The first grade year is heavily focused on literacy instruction. The majority of our school day involves an incredible amount of both reading and writing. We use the balanced literacy approach to teach our students the English Language Arts curriculum. This means that both the teacher and student have varying roles and responsibilities in the learning process. During reading and writing instruction, the teacher models appropriate literacy behaviors, guides students with individual support, shares reading and writing experiences with the student and also allows time for them to be independent readers and writers.
You can view the Common Core Standards which outline the ELA curriculum your child will be exposed to during first grade.
Our first graders also receive explicit phonics instruction through a program called, Fundations. This program builds on the skills they learned in Kindergarten. By the end of the year your child will know how to decode (sound out) and encode (spell) many more words!
Our writing program is called Explorations in Nonfiction Writing. It effectively connects our science and social studies topics to the writing process. The children will be exposed to various styles of writing, (including informative, instructional, narrative and persuasive) all while researching and learning about science and social studies standards.
