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First Grade

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First Grade Adventures

First Grade is a fun and foundational year at The Covenant School! Because of the rich experiences provided by a loving and Christ-centered environment within the context of high expectations and rigorous academics, students thrive and genuinely love learning. Since God has so beautifully woven together all elements of creation, academic subject areas are connected and interwoven, as well.

Our classes will be exploring and learning about concepts such as family, community and the world around us. We have fabulous field trips! Our classes visit the Belle Meade Post Office to mail a friendly letter and also tour the facility. They enjoy a second special behind-the-scenes tour of Nashville Fire Station 17 (on West End Avenue), which both relate to our study of community. We also travel north of Nashville to Mansker's Station to be immersed in the sights and surroundings of frontier life in the actual original settlement in Tennessee! It is truly a fun experience that correlates with our social studies theme of how things change over time. We will also enjoy visits to the Nashville Children's Theatre, as well as visits from the Nashville Ballet and the Nashville Opera when they perform here at school for us! Our students are always thrilled by these wonderful performances, whether they take place downtown or on school premises.

Weather and seasons are recurring themes throughout the year. We establish many daily routines that are directly related to our mathematic and science studies. Teachers (and parents!) are amazed at the correlations our students find and identify among patterns, seasons, numbers, the water cycle, the calendar, etc. It is so encouraging and exciting to watch the first graders fall in love with learning and constantly discover the wonderful world God has created for us to know and explore. First graders also enjoy the multi-faceted benefits of poem memorization.

Reading
Students are taught reading through a philosophy of balanced literacy. Literacy experiences include whole-group shared reading and small group guided reading using leveled readers. Phonics also plays a central role in the reading experience. Students learn phonics rules and implement the rules throughout their day within the contexts of reading, writing or spelling. As students are empowered by various and continually deeper literary experiences, they are able to build upon and use their solid foundation in all other academic content areas.

One of the highlights of the year is reading novels aloud to our classes. Books are wonderful springboards for discussion of new vocabulary words, story elements, geography and history, as well as writing activities to extend what has been read and learned. Teacher-read novels also provide special bonding for the classes as they listen and experience the adventure of each story together. As teachers, we strive to instill in each student a love of literature that will deepen with time and be carried throughout life.

Science
We love science! In first grade, students learn the concepts of the three states of matter, as well as balance and motion. We spend many hours in the science lab exploring properties of solids and liquids and answering questions such as, "What happens when solids are mixed with water?" We even play games that help reinforce the concepts and vocabulary (for example: viscous, bubbly, foamy, colorful, translucent, transparent) learned in the lab. In our study of balance and motion, students will conduct experiments with trick crayfish, triangles and arches, pencils, twirlers, tops, rollers, spinners, spheres and runways to make real connections with concepts such as counterweights, rotation, stable positions, balance point, air resistance, axles, slopes, etc.

Math
In first grade, math is taught with a problem solving approach and the emphasis is on the development and understanding of mathematical concepts. The primary focus of the first grade curriculum is on numbers and operations including addition, subtraction and place value, but time is also devoted to measurement, geometry, data collection and analysis, as well as patterns, which will all help create a foundation for algebraic thinking later on. The curriculum is also taught in a spiraling format, meaning that all the concepts taught are reviewed and expanded upon throughout the year.

Writing
Our students blossom into authors as they learn to capture small moments from their lives and stretch out their stories over several pages. Students utilize the Word Wall in order to spell important words in their writing and in all academic areas. We recognize the completion of each Writing Workshop unit with a celebration of some kind, typically involving sharing each student's work with other students within the school.

Spelling
The spelling curriculum (Sitton Spelling) emphasizes skills instruction such as phonics, word origin, spelling rules, word patterns and an individualized word study that targets the student's needs. We also enjoy relating our spelling to literature as we learn specific skills through delightful poems.

Social Studies
One of the main themes of first grade social studies is examining how things change over time. Our classes explore and learn about concepts such as family, community and country. In addition to the special field trips mentioned above, students choose a state of interest as the subject of their "State Project" and also create a time line of their life and a map of their neighborhood. These fun projects correlate with our continual focus on map and globe skills.