First Grade Curriculum

We will learn about God the Father and about the life and teachings of Jesus. We will also learn about the mass, sacraments, and our parish community. Students will learn about the seasons of the church and completes units for Advent and Lent. We will learn and practice the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Guardian Angel Prayer, as well as listening and praying for our classmates intentions.

Students will learn to identify the fundamentals of grammar, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students will become independent writers and write many different kinds of stories. These include personal narratives, "how-to" books, non fiction chapter books, opinion writing, poetry, fiction stories, and research projects.

In spelling we are able to meet the needs of all students through an individualized spelling program. At the beginning of every week students are pretested on a particular spelling pattern. Teachers use the results of the pretest to determine student word lists that are appropriate, but challenging for each learner.

Students will work in differentiated reading groups to practice reading skills, as well as learning skills as a whole group. Some of the skills we work on are sequencing, character and setting, identifying fiction vs. non fiction, problem and solution, identifying fact and opinion, identifying text features, classifying information, and much more! First graders also learn basic phonics skills, including short and long vowel sounds, blends, digraphs, dipthongs, vowel teams, and irregular spelled words

In first grade, we will learn basic addition and subtraction strategies and facts to 20. Students will learn place value and be introduced to two-digit addition. Students will organize and use graphs, learn about measurement and time, and learn attributes of 2D and 3D shapes.

Students will learn about being members of a community and following community rules. Students will also learn about cultural traditions from now and long ago, maps, and American history and the presidents.

Students will begin to learn the scientific method and use exploration to learn about the world. Specifically, our units will include the universe, animals, plants, the weather, and light and sound.