Religion
First grade students will spend the first half of their school year learning the important Bible stories in the New Testament from the creation to the prophets that tell of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The last half of the school year the children learn about our Savior’s birth, His teachings and miracles while on Earth, His crucifixion, His ascension into Heaven, witnessing their faith in Jesus, and living in the Christian hope of a new and eternal life in Jesus Christ. The children weekly memorize Bible verses appropriate for their age.
Reading
First grade students will learn comprehension strategies that will allow them to monitor and self-assess how well they understand what they are reading. These strategies include determining the purpose(s) for reading, learning to activate prior knowledge about the text, and recognizing various genres. The students also learn the skills of main idea, main character, sequencing of events, inferring (prediction), relating the text to their own lives, being able to answer simple comprehension questions as well as using higher order thinking skills to build a deeper understanding of their reading. The students are also exposed to an extensive vocabulary study through direct instruction, listening to literature, and reading independently. Each child’s fluency, the ability to read with accuracy and expression, is monitored throughout the year to help each child to become a successful, independent reader.
Phonics
First grade students receive systematic instruction that help children to learn to read more effectively. The children receive instruction in sound isolation, sound matching, sound blending, sound segmentation, breaking words down into its individual sounds, and sound addition. The children learn to identify long and short vowels, digraphs, diphthongs, and silent letter. The students also learn to identify appropriate sight words for their age and ability level.
Spelling
First grade students will learn to spell common words that are age appropriate. Spelling instruction includes the rules for spelling, reinforcing phonetic rules, and the memorization of words that do not follow common spelling patterns. Students also practice their listening skills by writing sentences that are dictated by the classroom teacher.
Handwriting
First grade students receive instruction in D’Nealian handwriting. The students learn to correctly form capital and lowercase letters.
English
First grade students will learn to identify a subject noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition in a sentence. The students will also learn to write a complete sentence, write a small paragraph, the rules of capitalization and punctuation, how to compose a friendly letter, and address an envelope. Creative story writing is also part of their English curriculum. The children are encouraged to use different types of figurative language in the creative writing.
Mathematics
First grade students will learn about number sense and operation, concepts of whole number operations, addition, including mastery of facts to 18, subtraction, fractions and decimals, money, patterns in mathematics, algebra, shapes and spatial relationships, time and date, temperature, linear measurement, area, weight, volume (capacity), data analysis and statistics, probability, and strategies for problem solving. The math curriculum that is used is a spiral curriculum which means the students and constantly reviewing previously taught skills throughout the year.
Science
First grade students will learn about living and nonliving things, various habitats, how plants and animals live, life cycles of various plants and animals, food chains, rocks and soils, the weather, changes in matter, movement and sound, producing energy, and scientific experimentation.
Social Studies
First grade students will learn about rules and laws at school and in the community, what it means to be a citizen, where people live, how our country began, American symbols, holidays and heroes, goods and services, different places to work, charts and graphs, critical thinking, and map skills.