beginning and end of the year prompts:

• Draws, talks or makes a story web to help plan writing
• Writes 2-3 sentences that make sense and stick to the topic
• Uses spaces between words
• Spells how the word sounds
• Checks for punctuation

D’NealianHandwriting

• Writes letters of the alphabet uppercase and lowercase

This provides daily practice in the areas of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar and usage. It also allows the students to practice oral language and proofreading skills.

• Uses basic capitalization and punctuation rules
• Writes complete sentences
• Uses singular and plural nouns
• Understands subject-verb agreement

First graders are expected to ask observational questions that compare things that might have to do with shape, texture, size, weight, color and motion. While exploring, completes questions and thinks of new ones. They are also expected to predict what may happen and explain why. They write the steps to n experiment. They conduct the experiment by describing observations using senses and recording information. Finally, they sort and classify information and explain the groupings based on the observations.

First graders will demonstrate an understanding of concepts of past, present and future. We will compare and contrast family life, or school and community life in different periods. We will create and use maps to help identify locations. They will be expected to name and locate continents, oceans and neighboring countries.

Students will:

• Count, recognize, write, order and compare numbers up to 100
• Describe numbers using number pairs
• Understand more than and less than
• Solve addition and subtraction problems – 10
• Model place value for two-digit numbers
• Make predictions using patterns
• Create and extend patterns
• Sequence numbers up to 100
• Explore how addition and subtraction relate
• Make two-dimensional models
• Recognize shapes
• Estimate and use standard and non-standard units to compare objects
• Identify coins
• Tell time by hour, half-hour and minute
• Collect, display, sort and interpret information in graphs
• Use pictures and symbols to characterize and group objects

In first grade students are taught steps on how to solve a problem. We model many different problem solving strategies. The children are given practice problems and assessment tasks based on the four content standards. They are scored on how they approach the problem, any observations they make, written solution, use of math vocabulary, use of a representation and work is clear to the reader.

Math Facts

• Students will complete 30 addition problems in three minutes
• Students will complete 30 subtraction problems in three minutes (less than 10)

Social Development

• Self-esteem
• Peer relationships
• Communication with adults
• Personal space
• Spacial awareness
• Individual and team problem solving activities

Physical Development

• Gross motor movements

• Fine motor movements
• Rhythmic movements
• Awareness of body posture and conditioning
• Manipulative skills
• Cleanliness and minor first aid
• Nutrition and food pyramid
• Elementary individual games
• Elementary team games
• Beginning orienteering activities

The art program will consist of a spiraling curriculum. Each lesson/project will build on the previous one. It will reflect the Vermont Standards and be based on the elements and principles of design, incorporating art history, aesthetics and art criticism with projects appropriate to each grade level. A wide variety of media and techniques will be used. All activities will be structured to accommodate different learning styles and paces. Art education will be available for all students.

The art program includes content from the four foundational art disciplines known as Discipline Based Art Education:

• Art history – art in a cultural or historical setting
• Art production – the concepts and skills used to make art
• Aesthetics – the philosophy or nature and value of art
• Art criticism – making judgments and analyzing art objectively.

Assessments will be conducted on a regular basis. Assessments will be teacher assessments in the form of grades, mid-term reports, report cards and oral critique. By the end of the school year students should be able to demonstrate understanding of:

• Line, shape, pattern, texture, color, form, balance and movement
• Outline, composition and the color wheel
• Landscape, still life, collage and 3-D clay construction
• Impressionism, artistic problem solving and abstract expressionism – Jackson Pollock

First grade students spend much of their time using computer programs to support academic goals such as math and reading.

Basic Operations

• Working with files (saving, finding, maintaining)

Social/Ethical Use and Practices

• History of IT

Sample Activities

• Shift key
• Arrow keys in word processing
• Make corrections with backspace
• Enter number sequences in spreadsheet
• Print

In the Library Media Program the two main focuses are to encourage the students to have a love for reading and to teach them to be information literate. To be information literate means to be able to access, evaluate and use information efficiently and effectively. The Library Media Program operates on a flexible schedule. This allows the library media specialist to collaborate with the classroom teachers so that these skills are taught as the students need to use them for their classroom assignments instead of in isolation.

The students will:

• Be introduced to the research process by following a simple research model
• Learn about the different sections of the library media center with an early focus on picture and easy reader books, and later the fiction, non-fiction and reference sections
• Learn the difference between fiction and non-fiction
• Be introduced to the different parts of a book including the title, author, illustrator, call number and spine.

The students will:

• Be guided to select books that interest them and that they enjoy reading
• Be encouraged to check books out on a regular basis
• Be encouraged to choose books that they enjoy reading
• Be introduced to different genres to help students read a variety of literature

The student will:

• Be able to find a book using the online catalog by title, author and subject

The student will:

• Learn to use and care for books and other resources in a respectful way
• Be able to return books on time