First Grade Curriculum Overview

At the beginning of each school year, students are assessed utilizing Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) to determine the course curriculum for each individual child for the upcoming year. Testing is done again in the middle and end of the year to determine if we are meeting the needs of each student.

To this end, our curriculum pulls resources from a variety of sources depending on the student’s needs. Below is an overview of materials and resources we use during the year:

Math

Textbook: Saxon Math Level 2, Houghton Mifflin

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

  • Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.
  • Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction.
  • Add and subtract within 20.
  • Work with addition and subtraction equations.

Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

  • Extend the counting sequence.
  • Understand place value.
  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.

Measurement and Data

  • Measure lengths indirectly and by iterating length units.
  • Tell and write time.
  • Recognize coins and count money.
  • Represent and interpret data.

Geometry

  • Represent with shapes and their attributes.

Language Arts

Textbook: Journeys, Houghton Mifflin

Reading Literature and Informational Text

  • Key Ideas and Details
  • Craft and Structure
  • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
  • Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Reading Foundational Skills

Writing

  • Text Types and Purposes
  • Production and Distribution of Writing
  • Research to Build and Present Knowledge
  • Comprehension and Collaboration
  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
  • Range of Writing
  • Handwriting
  • Spelling

Listening and Speaking

  • Comprehension and Collaboration
  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
  • Conventions of Standard English
  • Knowledge of Language
  • Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Religion

Creation, Jesus and the Church

Textbook: Blest Are We: Faith In Action, RCL Benziger

  • Knowledge of Faith - Students will explore, profess, and reflect on our Catholic faith, which is the content of God’s revelation found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition and lived out in the Creed and Church doctrine.
  • Liturgical Education - Students recognize the presence of Christ and enter into communion with Him through active, full, and conscious participation in the Liturgical presentations and Sacraments of the Church.
  • Moral Education - Students develop a moral conscience that is informed by Church teachings and conformed to Christ, as modeled in a personal life of virtue and demonstrated in service of the Gospel’s demands for society.
  • Teaching to Pray - Students experience and engage in Catholic expressions of prayer to deepen their relationship with God and the Church.
  • Educating for Life, Community, and History of the Church - Students study and participate in the life and mission of the church, the Body of Christ and the community of believers, as expressed in the Church’s origin, history, ecclesiology, the Communion of Saints and their family, the domestic church.
  • The Church’s Missionary Life and Service - Students acquire and demonstrate skills to recognize their gifts from God and their vocation to share the good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed throughout the world.
  • Theology of the Body - The Body Matters - will help deepen and extend the student’s understanding of himself/herself as a person – body and soul – made in the image of God.

Social Studies

Textbook:  Families Living and Working Together, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

First Graders will build an understanding of their role as part of our world, as members of families, the Catholic Church, communities, and countries by exploring:

  • Catholic Identity/Culture
  • History
  • Geography
  • Government
  • Economics
  • American Symbols and Traditions

Science

Textbook: Science Dimensions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  • Engineering and STEM projects
  • Waves: Light and Sound
  • Space Systems: Patterns and Cycles
  • Structure, Function, and Information Processing

Enrichment (“Specials”)

  • Physical Education (2x/week)
  • Music
  • Library
  • Spanish (2x/week)

Technology

First-grade classrooms are equipped with Chromebooks and interactive touch screens.