First grade is a very important year in a child’s life.  It is part of the foundation upon which everything else is built.  One of our main goals in first grade is to develop strong organizational and listening skills.  We will also strive to acquire excellent reading and writing skills.  This strong background helps us in all other areas of our curriculum, such as science, social studies and even math.  Reading is the key to success and parents can play a very important role in this developing process.  Encouragement and displaying one’s own love of reading will set the tone for the year.  Our day is a constant motivation to do our best at work as well as play.

Reading – We will use our McGraw Hill Wonders reading series for small group guided reading , as well for large group instruction.  We will work on phonics, comprehension, and other strategies and skills necessary to decode and read fluently.

Math – Through many hands on activities first graders learn addition and subtraction facts through 20, place value and number patterns, problem solving, money concepts, telling time, 2-3 dimensional figures, and 2 digit addition and subtraction.

Language – We will write short stories using simple sentences.  We will also retell details to express ideas.

Religion – We learn that Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us, that we are followers of Jesus, that we belong to the church through Baptism and that the Mass is a special meal that Jesus shared with his followers.

Spelling – There are weekly lessons based on different phonetic skills that we work through.  At the end of each lesson there is a spelling test on those words.

Handwriting – We learn the D’Nealian printing method which helps with the transition into cursive writing in second grade.

Social Studies – First graders learn about our family at home and at school, working together in a community, celebrating American heroes, caring for the earth, and learning how to be good citizens.

Science – In science we learn about kinds of living things, earth’s land and water, keeping fit and healthy, magnets, and weather and seasons.