First Grade Curriculum

Subjects of Study:

Reading
Students will:

• Have a strong sense of phonemic and phonological awareness
• Know all sounds and letters of the alphabet and be able to blend sounds into words and words into sentences with accuracy and fluency
• Understand that words convey messages
• Have a strong sight word vocabulary including all color and number words
• Correctly spell high frequency words and common words
• Read sentences with understanding of punctuation
• Comprehend stories that are read aloud or silently
• Practice reading comprehension strategies, such as predicting, summarizing, clarifying, making connections, visualizing, and asking questions
• Build understanding of literature, including cause effect, finding main ideas and details, making inferences, drawing conclusions, author’s point of view, compare and contrast, sequence, and fact vs. opinion
• Recognize different genres of literature including fiction, non-fiction classic folktales and poetry
• Orally present work, including unit projects and book reports
• Memorize poems to be read in front of an audience

Phonics
Students will:

• Learn phonics as a decoding strategy
• Recognize and read common sound-symbol correspondences and word blends
• Use a solid phonics and structural analysis approach to encoding

Spelling
Students will:

• Recognize words in context in a variety of expository selections and genres, including poetry, riddles, and stories
• Learn high frequency words as well as specific words each week that correlate to our spelling program

Writing
Students will:

• Write legibly and efficiently on lined and unlined paper
• Write a simple paragraph using correct punctuation and grammar
• Understand the basics of the writing process
• Identify simple sentences and be introduced to compound sentences
• Identify different types of sentences including statements, questions, commands and exclamations
• Develop a working knowledge of the parts of speech and use this knowledge to write well-formed sentences, including proper verb tenses
• Use the writing process to compose various types of writing pieces including creative writing, report writing, narrative writing, instructional writing and letter writing

Handwriting
Students will:

• Use correct pencil grip, paper position and sitting posture
• Write in manuscript and cursive, using D’Nealian letter formation

Listening, Viewing and Speaking
Students will:

• Maintain sustained attention for 30 minutes
• Appropriately ask and answer questions
• State a clear main point when speaking to others
• Recite poems and short passages from memory
• Give short, oral reports on a book or topic
• Use proper etiquette when speaking

Math
Students will:

• Identify the number value of a number
• Be able to correctly use “plus,” “minus,” or “take away”
• Order and compare numbers
• Add and subtract without regrouping; regrouping introduced by 4th quarter
• Understand introductory level basic fractions
• Understand basic linear and volume measurement
• Use a clock and calendar to measure time
• Count, compute, estimate and problem solve based on developmental level
• Read, write, compare and order numbers up to three digits
• Identify place value
• Practice fact families up to 20
• Measure with nonstandard and standard units
• Apply problem solving strategies
• Complete one and two step word problems
• Understand time using a clock
• Understand coin values
• Identify and create patterns
• Practice mental math, speed math and problem solving strategies

Science
Students will:

• Complete hands-on experiments and investigations of the immediate environment
• Practice scientific thinking skills such as analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, applying, questioning and problem solving
• Practice the scientific process including observing, describing, comparing, measuring, classifying, predicting, inferring, developing a hypothesis, and experimenting
• Analyze life cycles of animals and plants, states of matter and how properties change, light and motion, how simple machines work, sound, heat, magnetism, soil, rock layers and fossils, erosion, geographical features, volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes, sun, earth, moon, planets, atmosphere, hydrosphere, cells, heredity, the skeletal, muscular, digestive, and circulatory human body systems, germs, diseases, nutrition, hygiene

Social Studies
Students will:

• Develop an understanding of chronological thinking
• Understand change over time
• Compare and contrast historical stories, people, places and situations
• Understand points of view based on perspective, basic research skills, an understanding of Earth’s physical systems and human culture
• Understand concepts of community and neighborhood
• Study geography and history of the United States geography of North, South and Central America, American History—in particular Columbus, Pilgrims, Mayflower, Puritans, the First Thanksgiving Day, the Thirteen Colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Native American customs and interactions between the Native Americans and early settlers, The Declaration of Independence, Making of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, War of 1812, Westward Expansion, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement and Immigration

Religion
Students will:

• Focus on God as the source of life and grace, as a loving person who listens to our prayers and sends us his Son to be our Savior
• Identify the Bible as the Word of God, Baptism as the sacrament that not only removes Original Sin but also makes us members of God’s family
• Identify the Church, liturgy and prayer as means of worshiping together
• Develop an awareness that others deserve love and respect because they are members of God’s family
• Study God as Creator, attributes of God, components of the human person as an image of God (intelligence, will, body and soul), God as our source of life, prayers as talking with God, Mary as the Mother of the Church, grace as Divine Life, Jesus as the Son of God, second person of the Trinity and our Savior, Jesus’ passion and death, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus in the Eucharist, nature and mission of the Church, leaders of the Church
• Read and relate Old Testament stories and Jesus’ parables in the New Testament that teach about God’s love for us.
• Learn various forms of prayer (liturgical, spontaneous, formal and guided meditation), how to participate in Mass, identify liturgical seasons and their themes, read and retell the lives of the saints
• Learn to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time through our Theology of the Body curriculum
• Understand how Jesus helps us through challenging times using our Theology of the Body curriculum
• Use Sacred Story as a reflective practice to learn how to pray

First grade students also attend classes in Art, Music, Spanish and Physical Education.

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