1st Grade

The Arts provide an opportunity for students to explore ideas and express thoughts and emotions. Over their time in the Beginning and Lower School, they develop skills in music, woodshop, and visual arts. 

In Woodshop, students develop general shop and safety skills with hammers, saws, and drills. They practice proper ergonomic use of hand tools including body position, alignment to work, and repetitive body logistics. Students engage in group and independent projects attending to planning, material selection, step by step sequencing of construction, artistic finishing, and clean up practices. 

First through fifth graders visit the Art Barn to explore the Visual Arts. Inspired by other artists, the outdoors, and their own imaginations, they engage across mediums including drawing, painting, and building with clay, sewing, and collage. 

Based in the Orff music education tradition, music  provides time for students to express themselves through sounds and movement. Inspired by artists across cultures and by their own musicality, students practice both ensemble and individual musical skills. They learn concepts of rhythm, tone, and pitch by  playing instruments such as the xylophone, glockenspiel, and marimba.

In first grade, students develop a joy for reading and writing by building skills and developing confidence. They work within their zone of development, choosing texts of interest, working on spelling that challenges them at their level, and expressing themselves in a variety of writing genres. The development of phonemic awareness and decoding skills are closely monitored and early intervention is provided to students who need additional support. 

Reading

• Shared Reading: Teachers read picture and chapter books that are beyond what readers can access independently, so children experience complex language and stories. Through these read-alouds, students practice comprehension strategies, engage in discussions, and share their thinking as they listen and respond to texts.
• Guided reading groups: Students work in small groups that change throughout the year based on their ability and zone of reading development. Students are supported in using text features, context, and phonics strategies to decode and recognize words and make meaning of texts. 
• Independent reading: Students are guided to select books that provide challenge and enjoyment, promoting their confidence, providing opportunities to practice strategies they have learned in reading groups, encouraging genre exploration, and inspiring their desire to continue reading.

Writing

First graders engage in writing across genres, including expository, narrative, poetry, and fiction, as well as writing within other subject areas. Writer’s Workshop begins with a mini-lesson and is followed with opportunities for guided practice, independent practice, and the sharing of stories. Students are taught the same writing process that adult writers use: pre-writing though planning, outlining, graphic organizing, and telling one’s story aloud. Before their work is complete, first graders draft, revise, and edit, and then publish.

Word Study

Spelling instruction is differentiated to support students as they are developing as readers and writers. Students focus on learning to spell high-frequency words and recognizing common word patterns.
 

First graders gain conceptual understanding and discover what they can do with mathematics by engaging with concepts through the lens of the mathematician. Students begin to use more abstract thinking, connecting numbers and operations to symbols. Tools and manipulatives are used as hands-on materials to help guide and support learning. Students engage in math discussions within their community while learning to think about their own thinking and that of their peers. 

• Working with data
• Addition and subtraction
• Story problems
• Addition and Subtraction fluency within 10 and making ten as strategies to compose and decompose numbers up to 100
• Understanding the Place Value System as groups of 10 (ones and tens)
• Measurement, Time, Halves and Quarters, and Solid Shapes

During the first weeks of First Grade students explore both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. After students have time in both classes, families share their preference and language class placements are made. Generally, students study the same language throughout their time in the Beginning and Lower School. They acquire cultural understanding and build a foundation for language acquisition and fluency. Students are immersed in situations where they develop language skills by drawing on their own experiences to engage in conversations with the teacher and peers. Through movement, song, play, art, conversation, and oral and written activities they begin to learn to listen, speak, read and write in their studied language. 

In science, students participate in ongoing inquiry cycles, where they are presented with a provocation to spark their curiosity, immerse themselves in a topic, investigate by learning new information, and share their thinking in multiple ways. They engage in studies of physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and technology. 

• Who am I as a scientist?
• How do animals use different body parts to move and survive in nature? 
• How do light and sound help me see things and communicate with others?
• What happens when materials vibrate? 
• What are some ways plants meet their needs so that they can survive and grow?
   

First grade students are challenged to focus outwardly, examining ideas and concerns beyond the classroom. The work is centered around the theme of animal conservation, with students exploring conservation issues and conducting their own research on species, habitats and conservationists.

Practicing Democracy

The first grade year begins with the democratic selection of classroom mascots. This exercise introduces students to two concepts that will inform instruction and study throughout the year: building community through equity; their connection to animals and the natural world.

Developing a Worldview

As students begin to consider issues in the wider world, they develop skills and empathy that become the foundation for more expansive areas of study. They gain an understanding about the ways they can make a difference, and they are encouraged to look inward. Exploring who they are as individuals, how they can support and care for both people and the world around them, and what they need to be their best selves within the classroom environment and greater world community.

Students engage in Wellness classes in the Mini Gym, on the Track, and across outdoor spaces on campus. Our holistic approach to Wellness helps children develop habits for healthy living that will last across their lives. Children develop skills across four domains:

Physical

• Moving body is various ways; developing gross motor skills
• Understanding what helps a body perform well

Mental 

• Noticing what causes emotions and stress
• Developing a toolbelt of strategies to regulate emotions and stress

Intellectual

• Trying new activities
• Using strategies in games
• Reflecting on progress

Social

• Working with others in productive ways
• Being a good sport
• Showing appreciation for others