Daily Schedule
8:25 Line up @ East Playground by the Art Room Windows and Gym Windows
8:25- 8:50 Morning Meeting/ SEL Lesson
8:50- 9:20 CKLA Reading Knowledge
9:20- 9:50 CKLA Reading Skills
9:50- 10:50 Supplemental Responsive Instruction & Skills
10:55- 11:17 Recess
11:17- 11:40 Lunch
11:40- 12:40 Math
12:40- 1:10 Writing Part 1
1:10- 1:55 Specials (Gym, Music, Tech, Art)
1:55- 2:15 Snack/ Brain Break Recess
2:15- 2:40 Writing Part 2
2:40- 3:20 Science/ Social Studies
3:20- 3:25 Clean Up & Closing Circle
3:25 Dismissal on the Blacktop
Reading
First grade students receive literacy instruction using the Amplify/CKLA curriculum. CKLA Reading Knowledge is taught as whole group lessons. Students develop decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills and engage with a text as collaborative learners.
Units of Study:
Unit 1: Fables and Stories- This domain will introduce students to fables and stories that have delighted generations of people. By listening to these classics, students will increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about ethics and behavior, become familiar with the key elements and parts of a story, and acquire cultural literacy.
Unit 2: The Human Body- Using an interactive approach, the first half of this domain will introduce the human body to students. They will explore and make discoveries about their own bodies. They will be introduced to a network of body systems, comprised of organs that, together, perform vital jobs. Students will learn the fundamental parts and functions of five body systems: skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, and nervous.
Unit 3: Different Lands, Similar Stories- This domain will introduce students to three themes in fairy tales and folktales that have been told to children for generations, using variations from different lands or countries. By listening to these stories, students will increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, be exposed to different places and cultures from around the world, and learn valuable universal lessons.
Unit 4: Early World Civilizations- This domain will introduce students to the development of early civilizations by examining the fundamental features of civilizations, including the advent of farming, establishment of cities and government, and creation of other practices, such as writing and religion. We will study Mesopotamia and Egypt!
Unit 5: Early American Civilizations- This domain includes a study of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Students will examine the fundamental features of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, including farming, the establishment of cities and government, as well as religion.
Unit 6: Astronomy- In this domain, students will be introduced to the solar system—our home in space. They will learn that Earth, the planet on which we live, is just one of many different celestial bodies within the solar system. They will learn how the sun, stars, moon, and other planets relate to the earth (given its position in space).
Unit 7: History of the Earth- In this domain, students will learn about the geographical features of the earth’s surface. They will also learn about the inside of the earth and characteristics of its various layers. Students will learn about the shape of the earth, the North and South Poles, and the equator. Students will also learn the names of the layers of the earth—the crust, the mantle, and the core—and the characteristics of each layer. Students will learn how occurrences such as volcanoes and geysers give information about the layers of the earth.
Unit 8: Animals and Habitats- This domain will introduce students to the wonder of the natural world, focusing on the interconnectedness of all living things with their physical environment and with one another. Students will learn what a habitat is and will also learn to identify specific types of habitats and their related characteristics. They will learn to recognize different plants and animals as being indigenous to specific habitats and will begin to develop an understanding of several fundamental principles of nature.
Unit 9: Fairy Tales- This domain will introduce students to fairy tales that have been favorites with children for generations. Students will learn about the elements of fairy tales that distinguish them as a unique type of fiction that still has the elements of character, plot, and setting that are found in other types of fiction. Reading these fairy tales will help first-grade students develop a strong foundation for the understanding of other fictional stories in later grades.
CKLA Reading Skills
During this time students will work to develop and practice phonics skills, develop spelling strategies, and learn about sentence structures. Students can practice these skills previously taught each week! The goal is not for students to memorize how to spell the single words given in the spelling list, but rather for students to build an understanding of the letter patterns to sound. Each week students learn new spelling and sound patterns that are practiced throughout the week. Spelling tests are given to help teachers monitor progress and understanding of the phonics skills students are developing and identify areas of need for more practice and support during small group instruction. The new sounds and spellings for each unit are:
Skills 1- In Unit 1, students will review the sounds and spellings taught in the CKLA Kindergarten curriculum. They will read decodable stories from the Reader, Snap Shots. Grammar instruction also starts in Unit 1, with an introduction to nouns.
Skills 2- In Unit 2, students will learn five new vowel sounds and the most common (or least ambiguous) spelling for each sound:
/ee/ spelled ‘ee’ as in seed
/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ as in cake
/ie/ spelled ‘i_e’ as in line
/oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ as in hope
/ue/ spelled ‘u_e’ as in cube
Skills 3- In Unit 3, students will learn introduce five additional vowel sounds and the most common spelling for each sound:
/oo/ spelled ‘oo’ as in soon
/oo/ spelled ‘oo’ as in look
/ou/ spelled ‘ou’ as in shout
/oi/ spelled ‘oi’ as in oil
/aw/ spelled ‘aw’ as in paw
Skills 4- In this unit you will introduce the sounds that are sometimes called the r-controlled vowel sounds and the most common (or least ambiguous) spelling for each sound:
/er/ spelled ‘er’ as in her
/ar/ spelled ‘ar’ as in car
/or/ spelled ‘or’ as in for
Skills 5- In this unit students will begin learning the spelling alternatives that make up the advanced code. Up to this point, students have mostly been learning the basic code. That is, they have learned one way to write each of the sounds in English, with the exception of /zh/. Thus far, they have learned only a handful of spelling alternatives:
the ‘k’ spelling for /k/ as in kite (an alternative for ‘c’ as in cat)
the double-letter spellings for consonant sounds (‘ff’ as in stuff, ‘ll’ as in bell, ‘ss’ as in dress, ‘ck’ as in black, etc.)
the ‘s’ spelling for /z/ as in is and dogs
the ‘ed’ spelling as a past-tense marker for /d/ as in filled and for /t/ as in asked
Skills 6- In this unit students will continue the work we began in the last unit by learning or reviewing a number of spelling alternatives for consonant sounds.
Here are the sounds and spellings that are either reviewed or introduced in this unit:
/s/ spelled ‘s,’ ‘ss’ (review); ‘c,’ ‘ce,’ and ‘se’ (new)
/z/ spelled ‘z’, ‘s’, ‘zz’ (review)
/m/ spelled ‘m’ and ‘mm’ (review)
/n/ spelled ‘n’, ‘nn’ (review), and ‘kn’ (new)
/ng/ spelled ‘ng’ (review) and ‘n’ (new)
/w/ spelled ‘w’ (review) and ‘wh’ (new)
Skills 7- In this unit the focus is on two of the so-called “long” vowel sounds, /ae/ and /oe/. Students will review the basic code spelling for each sound and then learn common spelling alternatives:
/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ (review), ‘ai’, ‘ay’ (new)
/oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ (review), ‘oa’ (new)
Supplemental Responsive Instruction & Skills gives students an opportunity to learn in a small group setting. Students are given individualized small group instruction that is rooted in the Science of Reading. This time allows teachers to meet the students where they are at and provide science of reading based instruction to build the skills needed to decode words, read fluently and comprehend text. Students will also have the chance to read independently at their just right level and use Accelerated Reader (AR) to practice reading comprehension. AR is a series of on-line comprehension quizzes used to assess students’ reading levels. Once students receive their log-in information, parents are able to long-in at home to check on their child’s reading progress.
Writing
Writing instruction is taught using CKLA and the Writing Alive curriculum. This comprehensive curriculum integrates six components of writing into weekly writing lessons, ensuring there are no gaps in skill instruction. Writing Alive allows students to receive instruction on both fiction and non-fiction writing skills. Students also have the chance to practice their grammar, spelling, and conventions while working through the writing process of brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing and sharing. Some of the types of writing we complete in first grade include:
Personal Narratives
Opinion
Informative (biographies and animals)
Poetry
Story with a Plot
Fairy Tales
How-to
Math
Through our Eureka Math curriculum students will engage in a daily warm-up, whole group and/or small group instruction, and independent practice time. Once students have completed their math work for the day they will have the opportunity to play math games, which are meant to provide further hands-on practice or complete a challenge sheet.
Module 1: Counting, Comparison, and Addition
Module 2: Addition and Subtraction Relationships
Module 3: Properties of Operations to Make Easier Problems
Module 4: Comparison and Composition of Length Measurements
Module 5: Place Value Concepts to Compare, Add, and Subtract
Module 6: Attributes of Shapes • Advancing Place Value, Addition, and Subtraction
Social Studies
The Inquire Ed curriculum, along with inquiry and project based learning opportunities, is used to teach social studies. Students engage in the following units of study:
Families Near and Far - A family can take many forms; there’s no single definition or structure. In this Inquiry, students work together to build an inclusive understanding of family while identifying the various roles and responsibilities that contribute to a family. They explore what makes their family unique as they develop a mindset of curiosity and appreciation for differences they may encounter among various families and cultures.
Our Special Location - Our geographic location shapes who we are and how we live. During this Inquiry, students investigate how location and climate shape daily life, and how goods and services meet community needs.
Civic Engagement - You are never too young to engage in civic life. In this Inquiry, students explore different forms of participation and investigate key civics topics such as rights, fairness, responsibilities, rules, and laws.
Science
Science curriculum is taught using the Amplify curriculum, as well as, project based learning opportunities. Students engage in the following units:
Light & Sound - In this unit, students take on the role of light and sound engineers as they are challenged with a design problem to design, build, and then project a scene for a puppet show. As light engineers, they tackle the question How do we make different parts of a surface brighter or darker? by investigating cause-and-effect relationships.
Spinning Earth - In this unit, students embark on a study of the patterns that they observe in the sky. Students assume the role of sky scientists helping a young boy named Sai who lives in a place near them in order to understand the anchor phenomenon of the unit: why the sky looks different to him than to his grandma when they talk on the phone. Students explore what the sky looks like during the daytime and the nighttime. They examine Earth as a round, ball-shaped planet and develop an understanding of the orientation of Earth and the sun in space, allowing them to figure out that daytime and nighttime are the result of Earth facing or not facing the sun
Animal & Plant Defenses - Students take on the role of aquarium scientists advising an aquarium director by helping answer young visitors’ questions about Spruce the Sea Turtle, who will soon be released back into the ocean. They investigate how Spruce can survive in the ocean, particularly since sharks live in the area. They then investigate a question about Spruce’s offspring: How can Spruce the Sea Turtle’s offspring survive where there are sharks? This context, which serves as the anchor phenomenon for the unit, provides concrete examples and motivation for students to discover the core ideas of the unit about how organisms and their offspring survive, particularly how they avoid being eaten.