First grade is foundational in taking those first few steps towards becoming independent learners. Our students are engaged in multiple instructional and hands-on activities throughout the day…whole group shared reading, literacy centers, small guided reading groups, independent reading, partner reading, writing stories and journaling, math centers and games, science investigations, and prayer circle with technology woven throughout the curriculum.
St. Joseph School teachers follow the Common Core State Standards in math. Teachers have created focus standards for grades kindergarten through fourth grade that are essential for building a strong math foundation for middle school and beyond. The essential standards in first grade include:
In order to meet the needs of all students teachers differentiate instruction by using small groups. Instruction includes direct instruction, hands on activities, manipulatives, and problem solving.
In first grade, we focus on developing foundational reading and language skills in the following areas: concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, reading fluency and reading comprehension as well as conventions of standard English and vocabulary acquisition and use.
As we develop skills to comprehend literature and informational text, we engage in three ways of thinking about a text while reading. Thinking within the text involves efficiently and effectively understanding what's on the page, the author's literal message. Thinking beyond the text requires making inferences and putting text ideas together in different ways to construct the text's meaning. In thinking about the text, readers analyze and critique the author's craft.
Our classroom teachers work in close collaboration with our Learning Resource specialist and Advanced Learning specialist to ensure that all students receive the support they need to become skilled readers.
At St. Joseph School, our goal is to develop life-long readers who can decode with accuracy and read at an appropriate rate with suitable prosody that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read!
St. Joseph School follows the religion standards of the Archdiocese of Seattle. The standards are tied to the 6 tasks of Catechesis: 1) Knowledge of the Faith, 2) Liturgical Education, 3) Morality/Life in Christ, 4) Prayer, 5) Life, Community and History of the Church, and 6) the Church’s Missionary Life and Service.
Core religion concepts taught in the first grade include; Creation, Jesus and the Church. Essential questions include: What has God made? How do we know God? Who is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Church? How do we love? Can we see God? How can we help God? Service is a big part of each grade-level at St. Joseph School. As a Jesuit parish school we educate the whole person - body, mind, and spirit and teach our students about St. Ignatius and the Jesuits. We begin in kindergarten teaching what it means to be Open to Growth, Loving, Religious, Committed to Doing Justice, and Intellectually Competent.
St. Joseph School has adopted the Next Generation Science Standards and uses curriculum from Carolina Science. In first grade, our two main units are Sky Watchers and Exploring Organisms. In Sky Watchers we observe the nighttime sky as it changes throughout the month, charting the phases of the moon and the movement of the sun. We discuss the relationship between the rotation and revolution of the Earth and the seasons. Students enjoy engaging experiments throughout this unit of study. Exploring Organisms focuses on the difference between living and nonliving organisms. It also explores the needs of organisms and how these needs differ between plants and animals. This learning is done through experiments, written work and concludes with the designing of a model to mimic plant or animal structures to solve a human problem.
The new K-4 STEM program educates and introduces students to science, technology, engineering and math with a hands-on approach and emphasizes problem based learning with peers. Students are introduced to the key elements of science by making observations, predictions and creating a hypothesis. Additionally, students learn the basics of coding using Lego WeDos, KIBO and code.org.
The instructor works with homeroom teachers to integrate the STEM projects to homeroom learning in science, math and social studies. For example, when exploring 3-D shapes in math, students construct 3D shapes in STEM using toothpicks, gumdrops, marshmallows, etc.
For writing we use the Writer’s Workshop curriculum, created by Lucy Calkins and Teachers College. The program emphasizes process, choice and product. It invites students to see themselves as writers. Students study narrative, nonfiction, and opinion writing as well as focus on conventions, organization and the writing process.
Our phonics program helps students master short and long vowel sounds, consonants, blends, endings, digraphs and contractions. Our spelling focus is on the study of high frequency words and common spelling patterns. We also practice developing phonological skills, building words and creating effective word study strategies. In all areas, we consistently practice proper letter formation using the Zaner-Bloser.